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PARTISAN REVIEW
Szek,ks, Klara Ajkay, and Sara Klaniczay - a special friend who
drove me all the way to Balaton Boglarlelle because I had been there
as an eight-year-old child - are psychologists and psychoanalysts.
But now, I'll turn this over to William Phillips.
William Phillips:
Okay. Before I tell you what the ground rules will
be, I want to offer our special thanks to Edith for organizing this
meeting. The word
organizing
is a little word, ten letters long, but it
really was a gigantic task. And yesterday, as I sat in the audience
and listened to the proceedings, I was impressed by the fact that this
really was an historic event. So far as I know-I haven't researched
it - this is the first time, since the Communist regime was estab–
lished in Hungary, that the two psychoanalytic cultures have met
and had a dialogue, here in New York. The American psychoana–
lysts were represented by some of their leading figures: Drs. Kern–
berg and Cooper, and of course Drs. Meyers, Ornstein, and Schaf–
fer, and Dr. Schlesinger who moderated yesterday's morning
session. Dr. Meyers moderated in the afternoon. Also, there was a
seminar at Edith's house that I, as a layman, wasn't permitted to at–
tend. But Edith tells me that Dr. Meyers gave a most brilliant sum–
mary of the development of the various schools, trends, and direc–
tions of American psychoanalysis .
The ground rules are very simple; Dr. Hidas is going to talk for
ten minutes about Hungary's changing political situation, par–
ticularly as it affected the development and the practice of psycho–
analysis. Then the floor will be open to questions which he and other
of our Hungarian friends will answer. Since we're taping this discus–
sion, please announce your name loudly when you get up to speak,
to comment, or to ask questions.
Gyjjrgy Ridas:
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for the opportunity
to be here this evening and to speak to you and to answer your ques–
tions . I thank you for all of us. Dr. Kurzweil told you that we met
the first time in Trieste, Italy, three years ago and that since then she
organized this Hungarian-American encounter. I must say that this
is not the first time that Hungarian and American psychoanalysts
have met. In 1909 Freud and Ferenczi came to the United States,
and Ferenczi was here in 1926. Too long ago. However, I was not
asked to speak about psychoanalysis in Hungary but about the cur–
rent political situation. Still, I want to emphasize that for us it is a
very important event to be in your circle, and to meet the people
around
Partisan Review
and the members of the Columbia Psychoan–
alytic Institute. Hungary is very far from you, but you are well in-
