ABSTRACT
This chapter argues the notion of the basic fault remains a useful metaphor for contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy and the complements of the paranoid-schizoid position. Balint differs from the Kleinians, like Ferenczi, espoused a deficit a conflictual model of severe psychopathology, and based on failure of 'fit' the care-giver and the infant. He describes, in a devastating catalogue, care is 'insufficient, deficient, haphazard, over-anxious, over-protective, harsh, rigid, grossly inconsistent, incorrectly timed, over-stimulating or merely un-understanding or indifferent'. His identification of the 'basic fault' sees a clinical correlate of disorganized attachment. The image of mobility contrasts with the geological picture of the basic fault metaphor and reminds that basic fault is no more than a metaphor, are many useful psychoanalytic ideas. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy tries to 'translate' the rigidity into movement. Bullock metaphor values to be to bring the basic fault into consciousness by linking the external narrative of the annoying farmer with the internal story of Oliver's fury and rebelliousness.
