ABSTRACT
As Sandor Ferenczi’s Correspondence shows, from the very beginning of their relationship he underwent an intense and idealising transference to S. Freud, and to psychoanalysis and its doctrine which, at the time, were indistinguishable from Freud himself. Their encounter was truly a case of “love at first sight”, something that was reinforced by the numerous points in common and shared centres of interest they had. Freud rapidly realised that Ferenczi could go on to become a pre-eminent theoretician and practitioner of psychoanalysis. The transference interpretations that Freud put forward were meant to provide sufficient help for his disciple, whom he wished to see not only as his spiritual son but also, after the disappointments with Jung, as the heir to the psychoanalytic doctrine. Ferenczi’s character —enthusiastic, sensitive, generous, hungry for recognition and affection —sometimes came up against a lack of reciprocity on Freud’s part.
