The aim of this article is to outline some aspects of the problem of demarcation in the early history of psychoanalysis, as it pertains to the growing interest in occult phenomena. The nineteenth-century scientific interest in occult phenomena played a fundamental role in the history of psychoanalysis since the examination of the occult called attention to the possible dissociation of the psyche. The theories of subconscious or subliminal tendencies were strongly connected with such dissociation. Psychoanalysis had a special significance in this context since it offered a medicalized, rational-logical explanation of the unconscious. Therefore, the Freudian concept of the unconscious could split off the spiritualist or transcendent meaning of the subconscious tendencies and meet the demands of medical materialism with the theory of sexuality.
Sándor Ferenczi, the great representative of the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis, had a lifelong interest in psychical phenomena. Although his ideas on the psychoanalytical understanding of spiritualistic phenomena and telepathy were not developed theories, they had a strong influence on some representatives of psychoanalysis, and thus underlay the psychoanalytic interpretation of telepathy. Ferenczi’s ideas on telepathy were interwoven with his most important technical and theoretical innovations. Thus Ferenczi’s thoughts on telepathy say a lot about his psychoanalytical thinking and attitudes, and illuminate the significance of his greatest innovations in the context of psychical research.
Some of the early representatives of psychoanalysis had a lifelong interest in certain 'occult' phenomena. Although several theories were born for the purpose of understanding the interest of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung or Sándor Ferenczi in spiritualism and related phenomena, interpreters usually ignore the changing cultural meaning and significance of modern occult practices like spiritualism. The aim of the present essay is to outline the cultural and historical aspects of spiritualism and spiritism in Hungary, and thus to shed new light on the involvement of Ferenczi - and other Hungarian psychoanalysts like Géza Róheim, István Hollós, and Mihály Bálint - in spiritualism and spiritism. The connections between spiritualism and the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis will be discussed, highlighting the cultural and scientific significance of Hungarian spiritualism and spiritism in the evolution of psychoanalysis. Taking into account the relative lack of the scientific research in the field of spiritism in Hungary, it can be pointed out that Ferenczi undertook a pioneering role in Hungarian psychical research.
This article traces the history of hypnotherapies in Hungary by exploring and interpreting the work of Ferenc (András) Völgyesi, a controversial physician, psychiatrist and forensic expert who gained remarkable fame in and beyond Hungary. It explores his work and its reception in the context of the complex, changing trends in European psychology between the 1920s and 1950s, drawing on published sources in a range of languages, and the archives of the Hungarian State Security. It uncovers experiments in human and animal hypnosis; Völgyesi’s engagement with the Hungarian psychoanalytic community; and the cultural, scientific, and esoteric, networks from which theories and practices of hypnosis emerged. This reminds us also that the development of psychotherapy in Europe cannot be disentangled from the history of parapsychology and western esotericism. The article also examines allegations of ethical abuses of hypnosis, and the shortcomings of Völgyesi’s theoretical and practical claims. It argues that this case illustrates how the history of European psychotherapy in the 20th century cannot be fully understood without taking into account the enduring fascination with hypnotherapies into the postwar period – re-inscribed, in this case, through Pavlovian theories.
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