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Abstract
How does experience become a psychoanalytic idea? The case of Ferenczi may provide an answer. Ferenczi played an important yet controversial role in the development of psychoanalysis. Most past studies of Ferenczi have focused either on his psychoanalytic ideas or his life. The former usually emphasize Ferenczi's foresight and creativity in advancing the psychoanalytic movement. The latter, however, focus more on his relationship with Freud, especially his suffering and wounds, viewing him more as a victim. These two streams of research, however, rarely intersect. This thesis, a psycho-biographical one, provides this missing perspective.
Ferenczi is noted for his introjective character; Borgogno (2011) calls him the 'introjective psychoanalyst'. Among Ferenczi's ideas, introjection is chosen for this study because the phenomenon behind this concept may be prevalent in his relationship with Freud. This relationship is for him to gestate his ideas, not just intellectually but experientially, i.e., psychoanalytically. Given Ferenczi's merging life with psychoanalysis, it is hypothesized that as and before Ferenczi writes about introjection, he has been living it in this relationship.
I search for evidence for this hypothesis by meticulously mapping the connection between this relationship and Ferenczi's writings, using available historical documents, notably correspondence and published papers. In this historiographical and conceptual study, I strive for a more historically informed position between denigration and idealization in the restoration of Ferenczi and his ideas. This is important, given the controversial nature of his character and ideas. This study would shed light on Ferenczi's inner and relational world and its connection to introjection. It is concluded that the hypothesis is supported. Although Ferenczi pays a price, his ideas evolve and live on. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the formation of ideas and the advancement of knowledge in the history of psychoanalysis.
