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love is the unfamiliar name …
which human power cannot remove …
T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding
Ferenczi, the forgotten genius of psychoanalysis, is slowly being remembered, with respect, within the psychoanalytic world. How many splits
could have been avoided, particularly of the interpersonal school, had official psychoanalysis not suppressed the work of this original thinker and caring therapist? History will note that Ernest Jones had a complicitous hand in the suppression of Ferenczi's contributions. For those no longer interested in the meanderings of fratricide and not caught in the web of American ego psychology's reading of psychoanalysis, Martin Stanton's book will be a delight. Stanton's text is informative in its presentation, clear in its exposition and sensible in its evaluation of Ferenczi's thought, perspective, and contributions.
In the first 50 pages Stanton provides a curriculum vitae so that the reader can follow the events from the birth of Ferenczi's father in 1830 to Ferenczi's premature death, from pernicious anemia, in 1933. This historical overview, well researched and documented, is singularly helpful in understanding the social, economic and intellectual background to the birth of psychoanalysis, as seen through the lens of Ferenczi, as well as in perceiving Freud's, Jung's, and Groddeck's contributions. The last entry gives an extensive overview of Ferenczi's widespread influence:
Ferenczi's pupils have a major impact on psychoanalytic work throughout the world … in Hungary, … in France, … in Great Britain, … in the United States through Franz Alexander, who founds the Chicago School, … Sandor Rado, who helps found the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Clinic, … Geza Roheim, who directs research at the New York Institute, … Clara Thompson, who helps Karen Homey, Erich Fromm, and Harry Stack Sullivan found the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, … and finally, Margaret Mahler, Theresa Benedek, Sandor Lorand, Sandor Feldman and Ro