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In a climate of unrest reinforced by misunderstandings, a few months before he died in May 1933, Sándor Ferenczi presented to his colleagues of the 12th International Congress of Psychoanalysis his testamentary article, “Confusion of tongues between adults and the child. The language of tenderness and passion” (Ferenczi, 1955 [1933]). The paper caused a great scandal and wrecked his chances of becoming president of the International Psychoanalytical Association, after he had finally decided to submit his candidacy at Freud's request. Ferenczi had already questioned, in other texts, the countertransference movements related to the treatment of patients who had suffered a real trauma. However, tormented by his wish to heal and to be healed, he exposed himself here at the same time as he was presenting his hypotheses and his interpretative proposals. His thinking bears the trace of a confusion of tongues reactivated in the transference/countertransference relationship with Freud, his analyst.
Under the guise of a style of writing that is sometimes naïve and empirical, he delineates essential questions that are raised by the encounter between the adult and the child around infantile sexuality. He describes the confusion and identification that take place and how they encourage splitting in the child when he is invaded by adult passion. In the course of his reflections, the author focuses his remarks more closely on the nature and origins of trauma: is it a fantasy or a reality? He shows that, in analysis, everything depends ultimately on the analyst's own analysis and that, for the patient, there is a great risk when the analyst is unaware of his own countertransference responses: this can result in a new confusion of tongues. To avoid this situation, Ferenczi emphasises that speech and memory can only come into play at a later stage. He also acknowledges that the trust acquired in the transference, thanks to the analyst's tact, promotes a process of healing in the patie