Edited by Tihamér Bakó, Antal Bókay, Ferenc Erõs (editor-in-chief), György Péter Hárs, György Hidas, Judit Mészáros, Robert Kramer, Júlia Vajda.
 

THALASSA is the journal of the Sándor Ferenczi Society, Budapest.

THALASSA is the title of Sándor Ferenczi’s classical work.

THALASSA symbolically refers to the sea, the womb, the origin, the source.

THALASSA is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to free investigations in psychoanalysis, culture and society.

THALASSA has roots in the historical traditions of Hungarian psychoanalysis, but is not committed to any particular school or authority.

THALASSA welcomes all original contributions, historical, theoretical, or critical, dealing with the common problems of psychoanalysis and the humanities.
 
 

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT ISSUE (1999/1)
 

MAJOR ARTICLES

L. J. MARTÍN CABRÉ: Ferenczi’s contribution to the concept of countertransference . Countertransference as an essential instrument in psychoanalytic technique is closely bound up with the work of Sándor Ferenczi, unlike Freud, who regarded countertransference as an impediment. In this comprehensive overview, the author describes Ferenczi as a pioneer of countertransference analysis who developed his view of transference and countertransference as a therapeutic tool for grasping and understanding the unconscious mind of the patient and, later, the analyst. This view was taken up and enlarged in the fifties by Bálint, Bion, Winnicott, Little, and others. With his radical inversion of the surgeon metaphor and his emphasis on empathy, Ferenczi laid the foundations for a theory of countertransference as a maternal disposition. Finally, Cabré discusses Ferenczi’s controversial concept of mutual analysis, set out in his Clinical Diary, which was put into practice largely by Winnicott.

TIHAMÉR BAKÓ: Learning about the future in psychoanalysis. The author examines how past, present and future are interrelated in the developmental process of the individual. During the process of psychoanalysis, special importance is given to the vision of future and how this vision affects the way the present is experienced and the past re-worked. The author offers a literature review on the problem of the future in the course of psychoanalysis. He presents numerous excerpts from his cases in order to illustrate his work. According to the author, the vision of the future re-shapes and extends the classical analyst’s approach to his patient. It helps to develop a more active role on the part of analyst and patient alike. With this strong focus on the future, the author also touches upon the question of whether an analysis can ever be terminated.

ESZTER HÁMORI: The subjective world of the disabled child: variations for the disturbances of the potential space. This paper attempts to approach the relational and subjective world of the disabled children and their families from the perspective of the object relation school of psychoanalysis. The author presents briefly the history of naive preconceptions towards disability across centuries as well as their reflections both in classical and current psychoanalytic theories of development. The author points out that a dismissiveattitude towards the disabled child, implied both in classical instinct and ego theories, has its roots in the false assumption that disabled children, because of their ego distortions, cannot experience the world properly. Therefore, they are not supposed to create a subjective world either. Thus, classical psychoanalytic concepts (both instinct and relational theories) prevent the disabled child from being understood using a psychoanalytic perspective. The author argues that object relational concepts, especially those of Winnicott, can be one useful model for the therapist to understand disabled children’s subjective worlds, as well as their psychic problems. She demonstrates that disabled children’s relational problems as well as their ability to create a subjective world depends on the vicissitudes of their early relationship with the mother, which in turn determines the particular development of the potential space between them. The author presents case material to demonstrate her view.
 
 

HUNGARIAN PSYCHOANALYSTS IN PARIS IV.
 
 

This section is the fourth part of our series which deals with the "French connection" of Hungarian psychoanalysis.

FRANÇOIS SAUVAGNAT : Some points of discussion between the Hungarian and the Lacanian school of psychoanalysis. The author examines five topics in relation to which there is a controversy between the Hungarian and the Lacanian schools: the integration of the problem of love and the problem of instincts; the analysis of resistences; the question of counter-transference; the problem of the Other, and the question of the termination of the psychoanalytic cure. According to the author, even if the proposed solutions turned out to be very different, the departing points were rather close to each other. In both schools, we note an attempt to refuse conventional solutions, and to find new answers to the crucial questions of psychoanalytic theory.

NICHOLAS RAND and MARIA TOROK: Freud face to face with Ferenczi’s research into trauma: Comparisons and contrasts. What is the true significance of the censorship ubiquitous in the institutionalized history of psychoanalysis? Sándor Ferenczis’s writings – notably his late ideas on real sexual trauma – also fell prey to censorship, sometimes by Freud, who adamantly refused to recognize the final works of his colleague and friend. In a synoptic comparison of key passages from Freud’s Etiology of Hysteria (1896) and Ferenczi’s "Sprachverwirrung" (1933), and a number of other sources, Rand and Torok point up a surprising degree of agreement between the views of the two, albeit across a significant period of time. Finally, the authors advance the hypothesis that Freud exercised self-censorship by pointedly ignoring and thus implicitly castigating Ferenczis’s adoption of the seduction theory he had himself abandoned. In this way, Freud was able to silence his own theoretical misgivings and present the world with a unified and unassailable theoretical edifice.
 
 

FORUM
 
 

In our Forum section we publish "Against Lacanism: a Conversation between Sergio Benvenuto and André Green". The conversation took place in Paris, May 14, 1994, and the text was translated from the Journal of European Psychoanalysis , No. 2. Fall 1995–Winter 1996.
 
