Ferenczi a Pszichoanalizis Fele Preanalitikus Írások 1897-1908 (Ferenczi, Preanalytic Writings 1897-1908). Edited by Judit Mészáros, János Harmatta, and Antal Bókay. Budapest, Hungary:  Oriole es Tarsai, 2022.

2023 was a special year in Hungary: the 150th anniversary of the founding of Budapest, namely, the union of Buda and Pest into one large capital city,

and coincidentally the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sándor Ferenczi, the most prominent Hungarian psychoanalyst and one of the pivotal founders of the field. Judit Mészáros, president of the International Ferenczi Association, organized an international conference in Budapest in June 2023 to celebrate the occasion. More about the conference later.

The anniversary of Ferenczi's birth has also been an exciting opportunity to compile a seven-volume edition of Ferenczi's collected works in Hungarian, all to be published by the end of 2024. This is a massive undertaking, carefully edited and cross-referenced, whose aim is to provide the equivalent of the Standard Edition of Freud edited by Strachey and to create a common resource for students of Ferenczi. This oeuvre awaits translation into English, which is in the works. In the interim, we have in hand Volume 1, Ferenczi's preanalytic writings, his work during his youth, before he met Freud in 1908 at the age of 35.

In her introduction to this volume and to the entire series, Mészáros gives us a foretaste of the importance and breadth of Ferenczi's contributions to our field. She also introduces us to the youthful Ferenczi, before his meeting Freud. As the two of them developed such a close friendship and collaboration on all fronts, personal, scientific, and institutional, it is all the more illuminating to get acquainted with Ferenczi before his relationship with Freud and psychoanalysis. This early portrait gives us a thorough picture of the personal attributes and range of interests and political, cultural, and societal attitudes of Ferenczi as a young physician amid the cultural fervent in Budapest around the turn of the 20th century. It acquaints us with the background of Ferenczi's side of contributions to the Ferenczi-Freud collaboration and for the persona