ABSTRACT
A correspondence is a sensitive object indeed. Born in intimacy, it suddenly finds itself exposed to the full light of day, as if a psychoanalytic session, a scene between husband and wife, or a moment between lovers were abruptly stripped of its veils and paraded in public for all to see. Freud expressed the idea several times that patients were good for providing "people with a livelihood", and, for instance, that he felt like a machine for earning money. Ferenczi was from the outset very alive to the analyst's involvement in the analytic process. Already in 1909, he reported that he dreamed a great deal, that he understood himself better, and that his analytic activity, too, was now more satisfying. Stressing the maternal role of the analyst, Ferenczi mentioned the therapeutic clumsiness of the Berliners and in particular of Abraham, whom he described as driven by "ambition and jealousy".
