Freud face to face with Ferenczi's research into trauma. Comparisons and contrasts

What is the true significance of the censorship ubiquitous in the instituti onalized history of psychoanalysis! Sander Ferenczi's writings - notably hi s late ideas on real sexual trauma - also fell prey to censorship, with som e of them out of circulation for decades. The most prominent censor of all was Sigmund Freud, who adamantly refused to accede recognition to the final works of his colleague and friend. In a synoptic comparison of key passage s from Freud's Etiology on Hysteria (1896) and Ferenczi's "Sprachverwirrung " (1933) and a number of other sources, Rand and Torok point up a surprisin g degree of agreement between the views of the two, albeit across a signifi cant period of time. Finally the authors advance the hypothesis that Freud exercised a species of self-censorship by pointedly ignoring and thus impli citly castigating Ferenczi's adoption of the seduction theory he had himsel f abandoned. In this way he was able to silence his own theoretical misgivi ngs and present the world with a unified and unassailable theoretical edifi ce.