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Sandor Ferenczi (1933/1955a) was the first psychoanalyst to conceptualize the intrapsychic consequences of early developmental, relational trauma. He revived aspects of external trauma from Freud's old renounced seduction theory, which he regarded as “undeservedly abandoned” (Ferenczi, 1930/1955, p. 108), only “to return to what was good in the teachings of the past” and combine it with “the more recent development of our science” (p. 113).
My intention in this paper is similar. Ferenczi's original and innovative thinking contributed concepts that even today add, deepen, and enrich the theories of Winnicott and Kohut, Relational Theories, Attachment Theory, and contemporary theories of developmental trauma. Rereading Ferenczi's work allows for a more integrated understanding of it, and enables embedding it in current conceptualizations.
Ferenczi's ideas about the traumatic origins of psychopathology culminated in his Clinical Diary (Dupont, 1988). The Diary is a unique and radical document, a treasure of intriguing theoretical and clinical insights that formulate a theory of early psychic trauma and its clinical implications. Ferenczi kept the diary during a period of nine months, from January to October 1932. He began writing it when he despaired of gaining Freud's recognition of his ideas as complementary to Freud's theory. Despite Ferenczi's central position in the psychoanalytic society — and in spite of a long-standing close collaboration, friendship, and also being Ferenczi's analyst — Freud regarded the direction Ferenczi's work had taken in his last decade as heretical. Ferenczi died, aged 59, some months after writing the