Obituary

On May 22, an unexpected heart attack took Ferenczi from us. With his passing, a pioneer of the first rank, and a beloved friend and follower of the master, was lost to the psychoanalytic research. He was comparatively young—fifty-nine. In another year, he would have seen the special jubilee number of the “Internationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse,” which was planned for his sixtieth birthday. Lack of time does not permit me to give a comprehensive enumeration of the variety of his contributions to psychoanalysis, psychiatry, neurology and medical science in general. That will have to be left for another occasion.

He carried forward and enriched the theory of psychoanalysis with fundamental contributions. His learned but romantic fantasy penetrated many isolated territories of the mental jungle. In the words of the master, his contribution equalled “that of a whole society.”

He opened many new approaches to the origin of neurosis by his emphasis on the necessity of unearthing the earliest childhood traumata.

The “Versuch Einer Genitaltheorie” uncovered a new aspect to the psychological entry to biological problems.

In him were united the scientist, the explorer and the fantasy of an artist, and together they made him an outstanding healer. He was always primarily interested in helping the sick. His technical papers will remain classical guides for every analyst.

He started his medical career as a neurologist. As early as 1900, he became acquainted with psychoanalysis, and devoted the rest of his life to it. In 1909, he visited the United States for the first time, with Professor Freud, who had been invited to Clark University in Worcester, Mass. He visited the country again in 1926, at the invitation of the New School in Social Research. The International Psycho-Analytic Society was founded on his suggestion and initiative in 1910. He founded the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Society in 1913, and in more recent years, realized an old dream in the creation of the Hungarian