In pieces

There are two ways to conceive of fragments in Ferenczi's work. They may result from a shock, or they may be related to an original multiplicity from which subjectivity itself derives. In this paper I take into consideration the two perspectives of fragments in Ferenczian texts, focusing more on one of them-the fragment as irreducible to a unity. It is a contemporary issue, since subjectivities, and their affective, aesthetic and political relations work predominantly in fragmentary mode today. So we are, as psychoanalysts, summoned to respond to a fundamental ethical problem: are we going to take a nostalgic attitude, regretting that fragmented forms have prevailed over more systematic and identitarian ones, or are we going to refine our sensibilities and our perceptions to apprehend what is new, worthy and creative in these subjective and aesthetic forms? Once more, Ferenczi can help us to deal with new phenomena in clinical work.