Elizabeth Severn: The "Evil Genius" of Psychoanalysis

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Elizabeth Severn: The ‘Evil Genius’ of Psychoanalysis chronicles the life and work of Elizabeth Severn, both as one of the most controversial analysands in the history of psychoanalysis, and as a psychoanalyst in her own right. Condemned by Freud as "an evil genius", Freud disapproved of Severn’s work and had her influence expelled from the psychoanalytic mainstream. In this book, Rachman draws on years of research into Severn to present a much needed reappraisal of her life and work, as well as her contribution to modern psychoanalysis. Arnold Rachman’s re-discovery, restoration and analysis of the Elizabeth Severn Papers – including previously unpublished interviews, books, brochures and photographs – suggests that, far from a failure, that the analysis of Severn by Ferenczi constitutes one of the great cases in psychoanalysis, one that was responsible a new theory and methodology for the study and treatment of trauma disorder, in which Severn played a pioneering role. * Elizabeth Severn should be of interest to any psychoanalyst looking to glean fresh light on Severn’s progressive views on clinical empathy, self-disclosure, countertransference analysis, intersubjectivity and the origins of relational analysis. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures Foreword About the author Acknowledgments Chapter 1 Finding psychoanalysis: A personal journey Personal motivation Chapter 2 Finding Ferenczi: My struggle to build a bridge from phenomenology and humanistic psychotherapy to relational analysis My discovery of Sándor Ferenczi Ferenczi as the bridge between phenomenology and humanistic psychotherapy and relational analysis Chapter 3 Finding “R.N.” as Elizabeth Severn Identifying Ferenczi’s case of “R.N.” in the Clinical Diary as Elizabeth Severn Collaboration between Severn and Ferenczi Chapter 4 Finding the Elizabeth Severn papers: An unknown legacy of psychoanalysis Chapter 5 Eissler finds Severn: Discovering the 1952 Eissler/Severn interview Kurt Eissler: the keeper of the keys to Freudian psychoanalysis The Sigmund Freud Archives Crisis in the archives: Masson contra Eissler Eissler discovered Severn Peter Swales’ response to Eissler Eissler’s interview with Severn Chapter 6 Freud’s condemnation of severn as an “evil genius” The drama of the difficult analysand: Clara Thompson and the so-called kissing technique Tender-mother transference: cherishing love as empathy Severn’s understanding of Ferenczi’s empathic methods Non-interpretative measures The kissing technique The Madrid trip Countertransference analysis and self-disclosure: from opaque to transparent clinical intervention Chapter 7 Todschweigen (death by silence): Removal of Elizabeth Severn’s ideas and work from mainstream psychoanalysis Freud’s Orthodox Jewish background Todschweigen of Sándor Ferenczi and Elizabeth Severn: silencing Ferenczi Silencing Elizabeth Severn Freud’s analysis of his daughter, Anna: a Todschweigen experience Contemporary experiences of Todschweigen “Ferenczi/Severn analysis was regressive” Professor Martin Bergman’s denunciation of Ferenczi The silence of the psychoanalytic community Emotional power of Todschweigen Chapter 8 Psychoanalysis of difficult cases: Freud’s case of the Wolf Man and Ferenczi’s case of Elizabeth Severn Freud confronts difficult cases Freud’s designation of the Wolf Man as a difficult case Freud Passed the mantle to Ferenczi Freud’s case of the Wolf Man, Sergei Pankejeff Sergei Pankejeff (the Wolf Man) as Freud’s difficult analysand “IV: The Dream and the Primal Scene” Reinterpreting Freud’s interpretation An alternative interpretation of the case of Sergei Pankejeff, the Wolf Man Freud introduced non-interpretative measures for difficult cases Learning from the case of Sergei Pankejeff Ferenczi as “the analyst of difficult cases”; from activity to mutual analysis The very difficult case of Elizabeth Severn: the outer boundaries of clinical behavior Chapter 9 Elizabeth Severn as a person Severn’s life and family background Elizabeth Severn’s mother Elizabeth Severn’s father Elizabeth Severn’s marriage Severn changed her name Severn’s hospitalization for emotional illness and her separation from her daughter Elizabeth Severn returned Elizabeth’s personal relationships: Leon Dabo Mara Lysova: an “adopted family member” of the Severns Mary Wilshire Margaret Severn: A devoted daughter and pioneer of modern dance: separation from mother Margaret Severn’s childhood sexual abuse Relationship between Elizabeth and Margaret Severn Elizabeth Severn’s analysis of her daughter Margaret Margaret’s personal presence Margaret’s dance career: a pioneering modern dancer Psychoanalytic detectives Margaret Severn and Jeffrey M. Masson Margaret Severn and Kurt Eissler Margaret Severn and Christopher Fortune Chapter 10 Severn finds Ferenczi: From psychiatric patient to analysand to analytic partner Psychiatric diagnosis Severn’s previous analyses Severn chose Ferenczi over Freud Difficult analysand and analyst of difficult cases Severn’s analytic task The analyst of difficult cases Compatibility between Severn and Ferenczi Chapter 11 Severn as a clinician Pre-clinical experience: encyclopedia salesperson Massage therapist: 1900–1907 Clinical metaphysician: 1908–1911 Dr. Elizabeth Severn, psychotherapist: 1911–1915 Severn’s psychotherapy cases: 1913–1920 Self-treatment/self-analysis Development of a psychological perspective as a psychotherapist Development of a psychoanalytic perspective An analysand of Severn Testimonials to Severn Chapter 12 The