Psychoanalysts on the Podium: Sándor Ferenczi and Sándor Feldmann in the Hungarian Daily Press

Abstract

This article uses the example of Hungary to present some ways in which the study of old newspapers can contribute to the early history of psychoanalysis and even change the way we think about it. It explores the presence of various psychoanalysts in selected organs of the Hungarian daily and weekly press before World War II. A search was conducted on ten daily papers and two weekly papers ( Az Est, Budapesti Hírlap, Esti Kurir, Magyar Hírlap, Magyarország, Népszava, Pesti Hírlap, Pesti Napló, Ujság, Világ, Színházi Élet, Tolnai Világlapja) for articles by and interviews with psychoanalysts, with a focus on the main representatives of the two major psychoanalytical societies in Hungary – Sándor Ferenczi for the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society and Sandor Feldmann for the Hungarian section of the Association of Independent Medical Analysts. One of the goals of this paper is to draw attention to the role that the rival psychoanalytical schools and their societies played in the history of psychoanalysis, without which it would not be as we know it today.