THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES AND PSYCHIC TRAUMA

'The confusion of tongues' characterised the polarised dimensions of t he closing Ferenczi/Freud communication, and extended to problems of p sychoanalytic formulation and publication There were manifest and late nt issues which remain of historic importance. Ferenczi was dying and assumed Freud was dying when he wrote this classic essay, so relevant to contemporary psychoanalytic thought and controversy. Denying and so metimes acknowledging his progressive, fatal illness, Ferenczi made en during contributions to the understanding of child abuse and trauma wh ile severely traumatised. Concepts of trauma and countertransference w ere amplified and expanded. Freud remained remarkably creative while p hysically declining with oral cancer; Ferenczi manifested progressive and regressive trends, fostering both sublimated innovation and wild a nalysis. Psychoanalysts tended to avoid, for half a century, confronti ng the problems of the ill, impaired, and dying analyst The clarificat ion of 'The confusion of tongues' continues in contemporary psychoanal ytic discussion and debate. The paper presaged a widened interest in t he analyst's analysing functions, unconscious communication, countertr ansference, and the interplay of reality and fantasy inside and outsid e the psychoanalytic situation.