Ferenczi Balint | Vancouver | Sept 12, 2014 to Mar 13, 2015

Western Branch Canadian Psychoanalytic Society | Extension Program

The Western Branch CPS faculty is offering a theoretical/clinical course in preparation for the 2015 WBCPS Annual Scientific Meeting with guest speaker and noted Ferenczi scholar, Jonathan Sklar, and for Ferenczi 2015, an international Ferenczi Conference in Toronto, titled Sandor Ferenczi: The Heritage of a Psychoanalytic Mind.

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Sándor Ferenczi was one of the most innovative thinkers on the early psychoanalytic scene. Much of his work revolved around the question of trauma and its treatment. He also pioneered the investigation of the early mother-infant relationship, the role of the environment in personality development, and the reciprocal influences at play in the mind-body relationship. In his clinical studies, he was entirely original in his focus on the transference/countertransference dynamic in the psychoanalytic process. Ferenczi’s ideas also shed a new light on the child’s early sensitivity to the messages embedded in the broader cultural and socio-political context.

Through the legacy of Ferenczi’s extraordinary psychoanalytic mind, we have inherited a unique way of thinking about the psychoanalytic process that continues to be an inspiration for clinicians, mental health researchers, and the wider community of the humanities and social sciences.

Ferenczi’s theory of trauma, as outlined in Confusion of Tongues Between the Child and Adults, and the Clinical Diary, emphasized the importance of trauma, be it physical, sexual, or emotional, in the development of psychopathology in contrast to Freud’s emphasis on unconscious fantasy and compromise formation as pathogenic. The acknowledgement of the trauma, as a real event, and working through the repetition compulsion with a mirroring analyst represented a departure from Freud’s technique of understanding the meaning that unconscious fantasy, which the trauma represents. Ferenczi’s emphasis on the importance of actual early object relations on psychological development shifted the emphasis in technique from an intrapsychic to an interpsychic and interpersonal focus, with different and shifting psychic positions taken by the victim and the perpetrator. In a broader context, interpersonal, inter-, and intrapsychic factors equally contribute to individual psychological reactions to the trauma, such as identification with the aggressor or the development of resilience. In adverse conditions, trauma results in psychopathology such as PTSD or the trans-generational transmission of trauma.

Ferenczi, unlike Freud who put aside his trauma theory in a large part of his work, considered physical, sexual, emotional or psychical trauma as central in the etiology of psychopathology. The immature/tender, mind is not yet capable of processing traumatic experiences; consequently the symbolic representation/memory of the experience is fragmented, atomized, split-off and often somatized. The residual effects of the non-represented experience may be manifested somatically, when confronted with environmental triggers, as hyperarousal, panic, dread, conversion symptoms, pain, or expressed by dream-like flashbacks, nightmares, or dissociation. Ferenczi’s technical innovations in working with severely traumatized and regressed patients are an inspiration to contemporary analysts working with patients with PTSD, psychosomatic conditions, conversion disorders, personality disorders, and psychotic disorders, offering new, innovative dynamic approaches for patients who have in the past been thought of as difficult and not responsive to standard technique.

Ferenczi’s heritage was passed on to the present generation of therapists through the many notable analysts of the Budapest School who have left their mark on the contemporary psychoanalytic scene. The major works of Ferenczi, Alice and Michael Balint, as well as contemporary contributors including Sklar, Enid Balint, Franco Borgogno, Jay Frankel, Andre Haynal, Lew Aron, and Adrienne Harris will be reviewed and clinical case discussions will help to make this a group learning experience that will enhance clinicians’ skills in working with more regressed patients.

Books/Recommended Texts

• Psychoanalysis as a Journey, Franco Borgogno, 2008,  Open Gate Press
• Landscapes of the Dark, Jonathan Sklar, Karnac, 2011
• The Girl Who Committed Hara Kiri, Franco Borgogno, Karnac, 2013
• Before I Was I, Enid Balint, Guildford Press, 1993
• The Basic Fault, Michael Balint, Northwestern University Press, 1992.

CME Credits:
“This event is an accredited group learning activity (section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, approved by the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA). The specific opinions and content of this event are not necessarily those of the CPA, and are the responsibility of the organizer(s) alone.” 1 credit per hour of attendance at the accredited sessions, up to a maximum of 36 hours for the entire series (3 hours/event)

Group Facilitators: Elie Debbane, James Fabian, Coleen Gold, David Heilbrunn, Endre Koritar, Janet Oakes, Judy Setton-Markus, Catherine Young