In Jones' Biography of Freud, the beloved disciple of the founder of psychoanalysis, Sandor Ferensi, appears before us as a more than mysterious person. It was the Hungarian's interest in the world of the unknown, the author notes, that served as a constant and very effective irritant for the sober scientific mind of the Austrian. Jones is very reluctant to mention that part of the correspondence between Freud and Ferensy, which concerns the paranormal, and does not even ask the question of what exactly made Ferensy interested in such. From him we learn only that Freud's disciple first joined the "psychic science" in 1899.
Using this first key and referring to the bibliography of Ferenchy's works, compiled by Mikael Balint, I found out that the very first article of the scientist was called "Spiritism". Apparently, none of the authors knew about its content. All the more unclear was the question of whether Ferenchy was based in it on personal experience.
Later, in correspondence with Dr. Leela Veji-Wagner, the London psychiatrist who helped Jones until his death, I discovered a startling fact, in itself worthy of a separate investigation. The documents confirming it were considered confidential until now. Their source, Dr. Istvan Varro, now lives in Chicago; in his time, together with Rustem Vamberi, he published the sociological weekly Nash Vek. Varro eagerly responded to my request and, in a letter dated November 14, 1960, granted me permission to publish certain fragments of his correspondence.
“Dr. Ferenchy and I talked about everything, including the so-called unexplained phenomena,” he wrote. - In particular, we exchanged opinions about the "spiritualists" - those, at least, with whom we were personally acquainted. Many years have passed since then, but the stories he told are still fresh in my memory.
Here is one of them. This happened in the years when Ferenchy was just starting his career in the medical field and held a very modest position at the Rokus hospital in Budapest with free meals and accommodation there.
In order to somehow make ends meet, the young doctor worked part-time in his specialty. One day, following a recommendation from a senior colleague, he took on a very sick old man who needed 24/7 medical supervision. Shandor's shift began at six in the evening; before him, another young specialist was on duty in the apartment.
Soon after this, Ferenchy accidentally met his old acquaintance - assistant professor Emile Fellentar, whose lectures he once got in the habit of attending, despite the fact that this subject (chemistry in forensic medicine, or something like that) was not mandatory and did not promise the student any practical benefits.
Ferenchy was intrigued not so much by the subject itself as by the personality of this strange lecturer. Since only two students went to see Fellentar, the old man and the young man became friends. However, after graduating from the institute, Ferenchy did not maintain this relationship.
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Accidentally meeting a young doctor on the street, the professor good-naturedly chided him for forgetting the old man completely, and invited him to visit. Alas, Ferenchy could not find the time for the visit.
When one day they accidentally collided on the street again, the professor made an appointment for his former student on a specific day and place, promising to participate in some very special event. It was only then that the young man remembered that this dear old man was a convinced spiritualist. He himself was not interested in spiritualism, but, being a psychiatrist, he decided that it would be interesting to see everything with his own eyes, and, accepting the invitation, at the appointed time, appeared at Fellentar's house, where he lived with his sister and daughter.
The guests formed a very cozy circle. The role of the medium was taken over by Fellenthar's niece. The honorable right to ask the spirit the first question received from the owner Ferenchy. "What is the person I am thinking of doing at this moment?" - he wrote on a piece of paper. The answer was: "The person you are thinking of sits up in bed, asks for a glass of water, falls on the pillow and dies."
Ferenchy glanced at his watch in horror. Then it dawned on him that a few minutes ago he was to begin his watch at the bedside of an elderly patient. Without saying goodbye, he ran out of the house and hailed a taxi. Yes, it happened exactly like this: at the very minute when the question was asked, his patient sat down, asked for water, then fell down and gave up his ghost.
So, maybe in his first essay, dated 1899, Ferenchy was still based on personal experience - a seance at the house of Dr. Fellentar? Mikael Balint, Ferenchy's literary agent, explained to me that the scientist published his work on Spiritualism before joining the clinic, as soon as he arrived in Budapest. “Ferenchy became interested in telepathy and clairvoyance even in his youth,” Balint wrote to me. "This is confirmed by his correspondence with Freud, most of which, unfortunately, I am not yet entitled to publish."
Personal experience of communication with the world of the supernatural made a deep impression on both scientists, but each reacted to it in his own way: Ferenchy - with enthusiasm, Freud, with all his sincere faith in spiritualism, critically-wary.
With the help of Budapest friends, I was able to locate a copy of Ferenchy's article on Spiritualism. Dr. Balint was right: it was clearly written before visiting Fellenthar's house.
It follows from the article that Ferenchy's interest in the "psychic" phenomenon, contrary to the assumptions of Dr. Varro, consisted mainly of reading and reflection, without any support from personal experience. The essence of the work was reduced to a call to recognize the right of "psychic" science to exist. The author used Aksakov's book "Animism and Spiritism" published in Leipzig in 1890 as the main primary source. This work of the tsarist adviser and one of the first Russians interested in spiritualism, apparently became for the young Ferenchey something like a spiritual Bible.
So, as far as we know, the seance at Fellentar's house allowed Ferenchy to face spiritualism directly. According to Jones, it was not until 1907 that Freud and Ferenchy began to discuss this topic. Dr. Balint not only confirms this date, but also believes that before they did not come into personal contact at all.
Meanwhile, the famous Hungarian psychiatrist was destined to meet with Fellentar again, in 1917. Dr. Varro told me this story.
“Terribly embarrassed by the shameful escape from the session, Ferenchy was constantly going to visit his old acquaintance and apologize, but each time he postponed his visit until he found out … that it was too late to apologize.
One day in the morning newspaper he read about the death of Dr. Fellentar. It was also reported there that the funeral would take place at the professor's house, and Ferenchy decided, albeit belatedly, to make amends and at least express condolences to the family of the deceased.
