From Metapsychology to Magnetic Gnosis: An Esoteric Context for Interpreting Traumatic Modes of Transcendence in Sándor Ferenczi's Clinical Diary and Elizabeth Severn's The Discovery of the Self

It has been argued that the essential themes in Sándor Ferenczi's Clinical Diary (1932) centre around three major axes (theoretical, technical and personal). This paper proposes a fourth: namely, an occult or esoteric axis. To make the case for its presence in the Clinical Diary, the article provides a brief introduction to the academic study of Western esotericism in order to more adequately situate its proximate fin de siècle occult precursors vis-à-vis psychoanalytic metapsychology. A brief account of Ferenczi's correspondence with Freud on the role of the occult in psychoanalysis is then provided. This constitutes the necessary context for embarking upon an investigation into the ‘psychognostic’ metapsychology co-developed during the course of Ferenczi's ‘mutual analysis’ with the so-called ‘evil genius’, Elizabeth Severn. By way of conclusion, James Grotstein's account of a ‘numinous and immanent psychoanalytic subject’ is highlighted as the locus for a synergistic rapprochement between pre-Freudian and contemporary psychoanalytic conceptualizations of the subject congruent with the ‘Orphic trajectory’ outlined in this paper.

Evaluation of treatment response and symptom progression in 400 patients with visual snow syndrome

AimsTo gather information on useful medications to treat visual snow syndrome (VSS) as well as to validate an instrument to assess its clinical severity and the course of the disorder over time.MethodsFour hundred patients with VSS were included in this web-based prospective questionnaire study. All subjects completed a treatment questionnaire and a clinical diary. The first allowed evaluation of the effects of previous medications on visual snow, while the second measured VSS symptoms daily over the course of 30 days.ResultsPatients commonly reported previous use of medications such as antidepressants, antiepileptics, antibiotics and benzodiazepines. However, none of these drug classes was beneficial for the majority of patients. Recreational drugs and alcohol worsened visual snow symptoms in several reports. Vitamins and benzodiazepines had high therapeutic ratios, although in most cases they did not change the course of VSS.The monthly diary confirmed that the static in VSS is a consistent symptom over time. It also showed that indoor and fluorescent lights have a worse effect on symptoms when compared with natural outdoor lighting.ConclusionsThe study confirms clinical experience that medications are generally ineffective in VSS, with the exception of vitamins and perhaps benzodiazepines, which could be beneficial in some patients. The 30-day diary represents a useful tool to measure symptom progression over time, which could be used in future trials on VSS.

“A Dress of Fire”: Reading Sándor Ferenczi's Clinical Diary

Ferenczi's Clinical Diary reveals an exceptional analyst who honestly and bravely documented radical clinical experiences and theoretical insights about the tragic impacts of trauma. The author follows Ferenczi's thinking from his falling out with Freud and his view of the classical psychoanalyst's objectivity and emotional detachment as triggers of the original trauma, through the use of the countertransference to lay bare trauma, eventually issuing in his radical experiment in mutual analysis. The Diary's fate in the history of psychoanalysis reflects that of its thinking on trauma: Beginning with Ferenczi's decades-long silencing and exclusion from the main psychoanalytic community, together with the silencing of actual trauma, this history evolved into the revival and dissemination of Ferenczi's thinking and the reappraisal of the role of actual trauma.