Premium
Trauma and daimonic reality in Ferenczi's later work
Author(s) -
Kalsched Donald
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of analytical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.285
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1468-5922
pISSN - 0021-8774
DOI - 10.1111/1465-5922.00410
Subject(s) - psyche , psychoanalysis , id, ego and super ego , object (grammar) , consciousness , parallels , transpersonal , psychology , psychic , philosophy , medicine , epistemology , engineering , mechanical engineering , linguistics , pathology , alternative medicine
Jung and Ferenczi made independent discoveries of an ‘archaic’ (Jung) or ‘primordial’ (Ferenczi) layer of the psyche that shone through the ‘basic fault’ in the psyche opened by childhood trauma. This paper explores those parallels through an extended vignette of Ferenczi's work with Elizabeth Severn, known as ‘R. N.’ in the Clinical Diary . A remarkable inner object known as ‘Orpha’ appeared in the patient's trauma experience and saved a seed of personality from total annihilation. Ferenczi's speculation about this ‘daimonic’ object is cited along with his discussion of a trans‐personal immaterial reality that Orpha makes visible, and that links the patient's ego‐experience with a spiritual/material unity not ordinarily available to consciousness.