Editor : Judit Szekacs-Weisz, Editor : Tom Keve

Synopsis:

Ferenczi for Our Timepresents contributions from British, French, American and Hungarian analysts of the second, third and even fourth generation, who deal with different dimensions of experiencing the external and internal world. These papers explore linkages between Ferenczi and the works of Winnicott, Klein, Alice, Michael and Enid Balint, the British Independents as well, as French analytical thought related to Dolto and beyond. The reader will also become acquainted with original documents of a revived Hungarian psychoanalytical world and new voices of Budapest. ‘The Balints’ chapter invites the reader to listen to colleagues sharing memories, recollections and images - allowing a personal glimpse into the life and professional-human environment of these extraordinary personalities.

The topics discussed here are wide ranging: possibilities and impossibilities of elaborating social and individual traumata, child analysis and development, body-and-mind and clinical aspects of working with psychosomatic diseases. Functions and dysfunctions of societal and individual memory are explored as signifying ‘blinded’ spots in our vision of external and psychic reality as well as the vicissitudes of generational transmission of trauma. The scope of these papers covers methodology, theory and clinical practice.

Description:

'It seems that time has come to recognise and rediscover the deep influence of Ferenczi and the Hungarian School of Psychoanalysis which he founded (especially Michael, Alice and later Enid Balint) on the history and development of British psychoanalytic thought. This "emotionally attuned co-creator of psychoanalysis" inspired the work of Klein, Winnicott, Fairbairn, Heimann, Pearl King and also more recent attachment theorists, such as Fonagy and Target. Publishing the
present collection of essays - Hungarian, British and French - is a further step in the "Ferenczian renaissance", one which is going to re-integrate a partially missing link in the history of psychoanalysis.'
- Franco Borgogno, Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society, and Full Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Turin

'This volume reflects the sensitive understanding of the editors, aided by their deep embeddedness in Ferenczi's complex world - of his prolonged and ongoing influence, by his writings and, equally importantly, by his personal impact, handed down through generations. The book demonstrates that Ferenczi's revolutionary ideas continue to be eminently suited to illuminate a whole array of historical, difficult and painful human experiences, not unlike those confronted by Ferenczi. This superb collection of essays by a stellar group of collaborators will enrich the work of Ferenczi scholars as well as the perspectives of newcomers to the highly original thinking of this indelible psychoanalytic pioneer.'
- Giselle Galdi, Editor, American Journal of Psychoanalysis, and Training and Supervising Analyst, American Institute for Psychoanalysis, New York City
Notes about the author(s):

Judit Szekacs-Weisz, PhD, is a bilingual psychoanalyst and psychotherapist associated with the Independent Group of the British Psychoanalytical Society, training analyst of the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society.

Tom Keve lives and writes in Hampstead, London. Born in Budapest, he came to England as a refugee in 1956. A scientist by profession, with a Ph.D. from Imperial College, he is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. Having travelled much and lived for a number of years in the United States, Holland and France, as well as England and Hungary, he has been exposed to a variety of cultures and is fluent in four languages.

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