International Journal of Psychoanalysis. XXX, 1949: Ten Letters to Freud. Sándor Ferenczi. Pp. 243–250.

According to the Editors' introduction, these ten letters were selected from among several hundred. 'The aim is to show Ferenczi as a scientist in full imaginative flight, as a critic of himself and as one who could take criticism, and above all to show his zest.' We hope that eventually the entire correspondence will be published and until then, have little to add to the Editors' remarks.

Some of the letters belong to three different periods of Ferenczi's relationship with Freud: the second and third to the period of mutual inspiration, when Ferenczi was not yet in analysis with Freud; the fourth and fifth show the influence of the transference and countertransference of his analysis; and the following two were written during the period in which Ferenczi was working consistently on his clinical research. The Editors say that these two were 'written during the crisis with Freud'. We doubt that Ferenczi would have consented to the expression 'crisis'. The letter from Capri dated 10.10.1931, belongs to this interval and we quote a sentence which throws light upon Ferenczi's tenderness and consideration in answering Freud's criticism: 'When you are able to travel again,1 you must not miss a long stay here.'

At the end of this same letter, Ferenczi characterizes his work in this way: 'I am above all empiric in my approach (you may think this strange in view of the mass of daring theoretical propositions which I have launched). My ideas always originate in the variations of response to treatment shown by my cases and I confirm or reject my hypotheses by reference to this material. I am also very careful as regards publication; perhaps too much so, so that in the intervals it may appear to many as if I had vanished from the scene.'

The subsequent letters also show that Ferenczi did everything in his power, short of stopping his research, to reassure Freud of his unswerving respect and loyalty.