ABSTRACT
Michael Balint wrote in the Journal of the International Psychoanalysis in 1966 that there had been three great watershed occasions in the history of psychoanalysis: in the first, Freud’s daughter, Anna, and others opened the door to working psychoanalytically with children. Child analysis was integrated into the fold of psychoanalytic theory and practice to the great enhancement of both; developmental theory and practice grew from this synergy. The second, catalyzed by Wilfred Bion and others, applied psychoanalytic understanding to the study of groups through observation of group dynamics. Balint felt this was not welcomed into the mainstream of psychoanalytic practice, and the result had been a loss for both, as they went their separate ways. A third watershed, of which Balint was a major proponent, launched the integration of psychoanalysis with the practice of medicine, particularly medicine that centered on the relationships between patient and doctor in pediatrics, family practice, general medicine and primary care. The challenge of general practice called up Balint’s legendary metaphor stating that for 60 years psychoanalysis had existed as a foreign body within the corpus of medicine. He felt this unfortunate history was largely due to the insistence on interpreting unconscious meaning in clinical relationships. When Michael Balint immigrated to England from war-torn Hungary, he began consulting to the Tavistock Clinic where he observed mother-infant groups run by his future wife, Enid. Here was a model that he could imagine being a generative and enlightening offer to make to the overburdened general practitioners of post-war England. The analyst was not to function as an expert on relational difficulties but rather a co-explorer, a presence who invited physicians to listen carefully to each other describe and then respond to clinical dilemmas. With this model of careful, non-expert listening and associating, he began the Balint group method. Up until that point both unconscious interpretation and free associations were two hallmarks of the psychoanalytic method. By removing the former and highlighting the latter, Michael Balint had found a way for psychoanalytic practitioners to no longer be experienced as “foreign bodies.”
