Ferenczi Dialogues

Contemporary reading of Sándor Ferenczi’s trauma theory

Ferenczi Dialogues presents the contribution of Sándor Ferenczi to a psychoanalytic theory of trauma and discusses the philosophical, political and clinical implications of Ferenczi’s thinking. To a far greater extent than Freud, Sándor Ferenczi centered his psychoanalytic thought around trauma.

Ferenczi’s work pluralizes the notion of catastrophe, as being both destructive and a turning point. This book addresses Ferenczi’s work in terms of thinking in times of crises, by considering contemporary situations in constellation with various scenes from the past: the outbreak of the First World War, the crisis of psychoanalysis as an institution, the disastrous final encounter between Ferenczi and Freud, the rise of Fascism and National Socialism, and the impending exile of the founding members of the psychoanalytic movement. Against this backdrop, the authors show how Ferenczi’s late work outlines a new metapsychology of fragments. Ferenczi Dialogues situates the legacy of Ferenczi within the broad interdisciplinary landscape of the social sciences, literary theory, psychoanalytic theory, and clinical practice, and highlights Ferenczi’s relevance for contemporary philosophical discussions in poststructuralism, feminism and new materialism.

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This book has been made open access within three years of publication thanks to Path to Open, a program developed in partnership between JSTOR, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), University of Michigan Press, and The University of North Carolina Press to bring about equitable access and impact for the entire scholarly community, including authors, researchers, libraries, and university presses around the world. Learn more at https://about.jstor.org/path-to-open/

Foreword by Adrienne Harris

Reading Ferenczi
A Pirouette Backwards in Seven-League Boots
An Introduction by Jenny Willner, Jakob Staberg and Raluca Soreanu

Cuts Through the Contemporary Scene
Ferenczi Dialogues – an Outline
The Seven Threads of the ‘Ferenczi Revival’

PART 1

Instead of Language: Confusion
Sigmund Freud / Sándor Ferenczi
Jakob Staberg
Ferenczi in the Psychoanalytic Milieu
Transference
Trauma
The Domain of Dreams
A Painful Encounter

‘Too much of the father’: A Schreberian Pre-History
Response to Jakob Staberg, by Jenny Willner

The Tactile Eye and Queer Spectrality
Response to Jakob Staberg, by Raluca Soreanu

PART 2

Catastrophes and Genitality
Ferenczi’s Thalassa and the Politics of Bioanalysis
Jenny Willner
Freud’s Theory of Sexuality Meets Popular Darwinism in a Soldiers’ Library
The Fish-Orgy: Wilhelm Bölsche’s Herrings and Ferenczi’s Thalassa
Weltanschauung: Fetishistic Disavowal in Popular Darwinism
Neurotic Evolution: Bioanalysis vs. Biologism
Heroic Organs, Hysteric Organs: The Method of Bioanalysis
The Politics of Bioanalysis

Reading Against the Grain: On How Organs Crave Interpretation
Response to Jenny Willner, by Jakob Staberg

What Does an Organ Do?
Response to Jenny Willner, by Raluca Soreanu

PART 3

Catastrophe and the Creativity of Fragments
Toward a Phenomenology of the Scene of Trauma
Raluca Soreanu
A Frame: On Ferenczi’s Model of Memory
Repetition
Scene
Regression

The Dream of Fragments in The Clinical Diary
On the Identification with the Aggressor
Moment 1: Paralysis
Moment 2: Dematerialisation
Moment 3: Traumatic Imitation
Moment 4: Guilt
Moment 5: Getting Beside Oneself
Moment 6: Traumatic Progression
Moment 7: Autotomy
Moment 8: Neo-Formations
Moment 9: Orpha
Moment 10: Reconstruction

There is Hope for Life in Fragments: Thinking with Ferenczi’s Images
Response to Raluca Soreanu, by Jenny Willner

Toward an Eventful Psychoanalysis
Response to Raluca Soreanu, by Jakob Staberg

Bibliography
About the Authors
Index

ERRATUM: The name of Peter Rudnytsky is misspelled on page 16 (fn. 33) and on page 224 as “Peter Rudnitsky” instead of “Peter Rudnytsky.”

Raluca Soreanu

Raluca Soreanu is a psychoanalyst, member of Círculo Psicanalítico do Rio de Janeiro, and professor in Psychoanalytic Studies at the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex.

Jakob Staberg

Jakob Staberg is a practicing psychoanalyst and member of the International Psychoanalytical Association. He is an assistant professor of Comparative Literature and lecturer in aesthetics at Södertörn University.

Jenny Willner

Jenny Willner is assistant professor at the Department for Comparative Literature, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.