• search hit 18 of 21
Back to Result List

The Ferenczi cult: its historical and political roots

  • I examine how Sándor Ferenczi has survived in the cultural memory of psychoanalysis, and why myths and legends have been created around his life and work. It seems that he could not escape the fate of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, most notably, that of Freud and Jung: their life and work have become an object of cultic respect for the followers, diabolic figures for the enemies. Quasi-religious cultivation of the >great man< is an often observable phenomenon in literature, politics, history and in science, and it has several political and ideological functions. These functions may help to increase the inner cohesion and the group identity of the cultic community, to defend the group against external threats. Psychoanalysis has always been vulnerable to myth formation; first, for obvious sociological reasons, and, secondly, for reasons originating in the nature of therapy. The cultic functions can be realized in several ways, such as, for example, the ritualization of the transmission of knowledge, and the >biography as passion< that is, attempts to create a biographical narrative in which all life history moments crystallize around the great man's central theme. Most of the biographies on the life of great psychoanalysts are of this kind – and Ferenczi is no exception. A historiography of psychoanalysis must follow the path of modern historiography in general, which attempts at deconstructing both myths and counter-myths about persons, events and processes, in political, as well as in cultural and intellectual history. By examining the structure of myth formation about psychoanalysts we can learn a lot about how ideas are operating in changing social contexts.

Download full text files

  • Eroes_F_2004.pdf

    File not available?

        (You will be redirectet to a request-form. You will need the IdNo there.)
    eng

Export metadata

Additional Services

Share in Twitter Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Author:Ferenc Eroes
Parent Title (English):International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Basingstoke (Routledge – Taylor and Francis) Vol. 13 (No. 1-2, 2004), pp. 121-128
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:2004
Release Date:2012/12/13
Format:PDF-scan upon request / PDF-Scan auf Anfrage
IdNo:Eroes_F_2004
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):
Einverstanden ✔
Diese Webseite verwendet technisch erforderliche Session-Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie diesem zu. Unsere Datenschutzerklärung finden Sie hier.