12

This paper explores the work of Sándor Ferenczi by relating his psychoanalytic conceptions to the educational themes that, although underlying, constitute an omnipresent pattern in his work. His sharp attention to the intertwining of intrapsychic dynamics, intersubjective relations and environmental influences lead Ferenczi to a reading of trauma as the outcome of a dysfunctional relational process, in which the contextual dimension plays a fundamental role from the earliest stages of the newborn’s life. This sensitivity is at the basis of a research on psychoanalytic technique that introduces creative modalities into the therapeutic relationship that, before and beyond the word, interrogate the analyst’s countertransference and its resonances experienced in contact with the patient’s unrepresentable core of trauma. His theories still maintain a topical relevance for the training of education and care professionals, calling them to reflect on their own affective dynamics and on the forms of feeling that orient their relationship towards the suffering of those who have lived through ‘borderline’ experiences. How to draw on its inspiration to develop learning from experience in a university setting? How can educators-in-training be supported to experience an insaturated learning that is nourished by an ethical-aesthetic framework, open to the languages of art and poetry, aimed at enhancing and refining their sensitivity and empathy?