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This volume by one of Freud's most distinguished collaborators has long been out of print. In 1946, in Boston, Badger published it under the title of “Contributions to Psychoanalysis.” It was later again published with the somewhat lurid title of the present edition. The papers were all originally published in German or Hungarian journals between 1909 and 1913. They thus represent some of the earlier, classical work done by Ferenczi—at a time when psychoanalysts did not yet have the urge to be prophets or pure theoreticians. Ferenczi's papers are and will remain some of the brilliant contributions that went to make up the solid, basic foundation of Freudian psychoanalysis. Ferenczi's was a fertile, questing mind; he was an able and self-critical therapist. He wrote clearly and succinctly. He was profitable to read and still remains so despite the passing of time and the twists and turns that many have given to the fundamental work of Freud.
There are here presented some fifteen papers of varying length, importance and excellence. We have the paper on “Introjection and Transference” in which the author continued to work out Freud's explanation of hypnosis as depending upon the masochistic attitude of the individual hypnotized. The paper “On the Part Played by Homosexuality in the Pathogenesis of Paranoia” was also a development of Freud's ideas which have been continued to the present time and which have thrown valuable light on the subject. The three papers jointly entitled “Symbolism” show Ferenczi at his best. Other papers include “The Psychological Analysis of Dreams,” “Stages in the Development of the Sense of Reality,” “A Little Chanticleer,” “On Obscene Words,” “Nosology of Male Homosexuality” (a careful paper still extraordinarily pertinent).
Throughout we see constantly how his reflections have sprung from his therapeutic work, his deep intuition and his fine-strung sensitivity to the delicate play of the emotional life of his patients.
This edition was origina