In These Pages …

This is a sequel to the March 1998 special issue on the Contributions of Sándor Ferenczi. Therefore the title, “Further Contributions,” is a nod to Ferenczi's collected works: First Contributions, Further Contributions and Final Contributions. We celebrate the life and work of Ferenczi at the turn of this, “the psychoanalytic century.” All celebrations are also recollections of the past, as we seek to understand it, and hope to create new connections. It is fitting that we remember Ferenczi as we look toward a new century, a new millennium. All his life, Ferenczi was open to new experiences; he always searched for new perspectives and new connections.

Emanuel Berman sets the stage for a fair-minded evaluation of Ferenczi's importance. Berman believes that our century-long belief that we were the offspring of a single psychoanalytic “parent,” Freud, sentenced us to feel rootless and bastardly, with respect to many contemporary psychoanalytic thoughts and treatment issues. Berman urges us finally to accept both “father” Freud and “mother” Ferenczi. “If there are two origins, there can be a unique third option: a separate, autonomous self,” states Berman. Let us hear the voice of Ferenczi, says Berman, neither idealizing nor dismissing it because “we profit from de-idealizing but not devaluing our ancestors.” Berman discusses Ferenczi's special contributions to the dialogue: his rich work with countertransference, his bold self-scrutiny, his continuous examination of the analyst's impact on the patient, and his recognition that the therapeutic relationship and the experience it provides is the central therapeutic factor. These Ferenczian thoughts enrich the seminal contributions of Freud and all of psychoanalysis.

André Haynal has devoted a lifetime of scholarly research to Ferenczi's work, and in his paper he shares with us his thoughts on one of Ferenczi's most important contributions—his work on countertransference. Haynal notes that Ferenczi himself suspected that hi