Ferenczi and Beyond: Exile of the Budapest School and Solidarity in the Psychoanalytic Movement During the Nazi Years

Reviews and Endorsements

Read a review of this title in 'The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association'

‘Ferenczi and Beyond is a crucial book for understanding the state of psychoanalysis today. Foremost, it details the two waves of emigration of psychoanalysts from Hungary: first, during the twenties with the Hungarian fascist threat, and then again in the late thirties, with the Nazi threat. Judit Meszaros captures the spirit of the diaspora, the word conveying a “scattering of seeds”, and indeed these two migrations scattered and planted amazing seeds that have enriched and diversified psychoanalysis and constitute a vital and creative field today. We are so grateful that this work is now available in English translation.’
— Bennett Simon, MD, Training and Supervising Analyst, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School at the Cambridge Health Alliance, USA

‘This book is the tale of an exceptional cultural adventure and the saga of an extraordinary effort of international solidarity. It follows the history of the birth and evolution of psychoanalysis in Central Europe and especially Budapest. Indeed, the thinkers, scientists, and artists of this city, with those of Vienna, have significantly influenced twentieth-century psychoanalytic ways of thinking about the world. This is a wonderful reading about human solidarity and the victory of courageous and noble attitudes over devastation.’
— André E. Haynal, MD, Psychoanalyst (IPA), Professor, University of Geneva, Switzerland

‘In this meticulously researched and documented history, Judit Meszaros tells a gripping story about the best of psychoanalysis in the twentieth century. Against the background of the Holocaust, anti-semitism, and fascism, she explores the growth of the Hungarian school of psychoanalysis, the diaspora of analysts to Europe and America, and the shining moment of the American Psychoanalytic Association “Committee”. This is a compelling narrative that in its English translation will be available to the wide audience it deserves.’
— Roberta J. Apfel, MD, MPH, Harvard Medical School, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, USA

‘This is not only an intriguing survey of a group of Hungarian psychoanalysts and their interconnections, but also a pioneering representation of their exile and their immigrant activities in the 1920s and 1930s. Based on a wide variety of hitherto unused international primary sources, this book is a more than welcome addition to our knowledge of the transatlantic psychoanalytical movement before and during World War II.’
— Tibor Frank, PhD, DLitt, FRHS, Professor of History and Director, School of English and American History, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary

‘This book is an extraordinary gift to English-speaking psychoanalysts. The volume is the product of the author’s thorough immersion for twenty years in the work of one of Freud’s most gifted contemporaries. But the book is more than that; it is also the result of her archival investigation of European immigrant psychoanalysts who came to the USA in response to rising anti-Semitism and persecution starting in the 1920s. Each chapter provides insight into the extraordinary creativity and productivity of these psychoanalytic pioneers.’
— Anna Ornstein, MD, and Paul Ornstein, MD, Supervising Analysts, Boston Psychoanalytic Institute and Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis, USA

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