ABSTRACT
In a little-quoted paper, Michael Balint raises questions about Freud’s theory of trauma and offers his own views. Balint attempted to incorporate an understanding not only of object relations but also of what he called the “finer dynamics of traumatogenesis”. This he described as a three-phase structure underpinned by a necessary condition—namely, that in order to inflict a trauma, a certain intensity of a relationship should exist between the child and the traumatogenic object. This chapter explores how these ideas might apply to the relationship between analyst and patient in the analytic setting and, particularly, considers the view that it is in the third phase described by Balint that the real trauma occurs. It also considers the work of other writers that may have some bearing on Balint’s views, although their thinking may not have been linked to that of Balint or his paper on trauma.
