Sándor Ferenczi and the problem of telepathy

Abstract

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.

Are you afraid of the dark? Notes on the psychology of belief in histories of science and the occult

“…Hatfield, 1995). Not least, a continued openness to extra-sensory perception (ESP) within a distinctively materialist tradition, Freudian psychoanalysis (Devereux, 1974; Gyimesi, 2012; Totton, 2003), should make us sceptical of the psychical research vs. materialism stereotype. Yet, unchecked simplistic arguments from metaphysical bias that fail to stand up to historical scrutiny continue to be advanced even in professional philosophical discussions of parapsychology and the demarcation problem (Sommer, 2014a).…”

A Sociology of Tarot

“…Filling in the religious, spiritual, and occult spaces will no doubt be a challenge, and perhaps one of the biggest challenges will be overcoming scholarly prejudice and actually taking the areas of interest seriously. There have always been attempts to dismiss the investigation of religion, spirituality, and other boundary phenomenon (Gyimesi 2012;Sommer 2012). Nevertheless, while skeptics certainly abound, research into boundary areas shows remarkable longevity (Kloosterman 2012) with notable intellectuals often coming down on the side of belief (Sommer 2012).…”

“…A cademics have long displayed an interest in psychical research, parapsychology, occult practices, and other phenomenon at the boundaries of science Truzzi 1974aTruzzi , 1974bZaretsky & Leone 1974;Robbins & Anthony 1979). This multidisciplinary interest is traceable even to the founders of specific disciplines, although we might be surprised to find that thinkers like Freud (Devereux 1953), Sandor Ferenczi (Gyimesi 2012), William James (Sech, de Freitas Araujo & Moreira-Almedia, 2013) and other disciplinary luminaries took seriously the investigation of 'boundary phenomenon.' Sociologists have also expressed some interest in boundary phenomenon, the occult, secret societies, and such, but it has been far from all consuming.…”

Freedom and Authority in the Clinical Diary

“…These themes are closely connected to Ferenczi's never-ceasing interest in telepathy and in other, physically inexplicable phenomena that goes back to his "dangerous excursions" into occultism, an interest that Ferenczi and Freud privately savored 2 but something that was fiercely condemned publicly by the rationalist Freud, who also kept a careful eye on advancing psychoanalysis as a respected science (Haynal, 1993;Gyimesi, 2012). In the Diary he resumed his earlier ideas, described in Thalassa (Ferenczi, 1924), on the phylogenetic trauma as the origin of the soul, and the psyche as being a quality of the organic (and perhaps also the inorganic) material.…”