Sincerity and Freedom in Psychoanalysis 2: Sincerity, Honesty and Freedom

Panel 2: Sincerity, Honesty and Freedom

Sincerity and Freedom in Psychoanalysis: a studio conference inspired by Sándor Ferenczi's Clinical Diary

18-20 October 2013

Andre Haynal - Prolegomena to the Clinical Diary

Ken Robinson - Empathy, Tact and the Freedom to be Natural

Gabor Szonyi - Challenges of Honesty

Facilitator: Judit Szekacs

Andre Haynal - Prolegomena to the Clinical Diary

In pursuing threads of the Correspondence with Freud and traces of the mutual analysis with Groddeck, this is an attempt at capturing the psychological atmosphere for Ferenczi around the time of the birth of the Diary. Mysterious and fecund moments follow difficulties that approach somatic breakdown.

Ken Robinson - Empathy, Tact and the Freedom to be Natural

The clinical concepts of “empathy” and “tact” as Ferenczi uses them in the Clinical Diary, in “The Elasticity of Psycho-Analytic Technique” (1928) and in his correspondence with Freud in January 1928, have an enduring importance. I propose to explore them as part of a family of related concepts, founded in the analyst’s capacity to be “natural” and “sincere”, and to locate them in the wider context of the philosophy of “personal knowledge” associated with another Hungarian, Michael Polanyi.

Gabor Szonyi - Challenges of Honesty

There was one thing Sandor Ferenczi was committed to more than to Freud: psychoanalysis. Above all others, he took the method extremely seriously. Not in a descriptive sense, but by following its spirit and exploring it in its totality.

Ferenczi was willing to explore the whole domain of the basic rule: express – without any filtering – what you have on your mind. His personality was that of a researcher, for whom experimentation is natural. The famous – and scarily misunderstood – experiences with mutual analysis explored the limits of honesty in free association for both actors; the analysand and the analyst.

There are today three settings where the honesty of an analyst is at stake: his or her personal analysis; supervisions and case discussions; and the analyses he or she conducts. These require the capacity and the willingness to be honest. Being honest can always turn into a painful exercise. It is not just a given, even if the capacity is broad and the analyst has extensive training. Willingness to be honest needs to be rebuilt in every context again and again – which is a crucial point of self-analysis.

Ferenczi criticized the hypocrisy of doctors – and honesty, indispensable in self-analysis, is the opposite of hypocrisy. A hundred years after the formation of the British and Hungarian Psychoanalytic Societies, it is worth reviewing our training practices to see how much they help or hinder the growing capacity to be honest and the willingness to practice honesty in our daily work.