Project Proposal, The Network Edition of the Complete Psychoanalytic Writings of Sándor Ferenczi
PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT
After many months of careful work, the Board of the International Sándor Ferenczi Network approved the editorial project of a new English edition of the complete works of Ferenczi, The Network Edition of the Complete Psychoanalytic Writings of Sándor Ferenczi. This project is consistent with the objectives of the International Sándor Ferenczi Network and a valuable and worthy development in the “Ferenczi renaissance.”
View the Project Proposal Below
In order to make this ambitious project possible, the Board of the International Sándor Ferenczi Network is ready to start wide-ranging fund raising. Since this is a highly important and complex plan, the Board invites all the members of the International Sándor Ferenczi Network to express their opinion regarding this project at the Extraordinary Assembly of November 29, 2020, held via Zoom.
Learn More About this Fundraising Project and the Convocation of ISFN Extraordinary Assembly
Registration for the Assembly will be open from October 20 to November 8, 2020.
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The Network Edition of the Complete Psychoanalytic Writings of Sándor Ferenczi
A Proposal to the Board of the ISFN
As an outgrowth of our 2018 conference in Florence, a committee has been formed to begin work on a new English-language edition of Ferenczi’s writings. The current three-volume edition of Contributions is incomplete and inadequate, and no definitive edition exists in any other language. The English edition, particularly in the first volume, is often incorrect, not well translated, and lacking passages from Ferenczi’s original texts. Because this is a project spon-sored by, and undertaken on behalf of, the International Sándor Ferenczi Network, and we want to proceed in the spirit of mutuality exemplified by Ferenczi himself, we are calling this the “Network Edition.” We envision this as the culmination of the “Ferenczi renaissance” that be-gan with the publication of the Clinical Diary, and we anticipate that it will become the indis-pensable foundation for all future research and scholarship on Ferenczi.
The general editors of the project are Franco Borgogno and Peter Rudnytsky, and the members of the editorial committee are: Antal Bokay, Carlo Bonomi, Julia Borossa, Luis Martin Cabre, Marco Conci, Giselle Galdi, Gianni Guasto, Adrienne Harris, Veronique Haynal, Judit Meszaros, and Judit Szekacs. We are fortunate to have in hand the comprehensive bibliography of Ferenczi’s writings begun under the direction of the late Ferenc Eros, and brought to comple-tion by Melinda Friedrich and Anna Kovacs. This bibliography will serve as the roadmap for the entire project, which will be greatly complicated by the fact that Ferenczi’s writings often exist in two (or more) languages, and the editors of each volume will have to take this textual history into account.
Preliminary conversations have begun with publishers, but we have not yet entered into any contracts. We anticipate that it will take 8 to 10 years to complete our work, and that the edition will comprise 10 volumes. We have agreed that at least two co-editors, with complemen-tary strengths and skills, will be primarily responsible for each volume. Although editorial and translation work on various volumes can proceed concurrently, the publication will be in chrono-logical order, beginning with Ferenczi’s preanalytic writings, in order to allow us make adjust-ments in the contents of each volume, and to learn from our collective experience, as the edition unfolds.
In addition to the editorial work, we are organizing a fundraising committee to help us secure the substantial amount of money that will be necessary to bring this project to a successful completion. Although all members of the editorial committee will be donating their time, we will have to pay our translators and other specialists whom we may need to engage to assist us, and there are always unforeseen expenses in a project of this magnitude. We estimate that we will need to raise from $100,000 to $150,000, both from individual donors and through grants from foundations, in the course of the coming decade in order to make our dream a reality.
We urge you to ratify this proposal, so that the Network Edition can become an official project of the International Sándor Ferenczi Network. We welcome your ideas and your support!
Respectfully submitted,
Franco Borgogno & Peter L. Rudnytsky
General Editors