ABSTRACT
Michael Balint and Donald Winnicott became acquainted with psychoanalytic thought when they read some of Sigmund Freud’s publications. Both Balint and Winnicott argued their conceptualizations of infant development in terms of classical drive theory and the development of object relations. When Balint and Winnicott treated severely disturbed patients, they both felt that it was necessary to use particular parameters at certain stages during the course of psychoanalytic therapy. Winnicott conceptualized infant development in terms of primary narcissism. The infant is merged with mother and lives, as Winnicott says, in total dependence, as the infant does not know about the dependence. Winnicott maintained that patients who have suffered traumatic impingement during infancy and have developed a false self need a therapeutic regression during analytic therapy. Winnicott stressed that it is essential to explain the reasons fully to the patient without giving too much personal information away.
