Confusion of Tongues

A Return to Sandor Ferenczi

Miguel Gutierrez-Pelaez

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780429882210
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Sandor Ferenczi, Sigmund Freud's brilliant pupil as well as an innovative psychoanalyst, was silenced by various generations of his contemporaries until, in the past decades, his work began to be rediscovered. Certain aspects of his trauma theory, in fact, had never been thoroughly addressed, particularly, the connection he made between trauma and language. Miguel Gutierrez-Pelaez offers a new reading of Ferenczi by proposing a dialogue between the Hungarian psychoanalyst's work, philosophy, and contemporary psychoanalysis. Among the subjects covered, the book delves into the vulnerability of children and Ferenczi's never-ending search for a cure, the complex issue of war trauma and, more specifically, his anticipatory work in understanding the effects on the human psyche of the horrific experiences in concentration camps during World War II. These issues are raised against the backdrop of captivating figures like Jacques Lacan, Emmanuel Levinas, Giorgio Agamben, Derrida, Nietzsche, and Primo Levi, among others.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• PROLOGUE Héctor López
• CHAPTER ONE Unveiling Ferenczi
• CHAPTER TWO In the terrain of trauma
• CHAPTER THREE A re-reading project
• CHAPTER FOUR Old ruptures, new connections
• CHAPTER FIVE The history of “Confusion of tongues between adults and the child”
• CHAPTER SIX On translation and the confusion of tongues: a “beyond” for the confusion of tongues
• CHAPTER SEVEN Babel and the tower of Babel
• CHAPTER EIGHT Walter Benjamin’s contributions to the issue of the “confusion of tongues”
• CHAPTER NINE The death of God and the “language of the birds”
• CHAPTER TEN The other “other” in Levinas
• CHAPTER ELEVEN Lacan. On the verges of psychoanalytic experience
• CHAPTER TWELVE Awakening to trauma: writings on traumatophilia
• CHAPTER THIRTEEN The return to Ferenczi
• CHAPTER FOURTEEN Final considerations
• NOTES
• REFERENCES
• INDEX