Unlike any other of Freud's early students, Ferenczi distinguished himself through his readiness for theoretical and technical experimentation. Toward the end of his life, this brought about a break with Freud. Fifty years after Ferenczi's death, Cremerius reconstructs Ferenczi's innovative proposals concerning psychoanalytic treatment technique, especially the broadened criteria for analytic treatment and the reconceptualization of abstinence. He shows the line extending from Ferenczi by way of Michael Balint and Donald Winnicott to the contemporary object relations theorists.