New School for Social Research
Sandor Ferenczi Center
Decoding Ferenczi’s Clinical Diary
Presented by B. William Brennan
December 2, 2011, 8:00 PM
Location: Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th St., 5th floor
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In the Clinical Diary of Sándor Ferenczi (1988) certain codes are used
to refer to particular patients. The identities of some of these
patients are known to us, notably, Dm (Clara Thompson) and RN
(Elizabeth Severn), but the others have remained a mystery. This paper
will reveal the identities of the other patients in the Clinical Diary
and provide important biographical data on Ferenczi’s other cases. The
author will also discuss the ethics of revealing the identities of
historically important patients.
B. William Brennan ThM, MA, LHMC is a psychoanalyst in independent
practice in Providence, RI. He is a graduate of the National Training
Program, National Institute for the Psychotherapies. He is past
president of the Rhode Island Association for Psychoanalytic
Psychologies (APA-Div 39). He is a Board Member of the International
Forum for Psychoanalytic Education and a co-chair of the History of
Psychoanalysis Committee.