Ferenczi, Regression and Shame

Sandor Ferenczi's work, nourished by his own experience of shame and injury in relation to his analyst Freud, can be seen to link notions of trauma, regression and shame. This paper may be divided into three loosely connected sections. The first concerns the concept of regression. The second, the debate over the place of gratification and abstinence in controlling the depth of regression and in working through the shame which regression necessarily generates, and the third, the relation between trauma, regression and shame in the work of Ferenczi, together with the shame/narcissistic injury over his rift with Freud and the subsequent allegation by Jones and others of paranoid delusions and psychotic disturbance.