In these Pages…

The innovative contributions of Sándor Ferenczi—one of the first and more important followers and privileged interlocutors of Freud, who rightly called him “primus inter pares”—are transcendental treasure for our present day psychoanalytic thought. Known as one of the most outstanding masters of psychoanalysis, Ferenczi came to be considered as the rebel, and then forsaken. From his initial contact with Freud in 1908, until his premature death in 1933, Ferenczi's once luminous presence became obscured for decades; to the point that his portrait was missing in the gallery of presidents of the International Psychoanalytical Association and was only restored there during the presidency of Dr. Horacio Etchegoyen (1993-1997). It is only recently that he has been “re-discovered” and his valuable contributions are being recognized. This recovery and rehabilitation are important movements in re-connecting with certain concepts and attitudes in psychoanalysis, which are of immense value to our present day practice.

The papers we are publishing in this Special Issue and the one to follow, are some of the contributions of a group of scholars who have broad knowledge of Ferenczi's work, and who in turn make novel contributions, inspired by his line of thought within psychoanalysis. The papers are a selection from the 7th International Sándor Ferenczi Conference, “Introjection, Transference, and the Analyst in the Contemporary World,” which we had the privilege of organizing in Buenos Aires in October 2009. Our idea was not to build a monument to commemorate Ferenczi, but rather that the meeting should demonstrate the aliveness and fertility of his ideas, as well as display the Ferenczian attitude of (always) searching for new possibilities. These new ideas will undoubtedly contribute to enriching our way of understanding this, “impossible psychoanalytic task,” to which we are committed. The papers responding to this challenge originate from psychoanalysts from South and North Am