The 2025 Jeremy D. Safran Memorial Lecture
Presents
The Jeremy D. Safran Memorial Lecture
with
Peter L. Rudnytsky, PhD, LCSW
Ferenczi’s Secret Life: Mutual Analysis as a Relational Paradigm
Sunday
April 27, 2025
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Eastern Time
In Person and Online via Zoom
The New School
Wolff Conference Room
6 East 16th Street, New York, NY
11th Floor
Room D1103
The 2025 Jeremy D. Safran Memorial Lecture celebrates the legacy of Jeremy Safran, whose wide-ranging intellectual curiosity led to significant contributions in many areas of scholarly inquiry, including the establishment of the Sándor Ferenczi Center at The New School with Dr. Adrienne Harris and Dr. Lewis Aron in 2008.
This year, the conference will host Dr. Peter L. Rudnytsky, the author of, most recently, Mutual Analysis: Ferenczi, Severn, and the Origins of Trauma Theory. Dr. Rudnytsky will present a paper, titled “Ferenczi’s Secret Life: Mutual Analysis as a Relational Paradigm,” in which themes of his book are embedded.
Ferenczi’s mutual analysis with Elizabeth Severn is one of the most controversial and consequential episodes in the history of psychoanalysis. Attacked by conservative commentators as a boundary violation and an exploitation of the patient, the paper defends Ferenczi’s experiment on both counts and argues that mutual analysis serves as a paradigm for the two-person model of relational analysis, as Freud’s self-analysis is a paradigm for the one-person model of classical analysis. Ferenczi’s return to Freud’s pre-1897 misnamed “seduction theory,” and his concomitant modifications of therapeutic technique, caused him to go underground and develop a “secret life” from Freud in a way that has until recently been necessary for trauma theorists.
Following his presentation, the floor will open for audience participation and discussion.
A light lunch and refreshments will be served.
* * *
Learning Objectives
At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- To explain how Ferenczi and Severn jointly rehabilitated Freud’s original “seduction theory” to introduce a genuine trauma theory into psychoanalysis.
- To trace the pre-psychoanalytic origins of trauma theory and its legacy in analysts from Fairbairn to Bromberg.
- To show the connections between trauma theory and the modifications of therapeutic technique developed by Ferenczi and Severn.
- To contrast Freud’s authoritarian and Ferenczi’s humanistic conceptions of psychoanalysis.
Tickets available HERE
Direct link:
https://event.newschool.edu/2025safranmemoriallecture
General Admission: $25
New School students and current institute candidates: Free (please email NSSRFerencziCenter@gmail.com to reserve)
For students and practitioners of all levels
CE Credits (2 hours) available for
New York Psychologists, Social Workers, MHCs, and Licensed Psychoanalysts
APA CE credits also available for Psychologists
Participants must the attend the seminar in its entirety to receive CE credits
Peter L. Rudnytsky, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., is Professor of English at the University of Florida and Head of the Department of Academic and Professional Affairs as well as Chair of the Committee on Confidentiality of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He was editor of American Imago from 2001 to 2011 and is currently editor of the History of Psychoanalysis series for Routledge and coeditor of the Psychoanalytic Horizons series for Bloomsbury. His books include Freud and Oedipus (1987), Reading Psychoanalysis: Freud, Rank, Ferenczi, Groddeck (2002), for which he received the Gradiva Award, and Mutual Analysis: Ferenczi, Severn, and the Origins of Trauma Theory (2022). His latest book, Psychoanalysis and the Patriarchal Tradition: Augustine to Milton, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury.A graduate of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, he maintains a private practice in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Gainesville, Florida.
Participants who wish to receive CE credits must attend the seminar session in its entirety; attendance will be recorded to track each participant’s entry and exit time.
Participants with physical or sensory disabilities are encouraged to contact the CE committee members at least 2 weeks in advance of the event to plan for appropriate accommodations. Please contact us via phone or email:
Nichelle Horlacher, Department Secretary: T 212.229.5727 x3223
Miriam Steele, Ph.D. steelem@newschool.edu
Howard Steele, Ph.D. steeleh@newschool.edu
Netta Keesom, MA, Student Coordinator for the Sándor Ferenczi Center. NSSRFerencziCenter@gmail.com
Participants may also contact CE committee members with any concerns. You may also share concerns when you receive your evaluation form after the event.
Tickets may be refunded up to 24 hours prior to the start of the event.
Please email NSSRFerencziCenter@gmail.com to cancel your ticket and request a refund.
The New School for Social Research, Department of Psychology SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0199.
The New School for Social Research, Department of Psychology is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0120.
The New School of Social Research, Department of Psychology is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0146.
The New School of Social Research, Department of Psychology is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P-0070.
The New School for Social Research, Department of Psychology is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.
The New School for Social Research Clinical Psychology Department maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
The sponsors of this event report no conflicts of interest or commercial support.