From metapsychology to magnetic gnosis

This chapter focuses upon the pioneering investigations into anomalous phenomena undertaken by the Hungarian School of psychoanalysis as exemplified in the writings of Sándor Ferenczi, Elizabeth Severn and Nandor Fodor, the distinctive features of which it characterises under the rubric of the “Orphic trajectory.” The book frames these developments within the wider Hungarian social, political and occult milieus of the day. It also foregrounds the contribution made by Romantic somnambulistic currents towards Hungarian developments in trauma theory. The importance of Sándor Ferenczi and Elizabeth as co-contributors to these developments is highlighted, as are the neglected contributions made by Severn’s “only heir,” Nandor Fodor.