I am very grateful to Dr. Galdi for her very careful reading of my paper “The Power of Exclusion”. I agree with her that everyone should read the three-volume correspondence between Freud and Ferenczi to clarify some of the misunderstandings about their relationship and his involvement with Elma. It was that correspondence that sparked my interest in writing this paper. I would also like to thank her for clarifying the list of patients (I am adding Vilma Kovacs and Theresa Benedek) and omitting Mahler, Spitz and Rank. Since Freud said in his obituary about Ferenczi that he was the “analyst to all analysts” it did seem sometimes as if everyone at that time was sent to Ferenczi.
I would also like to comment on the omission of Ferenczi from the list of presidents of the International Psychoanalytic Association since I find his omission from many discussions is an on-going problem. Since I first presented this paper to a Contemporary Freudian Institute, I found many colleagues had never read Ferenczi. Many of them proceeded to read the Clinical Diaries and were very appreciative of the brilliance of that work. However, I still find myself the only one that brings him up at various scientific meetings. The damage has been done.
I also appreciate that she quoted from the Diary entry of October 2nd, 1932. I remember when I first read it and how painful it was. It is very important to read the inner struggle he was going through in his attachment to Freud to understand the depths of some of these issues that he felt he had to stand up for against very deep despair about not being understood.
As a final comment, I was also glad to read that Balint told Winnicott how often his ideas were similar to Ferenczi's since while I was reading the Clinical Dairies the similarities were so striking.
Most of all, I am so grateful to have a true Ferenczi scholar read my work since as a Contemporary Freudian I came to Ferenczi very late and yet
truly fell in love with him. I thank Dr. Galdi for taking the time to read this paper and comment on it.