ABSTRACT
Ferenczi’s presentation of the Confusion of Tongues was one of the most important theoretical and clinical shifts in the history of psychoanalysis. Ferenczi presented the first alternative theory to Freud’s Oedipal complex and a pioneering clinical therapeutic methodology. Ferenczi’s attunement and clinical experience of twenty years with difficult cases (likely borderline personality disorders) helped him realize that the Freudian designation of neurosis needed to be expanded to include individuals who suffered from childhood sexual trauma. He was attempting to establish that sexual abuse of children by parents is a significant psychodynamic in the development of psychological disorder. This new designation is a trauma disorder, based upon real experience in familial interaction. This trauma experience is a result of a child’s developmental need for attention, affection, and responsiveness. The adult abuses the child sexually to fulfill his/her narcissistic need for sexual satisfaction, confusing the child by believing it is an act of love. The discrepancy between the child’s developmental needs for love and the adult’s abusive behavior initiates a series of psychological defense mechanisms such as: a sense of confusion; alteration in a sense of reality; being tongue tied; clinical detachment and dissociation; and identification with the aggressor.
