You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
THIS, FERENCZI'S LAST PAPER (1933), might be seen as containing the material for two papers within its pages, on related issues that are each major enough to deserve special statements. One of these topics concerns the proper relationship between patient and analyst (an exploration of a revised technical stance, also having theoretical implications); the other promotes the importance of "the exogenous factor" in the development of neurosis, with particular
reference to the sexual seductions of children by adults entrusted with their care (p. 156). Apparently, Ferenczi wished to rewrite and enlarge this essay (Balint, 1958), and this fact prompts some curiosity as to whether he would have gone the route of Masson (1984) in using the reality of frequent, regular seductions of children as sufficient reason to abandon central Freudian notions concerning the predominant role of fantasy in creating psychic conflict.
He clearly is not abandoning the idea of phase-specific erotic fantasies, as he notes:
Thus, almost without exception we find the hidden play of taking the place of the parent of the same sex in order to be married to the other parent, but it must be stressed that this is merely fantasy; in reality the children would not want to … (pp. 163–164).
We cannot help but be impressed with such statements as, "The trauma, especially the sexual trauma, as the pathogenic factor cannot be valued highly enough" (Ferenczi, 1933, p. 161) and, "I am certain—if all this proves true—that we shall have to revise certain chapters of the theory of sexuality and genitality" (p. 166). Masson (1984) is convinced that Freud rejected Ferenczi for resussitating the seduction theory (p. 166). However, letters and commentary reported by Jones (1957, pp. 164 and 174) and Grubrich-Simitis (1986)