ABSTRACT
Ferenczi continued his research into seers but started to observe mindreading phenomena in analysis too, working on his own countertransference like a clairvoyant and keeping Freud informed about this. Freud was distracted by the tribulations of the movement: the founding of the Psychoanalytic Association and the nomination of Jung as its president. Jung started to isolate himself in the study of mythology, avoided acknowledging the reality of the transference, and continued to entertain erotic relationships with his patients (after Spielrein, there is Antonia Wolf), putting his marriage at risk.
The vicissitudes of the relationship between Freud and Ferenczi are illustrated, showing how their shared investigation of mindreading allowed some rapprochements in situations of conflict (see the Palermo incident). Freud acknowledged the Hungarian’s paternity of this line of research, as if to counterbalance his jealousy about his political legacy, which, despite everything, he was entrusting to Jung. But the theme continued to attract him, and he enriched Ferenczi’s dossier of observations by giving him two examples of unfulfilled prophecies brought to him by patients in analysis, which highlighted the seer’s occult ability to read the unconscious desire of those who consult them.
