The Sándor Ferenczi Center was established at The New School for Social Research in 2008.
Sándor Ferenczi (1873–1933) was an important psychoanalytic pioneer and a close associate of Sigmund Freud’s. He is known for his innovative clinical work, his willingness to work with the most difficult of patients, his socially and politically progressive attitudes, and his promotion of a cultural climate that facilitated interdisciplinary conversation between psychoanalysis, the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences.
The goals of the New School Ferenczi Center include 1) sponsoring lectures, conferences, and workshops relevant to Ferenczi’s legacy of clinical innovation, 2) promoting Ferenczi’s legacy of social and political progressivism, and 3) contributing to the ongoing vitality of psychoanalysis as a cultural, intellectual, therapeutic discipline. The center is affiliated with the International Ferenczi Foundation and the Sándor Ferenczi Society.
Situating the Sándor Ferenczi Center at The New School is of historical significance. Ferenczi spent four months in New York in 1926 lecturing at The New School after being invited to the United States by Alvin Johnson, the president of The New School, who was subsequently to become the founder of the “University in Exile.” From Ferenczi’s correspondence with Freud during this period, we know that he lectured, saw patients, and was involved in key aspects of the development of psychoanalysis and training in the United States. Linking the Ferenczi project to The New School connects American psychoanalysis to a seminal influence on the evolution of contemporary developments in clinical theory and practice and reconnects the New School to an important aspect of its legacy.
Leadership
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Miriam Steele, PhD; Clinical Psychology Department, The New School for Social Research
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Anthony Bass, PhD
Giselle Galdi, PhD
Jennifer Hunter, PhD
Ali Shames-Dawson, PhD
Matthew Steinfeld, PhD
Donnel Stern, PhD
Romy Reading, PhD
Sue Shapiro, PhD
CJ Healy, PhD
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Netta Keesom, MA; NSSR Clinical Psychology PhD student
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Adrienne Harris, PhD
Lewis Aron (1952-2019)
Upcoming Events
Selected Papers of the 14th International Sándor Ferenczi Conference
Saturday
December 6, 2026
12:30 PM to 5:30 PM, Eastern Time
Online via Zoom
The title of the 2024 São Paulo Sándor Ferenczi Conference was “Psychoanalysis between Catastrophe and Creation: Emerging Perspectives.” The São Paulo Conference, a highly successful event, brought together close to 1,000 clinicians, scholars, researchers, students, and experienced colleagues. The SFC is very pleased to bring the presenters from Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Seattle, and Vancouver back together to share their work with our community.
The conference tapped into Sándor Ferenczi’s deep understanding of the complex and traumatizing dynamics of power and human vulnerability. His ongoing progressive work in responding to traumatic experiences in his clinical work, enriched the knowledge of conference participants about disruptive social, personal, political, environmental and clinical situations that we are facing today.
The four themes of the conference were:
Emerging from Catastrophes: Social and Environmental Transformations
The Clinical and the Sociopolitical: Challenges for Psychoanalysis in Times of Trauma
Fragmentation and its Consequences on Psychic Life
Confusion of Tongues: Tenderness, Trauma and Toxicity
Each speaker will touch on these themes in their presentation, detailed below:
Jô Gondar, PhD: “With Ferenczi for a Decolonial Psychoanalysis”
Eugênio Canesin Dal Molin, PhD: “Shock, Resonance, and Creation”
Daniel Kupermann, PhD: “The Mongrel Complex: Identification with the Aggressor, Self-Hatred, versus the Resting Drive (Ruhetrieb)”
Judy Eekhoff, PhD: “Catastrophe and Creativity: From Fragmentation to Emergence”
Endre Koritar, MD: “Mother Tongue and the Language of Tenderness: Lost and Found”
CE Credits (5 hours) available New York Psychologists, Psychoanalysts, Social Workers, and MHCs; APA CE credits also available for Psychologists
Announcements
Check out promotion for a publication by one of our board members, Anthony Bass, PhD
“Do not force feelings of any kind, least of all the feelings of conviction.”
– Sándor Ferenczi
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