ABSTRACT
Freud gave up his seduction theory to invent psychoanalysis as the investigation of the internal, or psychic, world. External reality was then viewed in a different way. The notion of an imago, or internal object came to the fore, and Freud became interested in the capacity for realistic recognition of external others, or the interruption or disabling of accurate recognition. The problem of acceptance of unpleasant ideas: advances in knowledge of the sense of reality. In Ferenczi's first on the sense of reality, he proceeded to elaborate several developmental phases prior to a proper objective appreciation of reality; he called these unconditional omnipotence, magical-hallucinatory omnipotence, omnipotence by magical gestures, and magical thoughts and magical words, before the subsequent renunciation of omnipotence. It is impressive how Ferenczi's ideas here hint at many theories that come later.
