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The contributions to this Ferenczi issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry have demonstrated the contemporary expansion of Ferenczi scholarship. Since the last Ferenczi issue in 1997, it is no longer a matter of trying to reestablish Ferenczi’s forgotten legacy for psychoanalysis to which the 1997 issue contributed. Then, barely 10 years after the English publication of Ferenczi’s landmark Clinical Diary (Ferenczi 1988), Ferenczi scholarship was dominated by European analysts as the 1997 issue demonstrated. Now, 15 years later, I was able to include five contributions from the United States, which indicates that Ferenczi scholarship is now part of American psychoanalysis.
What is also of interest is the shift from historical inquires to the application of Ferenczi’s ideas to contemporary theory and technique in psychoanalysis. Leading the way in contemporary analysis is the integration of Ferenczi’s ideas in his confusion of tongues paradigm and the issue of trauma. Eva Papiasvili, Robert Prince, Arnold Wm. Rachman, and Mr. M. W. address the basic issue of trauma. It can now be seen as a distinct psychological disorder that can be integrated into an analytic perspective. The confusion of tongues paradigm is very meaningful in both understanding trauma disorders and in analyzing them. This new positive direction in contemporary psychoanalysis is a significant change from the period when Ferenczi first introduced the confusion of tongues in 1933. Then the paper and Ferenczi were rejected and ridiculed by the traditional analytic community. The study and treatment of trauma that Ferenczi pioneered is now alive and well in Europe and the United States. When society and psychoanalysis become open to returning to its origins and rediscover the study of the incest trauma, Ferenczi’s work will be ready to contribute. This issue attempts to contribute to this evolutionary step in psychoanalysis.
Arnold Wm. Rachman, Ph.D., F.A.G.P.A.
Issue Editor