Confusion of Tongues: A Return to Sandor Ferenczi

About this book

Sandor Ferenczi Sigmund Freuds brilliant pupil as well as an innovative psychoanalyst was silenced by various generations of his contemporaries until in the past decades his work began to be rediscovered. Certain aspects of his trauma theory in fact had never been thoroughly addressed particularly the connection he made between trauma and language. Miguel Gutierrez-Pelaez offers a new reading of Ferenczi by proposing a dialogue between the Hungarian psychoanalysts work philosophy and contemporary psychoanalysis. Among the subjects covered the book delves into the vulnerability of children and Ferenczis never-ending search for a cure the complex issue of war trauma and more specifically his anticipatory work in understanding the effects on the human psyche of the horrific experiences in concentration camps during World War II. These issues are raised against the backdrop of captivating figures like Jacques Lacan Emmanuel Levinas Giorgio Agamben Derrida Nietzsche and Primo Levi among others.