A very small group of people gathered in the green courtyard to say goodbye to the professor: university professors, Fellentar's elderly sister and several distant relatives. Ferenchy, to his surprise, did not see the woman who acted as a medium on that memorable evening.
Finally, the farewell speeches were heard. The undertaker asked the men to lift the coffin and place it on the hearse. They came up, grabbed the edges, but … could not even move him. They tried hard - in vain!
The most ordinary wooden coffin suddenly became unusually heavy!
The driver waited, impatient with all his looks. The rest did not know what to think. Everyone was shocked by the sudden embarrassment. An old woman entered the house. Some time later, she reappeared, holding the younger woman by the hand. With an unsteady step, she approached the coffin. Her eyes were closed: she seemed to be in a trance.
Fellenthar's great-niece just touched the lid. At the same moment, the men lifted the coffin without the slightest effort.
This is, in short, the story told to me by Dr. Ferenchy himself. She made an impression on me, but I did not ask questions, and he did not offer any explanation."
Participants in seances often encounter such phenomena. The unusualness of the situation was that the kinetic energy "bound" nothing more than the coffin, and the woman acting on the object was at a considerable distance from it.
The psychoanalytic interpretation of the incident is not difficult: the grand-niece, who did not want to let go of Dr. Fellentar, mentally opposed his departure, making a wonderful demonstration of "physical" mediumship.
But who was she, this girl? And what did you do for those seventeen years that divided Dr. Ferenchy's first and second visits to them?
Dr. Varro contacted the Budapest National Library and asked for a list of the people who attended the funeral, hoping to find out her name. Unfortunately, this document was not in the library. We were informed, however, that Dr. Emil Fellentar (1834-1917) was the Chancellor of the Court and, as a privat-docent, taught criminological chemistry at the University of Budapest.
The director of the library, Dr. Georg Paikoshi, however, found no indication in his archives that the professor was interested in parapsychology or spiritualism.
And here is another curious case from the life of Ferenche. Dr. Balint told me about it.
“Once (I think it was before 1914) a clairvoyant stuck to Ferenchy and began to demand that some experiments be carried out with her. Tired of arguing, the psychiatrist agreed at the appointed time after lunch to concentrate on a certain thought, the essence of which the clairvoyant promised to guess.
Entering at the pre-agreed hour to his office, Ferenchy took a figurine of an elephant in his hands, lay down on the sofa and for the next ten to fifteen minutes did not stop thinking about this elephant.
A few minutes later the bell rang. A friend called, Robert Bereny: he was asleep and had a terrible dream - Ferenchy in the jungle fighting off wild elephants! The letter of the clairvoyant, which arrived some time later, contained complete nonsense."
As for Jones's book, it is difficult to get rid of the feeling that in it he seems to be taking revenge on Ferenchy, constantly jealous of Freud - obviously, just because the latter told a Hungarian friend so many strange things about his life. At the same time, Jones simply refuses to acknowledge the reality of the phenomenon of telepathy, does not believe in clairvoyance and accuses Freud of "improper gullibility." The great Austrian, according to Jones, being under the influence of his friend Wilhelm Fleiss, at the end of the last century was ready to "believe in anything, even in numerology."
Apparently, Jones is especially concerned about Freud's experiments in the genre of "unconscious magic", with the help of which he, starting in 1905, began to "remove the forces of evil from himself." Freud, in addition, believed in signs: once, seeing a person very similar to himself, he imagined that the double had appeared to predict his imminent death. "Now I believe that the dead do indeed rise from the grave!" he exclaimed quite seriously when he saw the sister of the deceased patient.
And then - to Jones' sincere regret - Freud fell under the influence of two of his closest friends, Ferenche and Jung, each of whom was in his own way predisposed to "occult beliefs."
Jones' use of the term "occult beliefs" is quite characteristic: he did not understand the difference between the concepts of "occultism" and "parapsychology" - which, funny as it may seem, reminds Freud himself. He, too, piled everything in one heap: telepathy and numerology, astrology and poltergeist.
Jones claims that Jung was the first to interest Freud in supernatural phenomena by triggering mysterious knocks on furniture - in Jones' words, "playing poltergeist."
Curiously, Jung became interested in mediumship, like Ferenchy, in 1899. The views of both scientists were in many ways similar; alas, the quarrel then destroyed this promising triple alliance.
Jones claims that in 1909, after returning home from America, Freud and Ferenchy visited the Berlin clairvoyant Frau Seidler. After several sessions with her, Freud admitted that she "indeed possesses some telepathic abilities that allow her to perceive other people's thoughts, albeit in a somewhat distorted form."
A few months later, Ferenchy sent Freud notes with notes of the statements of his patient, made before the psychoanalytic session. It turned out that this man, word for word, repeated the phrases that Ferenchy had heard during the day. This document made a strong impression on Freud, and he declared that he no longer doubted the human ability to transmit thought at a distance.
In 1912, Freud and Ferenchy discussed in correspondence the phenomenon of "smart Hans" - a miracle horse from the German city of Elberfield, which possessed certain mathematical abilities: he knew how to add and subtract, draw circles with a hoof, and so on - this suggested that the primitive forms of telepathic perception not alien to animals.
Ferenchy was delighted with the tricks of Hans, but Freud had his own opinion on this matter. He believed that telepathy had nothing to do with it and that this phenomenon confirms his own theories regarding the mechanisms of the subconscious activity of the mind.
In 1924, Ferenchy, in a letter to Freud, announced his intention to submit a report on telepathic experiments before the Hamburg Congress, to which Freud reacted briefly: "Don't do it." The materials that Jones only mentions in his book are awaiting publication - this depends on Dr. Balint.
Author: Fodor Nandor. From the book: "Between Two Worlds"