Abstract
How is psyche related to soma? What tricks does the mind play on the body—and vice-versa? In psychoanalysis, few have probed these questions more deeply than analysts from the Budapest school. Their work began in Hungary and was carried forward in other countries, following their forced emigration. In this study, I touch upon common features of Ferenczi's and Groddeck's thinking about psychosomatics. I explore the work of Sándor Ferenczi, Lajos Lévy and Mihály Bálint among others, and the attraction between avant garde Hungarian intellectuals—mainly writers influenced by Ferenczi—and Georg Groddeck.
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Notes
He took infant monkeys away from their real mothers, giving them instead two artificial mothers, one model made of wire and the other made of cloth. The wire model was outfitted with a bottle to feed the baby monkey. But the babies rarely stayed with the wire model longer than it took to get the necessary food. They clearly preferred cuddling with the softer cloth model, especially if they were scared. (When the cloth model had the bottle, the babies did not go to the wire model at all.)
Ernest Moro (1874–1951) was an Austrian physician and pediatrician, who discovered the infant reflex that was named after him (Moro reflex). The Moro reflex, also known as the startle reflex is one of the infantile reflexes. This reflex is a response to unexpected loud noise or when the infant feels as if it is falling. It may be observed in incomplete form in premature birth after the 28th week of gestation, and is usually present in complete form by week 34 (third trimester). It is normally lost by the sixth month of life post-partum. It was discovered and first described by the Austrian pediatrician. Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_reflex#column-one#column-one
A lecture was given at the Budapest Medical Circle on January 25, 1926.
Dr. Georg Groddeck:Die psychische Bedingtheit und psychoanalytische Behadlung organischer Leiden. Verlag von S. Hirzel, Berlin, 1917.
Swerdloff's interview was published with small corrections as part of a series of Special Issues on the Life and Work of Michael Balint, guest edited by Judith Dupont. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2002, Vol. 62/1+4 and 2003, Vol. 63/3
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2An earlier version of this paper was presented at the clinical Sándor Ferenczi Conference, August 2–6, 2006, Baden-Baden, Germany
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Mészáros, J. Contribution of Hungarian Psychoanalysts to Psychoanalytic Psychosomatics. Am J Psychoanal 69, 207–220 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/ajp.2009.11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ajp.2009.11