ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines how the mind of the child was viewed prior to Freud based on my original research nearly three decades ago. It focuses on material related to Emma Eckstein's case history, material which led Freud first to formulate, and only a year later to abandon, his theory of seduction. The book explains how Ferenczi was able to transform the conceptual system of Freud, focusing on three points: his reorganization of the fulcrum of psychotherapy, his creation of a new language for trauma, and his mutual analysis with Elisabeth Severn. It describes an imaginary meeting between Freud and Ferenczi on the Acropolis, based on Freud's last piece of self-analysis. The book brings to an end a reconstruction of the gap Freud filled with the theory of the transcendental Phallus.