development of trauma analysis Reconstructing the Ferenczi/Severn analysis Stage one: early feelings of antipathy Stage two: unfolding the transference Stage three: analysis of the analyst, countertransference analysis Stage four: mutual analysis Stage five: the retrieval and analysis of Ferenczi’s childhood sexual trauma Stage six: changes in the analysand and the analyst Chapter 13 Analyzing the Ferenczi/Severn analysis Chapter 14 The rule of empathy: Ferenczi and Severn’s contribution Severn’s contribution to clinical empathy Elizabeth Severn’s analysis and the development of empathy Freud’s affirmation of Ferenczi’s introduction of clinical empathy Empathy and this contemporary analysis of trauma Chapter 15 The clinical in-vitro experiment in intersubjectivity between Ferenczi and Severn The Severn/Ferenczi analysis Negative countertransference therapeutic impasse Severn’s diagnosis of Ferenczi’s antipathy Ferenczi’s struggle to accept Severn’s analysis of his functioning Ferenczi surrenders to Severn Contribution of shared subjectivities in the analytic encounter Chapter 16 The confusion of tongues between Sándor Ferenczi and Elizabeth Severn Identify and retrieval of childhood trauma Clinical empathy Therapeutic need fulfillment Re-traumatization in the psychoanalytic situation Countertransference analysis Clinical hypocrisy From suppression to inspiration Chapter 17 A two-person psychology for psychoanalysis: Severn and Ferenczi’s analytic partnership Freud’s one-person psychology Ferenczi’s two-person psychology Ferenczi’s search for mutuality with Freud Groddeck and Ferenczi’s mutuality Severn and Ferenczi’s mutuality Countertransference analysis Mutual analysis as reflected in the interchange between Elizabeth and Margaret Severn Phenomenology, empathy, surrender, and judicious self-disclosure in mutual analysis The emotional issue of surrender Judicious self-disclosure Commentaries on mutuality Commentary on mutual analysis Contemporary view of a mutual analytic encounter Chapter 18 Non-interpretative measures in the analysis of trauma Anna O./Bertha Pappenheim as a founder of psychoanalysis Freud’s emotional blindness to the importance of trauma Oedipal theory and interpretation The Ferenczi/Severn analysis of trauma and the development of non-interpretative measures Ferenczi’s identity as a healer and his clinical ethos/Severn’s identity as a healer and her clinical innovations Expanding the boundaries of analytic functioning through the Ferenczi/Severn analysis Non-interpretative measures in the analysis of trauma Uses and misuses of non-interpretative measures Mutual analysis Extramural contact Chapter 19 Severn’s trauma of premature termination Ferenczi’s termination trauma with Freud The Clinical Diary The negative father transference trauma Margaret Severn’s anger at Ferenczi for the difficulties in the analysis of her mother Chapter 20 Severn’s recovery, 1933–1959: “To Work, To Love” (Freud) To love, to work: Freud’s standard for analytic success To love To work Chapter 21 Severn and ferenczi’s recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: An appraisal Freud’s view of psychoanalysis as the study of imagination The reality of repressed memories Historical vs. narrative truth Chapter 22 The development of therapeutic regression Anna O./Bertha Pappenheim hypnosis, talk therapy and regression Recollecting, remembering, and talking it out “The Subjective or Trance State by E.S.”: Severn’s contribution to the development of therapeutic regression Severn’s subjective/trance sessions in the analysis with Ferenczi From abstinence to responsitivity Trauma analysis and regression Freud, Ferenczi: regression or emancipation Development of therapeutic regression Therapeutic regression returns to contemporary psychoanalysis Balint’s development of therapeutic regression Chapter 23 Severn’s orpha function: Resilience and recovery from trauma Freud’s, Ferenczi’s, and Jung’s interest in mysticism, spirituality, and the occult Severn’s belief in the mystical Elizabeth Severn’s horoscope Severn’s Orpha function Orpha as a hallucination Ferenczi’s experience of Severn’s Orpha function Orpha as a restorative or resilient fantasy Margaret Severn’s conversations with Orpha Orpha as a life-saving fantasy Notes Chapter 24 Ferenczi’s case of R.N., Elizabeth Severn: A landmark in psychoanalytic history Psychoanalysis’ iconic cases: the case of Anna O./Bertha Pappenheim Case of the Wolf Man/Sergei Pankejeff Case of Sabrina Spielrein Case of Ellen West Case of Miss F. Ferenczi’s landmark cases Case of R.N./Elizabeth Severn Freud’s one-person struggle with Dora compared to Ferenczi’s two-person struggle with Severn toward empathy Severn and Ferenczi The removal of Ferenczi and Severn from psychoanalysis Ferenczi Renaissance Chapter 25 Severn as a psychoanalyst The road from mysticism to psychoanalysis Severn’s childhood traumas and her three failed analyses: a search for a cure for her trauma disorder Severn’s training analysis with Ferenczi: clinical contributions to the analysis of trauma Severn’s book, The Discovery of the Self (1933): theoretical contributions to a two-person and empathic perspective in psychoanalysis Analyst as a human being Clinical empathy as a central dimension of the analytic encounter The analyst’s therapeutic presence Trauma analysis Tribute to Severn: establishment of the Elizabeth Severn Section of the Freud Archives, the Library of Congress Elizabeth Severn Archives Donation of The Elizabeth Severn Papers to The Library of Congress Donation of The Elizabeth Severn Papers to the Sándor Ferenczi Archives, Budapest, Hungary References Index