Educated at the University of Vienna, Ferenczi received his M.D. in 1894. He began working at the Elizabeth Poorhouse in Budapest as chief neurologist, but was subsequently appointed psychiatrist of the Royal Court of Justice. He was introduced to Sigmund Freud in 1908 and the two became close friends, even traveling to America together. Ferenczi joined Freud's Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and in 1913 founded the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Society. he collaborated with Otto Rank in writing The Development of Psychoanalysis (1924), a controversial work that also distanced him from Freud's work. Ferenczi's therapeutic techniques included free association, sexual abstention as a means to store up emotional energy, and creating a loving atmosphere for his patients in order to counterbalance rejection. He was a strong influence on Melanie Klein, the Austrian-born, British psychoanalyst, who was a patient of his. His other works include Sex in Psycho-Analysis (1916), Psychoanalysis and the War Neuroses (1919), Thalassa, a Theory of Genitality (1924) and Further Contributions to the Theory and Technique of Psychoanalysis (1927). |
