Mutual Analysis

Sndor Ferenczis mutual analysis with Elizabeth Severnthe patient known as R.N. in the Clinical Diaryis one of the most controversial and consequential episodes in the history of psychoanalysis. In his latest groundbreaking work, Peter L. Rudnytsky draws on a trove of archival sources to provide a definitive scholarly account of this experiment, which constitutes a paradigm for relational psychoanalysis, as Freuds self-analysis does for classical psychoanalysis. In Part 1, Rudnytsky tells the story of Severns life and traces the unfolding of her ideas, culminating in The Discovery of the Self. He shows how her book contains disguised case histories not only of Ferenczi and Severn herselfand thereby forms an indispensable companion volume to Ferenczis Clinical Diarybut also of Severns daughter Margaret, an internationally acclaimed dancer whose history of childhood sexual abuse uncannily replicated Severns own. Part 2 compares Severn to Clara Thompson and Izette de Forest as transmitters of Ferenczis legacy, sets the record straight about Ferenczis final illness, and reveals how Severn went beyond Freud and Groddeck in her capacity as Ferenczis analyst. Finally, in Part 3, Rudnytsky delineates the contrast between Freud and Ferenczi as men and thinkers and makes it clear why he agrees with Erich Fromm that Ferenczis example demonstrates how Freuds attitude need not be that of all analysts. The first comprehensive study of Ferenczis mutual analysis with Severn, this book is a profound reexamination of Ferenczis relationship to Freud and an impassioned defense of Severn and Ferenczis views on the nature and treatment of trauma. It will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, especially to relational analysts, self psychologists, and trauma theorists.