Introduction

This special issue of CJP/RCP features a compilation of original articles on the work of Sándor Ferenczi. In the title, we have echoed the theme of the next Sándor Ferenczi International Conference, which will take place in Toronto, 7-10 May 2015.1 The articles we have chosen address the central endowment of Ferenczian clinical thought—the legacy of a theory and method centred on the question of trauma and the psychoanalytic treatment of traumatized patients. In reconsidering Ferenczi, we inherit the fruits of an extraordinary psychoanalytic journey.

Ferenczi was one of the most innovative thinkers in psychoanalytic history. Pioneering the study of the earliest relationships, he emphasized the role of the environment in personal development, the interdependence of the maternal unconscious with that of the child, and the reciprocal influence of body and mind. His clinical studies throw entirely new light on the transference-counter-transference dynamic at work in the analytic process. They also illuminate the child's precocious sensitivity to the conscious and unconscious messages circulating in the larger family, cultural and social contexts.

The concept of trauma became Ferenczi's principle axis of reflection. For him, trauma is rooted in the imposition of the adult's “passion,” with its libidinal and sexual demands, on the “tenderness” of the “innocent” child. He maintained, however, that trauma in the full psychological sense arises in the non-response of the environment, when the adult disavows the child's suffering. For him, traumatic fixations entail emotional constrictions in the relational capacity for love and hate. The deadening effect of trauma lies in the adult's guilt-driven disavowal, which creates confusion