Ferenczi as the Orthodox Vizier

I am particularly pleased to revisit that “psychoanalytic classic,” Ferenczi and Rank's joint monograph of 1924, because I am doing so for the second time. I had occasion to assess the significance of this work early in my own analytic career, when I was given the opportunity to review Ferenczi's entire corpus of writings (1908-1933) at the time of its republication (in German) in 1966 (see Gedo, 1968; English version, 1976; revised in Gedo, 1986, chapter 3). In one sense, The Development of Psychoanalysis surveys the evolution of analytic practice in the generation between Freud's initial therapeutic efforts and his creation of “The Ego and the Id.” I am taken aback by the fact that a similar interval has elapsed between my two assessments of this work, so that my current reaction is bound to concern not only the position of the psychoanalytic theory of technique circa 1923, but also the changes in that theory within my professional lifetime.

Let me begin, then, by quoting my reactions (Gedo, 1986) to the book 30 years ago (but in their last revision). I called

the major contribution [of] this monograph on technique … [a] novel stress on the crucial importance of affective experience in the here and now of the analytic transference. The theory of psychoanalytic technique had previously laid exclusive emphasis on the effects of genetic interpretations. In proposing his modification, Ferenczi demonstrated his understanding of the revolutionary significance of the new model of the mind Freud had