Introducing Thalassa

The book that the French reader holds in his hands is one of the century's most fascinating and liberating.It does nothing less than instigate the psychoanalytic approach as a universal method of investigation that could complement the natural sciences, biology, palaeontology, medicine, or, pushing its insights far enough, even chemistry and physics.We find it difficult to believe that such an enterprise will be possible or what fruit it will bear, and so we must closely examine Ferenczi's proposal concerning the specific biological problem of the evolution of genital sexuality; the object of Thalassa.Reading this text is at first disconcerting, but if we persist, we gradually enter a strange and engaging universe.On each page, unexpected evidence emerges that responds to other authors, both reconfirming insights and opening new meanings.We end up convinced, suspending our long-held beliefs and ready to join the author in an exhilarating dive into the deepest aspects of ourselves.Ferenczi confronts us with what is inscribed in our bodies, our gestures and our myths, such that biology, natural history, embryology and physiology come to life with meanings that link us to the most remote history of our species.Sometimes we are rightfully suspicious; is the net of some metaphysical seduction enclosing us?Ferenczi assures us this is not the case and that the meanings he reveals are anything but verbal sustenance designed to feed our need for unity.They are intended to work scientifically, to propose hypotheses, construct research plans and discover new facts.What surprises us, furthermore, is that an authentic science of "first things" is also, unwittingly, poetry.Freud's Disciple "An Outline of a Theory of Genitality," ii as Thalassa was first titled, claims strict adherence to Freudian orthodoxy.Sándor Ferenczi, the expert psychiatrist of the Budapest Assize Court, was Freud's faithful friend, companion and disciple.He bonded with the founder of psychoanalysis in 1906 and assimilated his doctrine with prodigious speed, publishing paper after paper of his clinical and theoretical work.Alongside his mentor, Ferenczi founded the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) and devoted his enthusiasm and creative spirit to the psychoanalytic cause until his death in 1933.He exerted an influence on Freud himself, and his original contributions continue to fuel post-Freudian elaborations.Ferenczi was one of the first to be convinced by the pre-eminence of psychoanalytic research over other psychological and medical approaches, whose failures were consolidated in the enigma of hysteria.Only Freud could produce genuine insight on this matter as psychoanalytic questions discredited these modes of thought.It was necessary, however, to remain composed, and Freud

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