Sandor Ferenczi

Sandor Ferenczi

A Hungarian psychoanalyst, a key theorist of the psychoanalytic school and a close associate of Sigmund Freud.

He was born as Sandor Fränkel to Baruch Fränkel and Rosa Eibenschütz in Miskolc on July 7th 1873.  He was of Polish-Jewish heritage, but later magyarized his surname to Ferenczi. His father took part in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

He is notable both for working with difficult patients other psychoanalysts had given up on and for opposing and criticizing Fread’s classical method of psychoanalysis. Collaborating with Otto Rank he developed gestalt therapy, which led Carl Rogers to conceptualize person centered therapy.
Sándor Ferenczi was president of the International Psychoanalytical Association from 1918 to 1919.

He opposed his associate, Sigmund Freud, by advocating a more active and empathetic approach to psychoanalysis. He also used behavioral activation, which was uncommon at the time, such as asking an opera singer to perform during a session as a way to deal with her fears.

Clinical empathy in psychoanalysis

Ferenczi believed in the empathic response of the therapist clinical interaction. Instead of just listening and encouraging free association, he responded to the subjective experiences of the patient. He believed it was useful for the analyst to share their own experiences with the analysand if it was relevant to the therapy. This was an important contribution to the evolution of psychotherapy. This idea is in strong contrast with Freud’s therapeutic abstinence, meaning that the therapist should take on an entirely neutral role.