You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Nothing is more important to me in my scholarly work than to be fair even to those with whom I disagree. I am therefore grateful to Karen Maroda for bringing to my attention that I have misrepresented the views expressed in her paper “Why Mutual Analysis Failed” in my book on Ferenczi's mutual analysis with Elizabeth Severn (Rudnytsky, 2022). There, quoting the following sentence from the opening paragraph of her paper, “‘The years he spent conducting a highly unorthodox treatment with her, climaxing with their adoption of mutual analysis, cast a shadow not only over Ferenczi's clinical judgment, but also his sanity,’” I asserted that this statement by Dr. Maroda “repeats a libel originating with Ernest Jones” (p. 3).
Thanks to a personal communication from Dr. Maroda, I now understand that what she meant is that Jones's allegation “cast a shadow” over Ferenczi's reputation in the history of psychoanalysis, not that the mutual analysis itself cast a shadow over Ferenczi's sanity. Here is the opening paragraph of her paper in its entirety:
The prevailing opinion concerning Ferenczi has shifted dramatically in recent years. Often depicted as emotionally and physically ill in the last years of his life, he has recently been resurrected and restored to his rightful place as one of Freud's most brilliant colleagues. Accusations of madness made about him have been dismissed, and his death by pernicious anemia is thought to have prematurely ended a courageous and innovative career in psychoanalysis. Much of the controversy that has surrounded Ferenczi, both in his lifetime and since his death, centered on his treatment of the American woman Elizabeth Severen [sic], codenamed RN. The years he spent conducting a highly
Page 590unorthodox treatment with her, climaxing with their adoption of mutual analysis, cast a shadow not only over Ferenczi's clinical judgment, but also his sanity. (Maroda, , p. 115)
Had I paid closer attention to the portion of the paragraph I have placed in it