In These Pages …

What is the latest news in the world of psychoanalysis? New discoveries, sensational insights? Perhaps. This issue, however, is dedicated to the experiences and ideas inspired by Sándor Ferenczi's insights. It brings to light select unearthed treasures of our psychoanalytical heritage; this is not to bring us back to out-dated views left behind in the historical development, but to remind us that much of our psychoanalytic inheritance consists of ideas bursting forth from the close and rich interactions of a group of smart, enthusiastic people—sometimes flamboyantly so.1

Psychoanalysis, similar to any newly established science, has been striving for its place in the general system of science since its early days. At first, hope prevailed that models of other sciences could be applied to building a robust, unassailable and respectable structure based on natural (empirical) sciences (as Freud has hoped) and so avoid woolly philosophizing. Other thinkers supposed that psychoanalysis could become a specific part of psychology or even a “general psychology”. Some pioneers, among them Ferenczi, proposed, however, that psychoanalysis should be considered as an innovative genuine science.2 It would be patient-centred and based on the discourse and other manifestations in the “analytic situation” (as Ferenczi and Rank called it), that is, in the daily therapeutic experiences as well as in other observational situations, like that of babies and young children (Haynal, 2002). Ferenczi thus gave us the courage of being and remaining analysts without searching for “help” in other domains of knowledge, staying nevertheless in a dialogue with them (see Appelbaum, 2013). Not servant but partner of other sciences. With time, the new structure of ideas became more formalized but still allowed continuous inclusion of new thoughts, clues and hints. Ferenczi gave a foremost example of listening to the various expressions of the unconscious, thus stimulating our work through the present t