ABSTRACT
Barely two years after he had met Sigmund Freud for the first time, Sandor Ferenczi achieved his 'master stroke' with 'Introjection and transference'. The elaboration of the concept of introjection was closely linked to the dialogue between its author and Freud, a dialogue fully recorded in their correspondence. In this chapter, Ferenczi discusses Freud's advances concerning the issue of the transference and hysteria. The conceptual advances proposed by Ferenczi show his remarkable understanding of the importance of the pre-object and object-relationship in the organisation of the child's ego, as well as in the dynamic and economic organisation of psychic processes. The powerful idea introduced by Ferenczi is that introjection is a process, a psychic process organising the psyche. The chapter focuses on the importance of the transference with regard to hypnosis, Ferenczi distinguishes two types of transference: paternal transferences and maternal transferences. For Ferenczi, introjection represents the process that is at the very heart of the constitution of the ego.
