Yiukee Chan
Supervisor: Profesor Karl Figlio
Abstract:
The recent revival of Ferenczi in the history of psychoanalysis suggests his significant but buried role. Published materials, especially correspondence, from archives, give us a picture different from the conventional version. Ferenczi's desire for honest relationship fuelled his affinity for Freud, his guru, as well as his pursuit of psychoanalysis as a way of life. Ferenczi’s approach to honesty was in fact very similar to the young Freud during the Fliess period, in which Freud practised self-analysis with profound self-disclosure in his letters to and ‘congresses’ with Fliess. However, after the painful break from Fliess, Freud separated life from psychoanalysis, but Ferenczi saw psychoanalysis as a solution to everything and, as a way, if not the only way, of life. That is, Ferenczi tried to live psychoanalytically, thinking that Freud could be one of his partners in this kind of living. Also, their different conceptualisations of counter-transference testify to their different approaches to psychoanalysis. Freud’s insistence upon abstinence and guard against counter-transference were in direct contrast to Ferenczi’s advocacy of the therapeutic use of relaxation and counter-transference. Their fateful relationship shows not just their different understanding of what psychoanalysis should be, but also how close they could be, as Freud did not reciprocate Ferenczi’s demand for a mutual and frank relationship. The conventional view, such as the one perpetuated by Jones in the Freud biography in the 1950s, tends to attribute Ferenczi’s craving for honesty to his immaturity or even pathology.
This study, however, would attempt to study Ferenczi’s longing for honesty with Freud within a relational framework, by studying in-depth how their relationship evolved and faded. The critical role of Groddeck as a Freud-surrogate, who appeared in the middle of the 25-year Freud-Ferenczi relationship, would also be examined similarly. The Groddeck-Ferenczi pair appeared more compatible, in view of their similarity in personality and approach to psychoanalysis and life. Ferenczi trusted Groddeck very much and received treatment for his multiple somatic and psychological ailments from him in his sanatorium in Baden-Baden every year after 1921. They practised mutual analysis and inspired each other, psychoanalytically and otherwise.
The primary source of information for this study would be their correspondence and archival materials, whereas the secondary ones would be biographies and published papers on the history of psychoanalysis. Analysis of the text and the underlying flow of themes and feelings in the letters would give us a close-up on the vicissitudes of these two relationships, as well as how Ferenczi worked on his need for honesty with these two persons, as intertwined with the corresponding evolution of his pioneering psychoanalytic ideas. This study would be the first of its kind. If psychoanalysis is meant to be a truth-searching road towards the unconscious, Ferenczi’s story of honesty may mirror the development of psychoanalysis itself. Retelling this story in the light of new evidence and perspective may also be a worthwhile chapter in the history of psychoanalysis.
En: http://www.essex.ac.uk/Centres/psycho/research/phd_topics/chan.htm
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