 

WORKSHOP
 
 

ANNA BORGOS: Attachment, Identity, and Creation. The Opportunities and Conflicts of Sophie Török’s Roles. The essay interweaves the approaches of literary history with those of social psychology and gender studies. It focuses on a Hungarian writer and poet, Sophie Török, and explores her social roles, considering the evaluation of contemporaries as well as posterity, which were consistently defined in relation to her husband’s (Mihály Babits) position. On the one hand, the relation between the roles of wife, student and independent creator served as an inspiration for Sophie Török, and, on the other, as a basis of frustration and inferiority. The study also examines the consequences of being a female author on Sophie Török’s evaluation, relying on contemporary critiques of her works in the light of feminist literary criticism.

ADAM BZOCH: The hidden reception: Sándor Ferenczi in the Work of Gottfried Benn. It is well known that the Weltanschauung of the German poet and physician Gottfried Benn (1886–1956) was influenced by the theories of natural sciences of his time. Nevertheless, from the point of view of literary criticism, we can provide safe evidence that in the 1920s – after the "expressionist decade" (1910–1920) – Benn was also influenced by the Hungarian psychoanalyst Sándor Ferenczi. Ferenczi’s theory of the origin of human sexuality had exerted a particularly strong impact on Benn’s poetical vision of the world. Moreover, Ferenczi’s explanation of regression in nature (constructed in 1924, as a rejoinder to Freud’s views) is a key to understanding some of the very enigmatic elements in Benn’s poetry, especially in the poem Regressive (1927). Benn’s interest in Ferenczi’s concept of regression may have been one of the reasons for Benn’s "antrophological nihilism" (Walter Benjamin) and his later fascination with Nazi ideology.

ARCHIVES
 
 

In this section we publish two commemorations of Sándor Ferenczi. Both obituaries had been written shortly after Ferenczi’s death in May 1933. The author of the first ( Farewell ) is IGNOTUS, the renowned Hungarian critic, editor, and a founding member of the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Association, and the second ( The Living and the Dead: Sándor Ferenczi ) was written by the celebrated Hungarian writer SÁNDOR MÁRAI. These articles also demonstrate a close connection and friendship between Ferenczi and some prominent literary figures of his age. The republication of these writings is introduced and edited by JUDIT MÉSZÁROS.

In this section we also publish an article by SÁNDOR VARGA-NEUBAUER: On this history of the Ferenczi family. The author presents a biography of Sándor Ferenczi`s father, Bernát Ferenczi-Fraenkel (1830–1889), and his brother, Károly Ferenczi (1877–1944). Special attention is given to Bernát`s and Károly`s activities as booksellers and publishers in the Hungarian provincial town Miskolc where Sándor was also born.
 
 

In our BOOK section we publish two reviews of recent Hungarian publications: FERENC ERÕS reviews LIVIA NEMES`s book "Creators and creation", and GYÖRGY KALMÁR writes on ATTILA BÁNFALVI`s book "The faces of freedom in psychoanalysis.
 
 

We accept contributions in Hungarian, English, German or French. Authors are requested to provide their papers with an English and/or Hungarian summary. Original articles, reviews, reflections, and suggestions should be sent to Dr. Ferenc Erõs, Institute for Psychological Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Victor Hugo u. 18–22, H–1132 Budapest. Phone/fax: (36–1) 239–6043. E-mail address: thalassa@c3.hu and feros@mtapi.hu
 

THALASSA is now available on Internet: http://www.mtapi.hu/thalassa and http://www.c3.hu/scripta

THALASSA is published by the Thalassa Foundation, Budapest (address above). Subscription and distribution: SZIGET REHABILITÁCIÓS SZÖVETKEZET, Murányi u. 21, H–1078 Budapest, phone (36–1) 342–7158.
 
 

The present issue of THALASSA was supported by the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage, the National Cultural Fund of the Republic of Hungary, the Hungarian Soros Foundation, the Janus Pannonius University in Pécs, ad the Foundation "Budapest Bank for Budapest". Thalassa is edited in cooperation with the "Theoretical psychoanalysis" PhD program of the Doctoral School in Psychology of the Janus Pannonius University in Pécs, and of the Institute for Psychological Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.
 

Luis J. Martín Cabré: Ferenczi’s contribution to the concept of countertransference

Tihamér Bakó: Learning about the future in psychoanalysis

Eszter Hámori: The subjective world of the disabled child: variations for the disturbances of the potential space
 
 

François Sauvagnat: Some points of discussion between the Hungarian and the Lacanian psychonalytic school

Nicholas Rand and Maria Torok: Freud face to face with Ferenczi’s research into trauma. Comparisons and contrasts

Anna Borgos: Attachment, Identity, and Creation. The Opportunities and Conflicts of Sophie Török’s Roles

Adam Bzoch: The hidden reception: Sándor Ferenczi in the work of Gottfried Benn

Remembering Ferenczi: two obituaries (Judit Mészáros)
Ignotus : Farewell
Sándor Márai: The Living and the Dead: Sándor Ferenczi
On the history of Ferenczi´s family: Bernát Ferenczi-Fraenkel (1830–1889) (Sándor Varga-Neubauer)

István Székács-Schönberger (1907–1999) (Katalin Muszbek)

Zsuzsa Gerõ (1940–1999) (F. E.)
 
 

Events and Information

English Summaries