Ferenczi and Winnicott: Searching for a “Missing Link” (of the Soul)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the close link between Ferenczi's and Winnicott's theoretical, clinical and therapeutic thought, indicating how this link has become something of a "missing link" in the history of psychoanalytic ideas, an implication which we retain, in part, to this day. In the first part entitled "Who's speaking to whom?", I aim to explore the contents of the most essential parts of their messages, stressing the similarities and differences between them, and citing the most important authors whom they address (Freud for Ferenczi, Klein for Winnicott). In the second part, I aim to tackle the general direction underlying both their work and their lives, concentrating specifically on "the maternal", and examining the repercussions of this aspect on psychoanalytic technique and practice. In the third part, as a kind of "Parting", I will present further brief conclusions on the relevance and significance of their thoughts in modern day psychoanalysis, defining Ferenczi and Winnicott as "founders of future discursiveness".

Building Blocks Toward Contemporary Trauma Theory: Ferenczi 's Paradigm Shift

“…Much like Ferenczi, Winnicott also emphasized the early mother -child relationship in the psychological development of the individual ( Borgogno, 2007 ). He saw the effective mechanism of psychoanalysis as drawing out and accepting the individual ' s subjectivity.…”

“Ablation of the Parental Images”: A Secret Core in Charles Rycroft’s Psychoanalytic Thought

“…These refl ections of Rycroft will be reiterated by Peter Lomas a few years later when, in the introduction to an important anthology titled The Predicament of the Family (which features contributions from Winnicott, Ronald D. Laing and Bowlby among others), he stated that children who become spoiled " do so because their potentialities and limitations are not truly seen: both too little and too much is asked of them " ( Lomas, 1967, p. 22 ). This leads to a specifi c kind of trauma , a trauma that -as Ferenczi has observed ( Borgogno, [1999 ) -has to do on the one side with all those continual or temporary, cumulative or improvised conditions that produce forms of humiliating deprivation perpetrated on the body and the mind as they form and grow; while, on the other side, it has also to do with a " confusion of tongues " produced by a " too much " and -at the same time -a " too little " in the parents ' style of interacting and communicating with the child. A point of view on the origin of mental suffering -this last one -which will be later developed along similar lines by Gregory Bateson ( Sabourin, 1983 ), but also by one of Rycroft ' s most famous analysands: Ronald D. Laing, whom by the way Rycroft " accused of ablation " for not having explicitly recognized his indebtedness to the work of Bateson himself ( Rycroft, [1965( Rycroft, -1973 ).…”

“…However, it is surely Donald Winnicott who, more than anyone else, grew to embody the " contact of souls " ( Borgogno, 2007a ) between Rycroft ' s psychoanalysis and that of Ferenczi, who can be seen as the " ablated analytic parent " of many psychoanalysts. If we follow the train of Rycroft ' s clinical thought (which links many of his papers), we can discover the traces of this unrecognized analytic descent.…”

“…Could we say that, without fully knowing it himself, Rycroft was searching for a " missing link " ( Borgogno, 2007a ) in the mythological history of psychoanalysis? Was such a " missing link " tied to an ablated psychoanalytical parental image, an image that precisely because it has been ablated, has not stopped making its presence felt in the minds of his " blood relations " ?…”

Role-Reversal: A Somewhat Neglected Mirror of Heritages of the Past

“…In such situations, in fact, we are in the domain of non-occurred or non-completed symbolization, that with the passing of time can be slowly reintroduced into the analysis by the functions that the analyst performs, so that the patient will eventually be able to fi nd the symbolization within himself. Therefore, we want to stress here (1) that these functions are aimed to create the affective inter-psychic conditions that will enable the transmission of the emotional alphabet that is needed to master the lived experiences and (2) that in these analyses, we need a long time in order for the minimal psychological conditions for the development of transference to be established, since such a patient is lacking a piece of experience connected to subjectivation ( Botella & Botella, 2001 ) and, consequently, trauma for them would consist of the very fact that something that should have happened has, actually, not occurred ( Ferenczi, 1932b ;Winnicott, 1963 ;Bokanowski, 2004 ;Borgogno, 2005Borgogno, , 2006.…”