From the Balint method toward profession-related supervision

This paper focuses on Michael Balint's special application of psychoanalysis, originally conceived as a training of doctors. Then the attempt is made to discover indirectly, since Balint never described his method in context, what he thought mattered in terms of method. Besides Balint's own contributions, those of his own staff are also consulted as well as the cultural background of the Tavistock Clinic and the Tavistock Institute. Then the further developments of the Balint method in the German-speaking world are presented. At the center are the special features of the method: (a) the atmosphere, (b) the narrator's contribution, (c) listening and reactions of the members of the group, (d) the unconscious enactments in transference and countertransference and the mirror-phenomena, respectively. Furthermore, the respective central points of reference are discussed from the viewpoint of communication science: (a) case, (b) group, and (c) institution. In conclusion and based on these foundations, the characteristics of the application of the Balint method in the form of a particular profession-related supervision are presented.     

Winnicott: A research perspective

This paper describes research conducted over the past twenty years that was informed by Winnicott's thinking on the importance for child development of the early mother-infant relationship.     

Transition and transience: Winnicott on leaving and dying

The author offers reminiscences and reflections on Donald Winnicott during the last phase of his life and considers the personal and theoretical importance for him of the topic of death. The author goes on to examine similarities and differences between Winnicott's concepts of coming into being and ceasing to be.     

Balint After Lacan ... and After

This paper examines Balint and Lacan's views about regression and symbolism, language, and transference. The author points out their similarities, their differences, and then proposes a synthesis through his approach of history, genealogy, trauma, and crisis. Freud's notions of masochism, of fixation (innate or phylogenetic) may thus be renewed, leading to the analyst's capacity to cope with deep regression and borderline (Balint) psychosis and perversion (Lacan) or to psychosomatics, including epilepsy.     

Winnicott on Jung: destruction, creativity and the unrepressed unconscious

This paper considers Winnicott's critique of Jung, principally expressed in his review of Memories, Dreams, Reflections, which asserts that Jung's creative contribution to analysis was constrained by his failure to integrate his 'primitive destructive impulses', subsequent to inadequate early containment. It is argued that although Winnicott's diagnosis illuminates Jung's shadow, particularly his constraints vis-à-vis the repressed Freudian unconscious, it fails to appreciate the efficacy of the compensatory containment Jung found in the collective unconscious. This enigmatic relationship between destruction and creativity-so central to late Winnicott-is illuminated by Matte Blanco's bi-logic, and further explored in relation to William Blake. Winnicott's personal resolution through his Jung-inspired 'splitting headache' dream of destruction-previously considered in this Journal by Morey (2005) and Sedgwick (2008)-is given particular attention.     

Michael Balint: An Overview

Balint's important work extended over a period of 40 years in two directions; firstly the development of individual sexuality, and secondly, the development of object relationships, together with their relationship to psychoanalytical technique. He introduced the concept of primary love and was one of the pioneers in the thinking of the interdependence of mother and infant. He extended Ferenczi's work on therapeutic regression, introducing the concepts, among others, of benign and malignant regression, the basic fault, and the states of ocnophilia and philobatism. His applied psychoanalytic work is world famous, particularly the Balint groups for general practitioners and similar groups for marital therapists, social workers, and psychosexual counselors.     

The Balint movement worldwide: present state and future outlook: a brief history of Balint around the world

Michael and Enid Balint began running seminars for GPs (family physicians) in London in the late 1950s. Balint groups were soon started in other countries leading to the formation of the International Balint Federation. This paper describes the activities of the Federation and surveys the health and strength of the Balint movement in different parts of the world. While formal Balint training seems unlikely to become part of the official curriculum in more than a few countries, Balint's ideas will continue to be influential.     

Jung,Winnicott and the divided psyche

In his review of Memories Dreams Reflections, Winnicott diagnosed Jung as suffering from a psychic split, and characterized the content and the structure of analytical psychology as primarily moulded and conditioned by Jung's own defensive quest for a ‘self that he could call his own’. This pathologizing analysis continues to be endorsed by contemporary Jungian writers. In this paper I attempt to show that Winnicott's critique is fundamentally misguided because it derives from a psychoanalytic model of the psyche, a model that regards all dissociation as necessarily pathological. I argue that Jung's understanding of the psyche differs radically from this model, and further, that it conforms by and large to the kind of dissociative model that we find in the writings of Frederic Myers, William James and Theodor Flournoy. I conclude that a fruitful relationship between psychoanalysis and analytical psychology must depend upon an awareness of these important differences between the two psychic models.     

Breaking the Solid Ground of Common Sense: Undoing “Structure” with Michael Balint

Balint's great merit was to question what, in the classical perspective, was assumed as a prerequisite for analysis and thus located beyond analysis: the maturity of the ego. A fundamental premise of his work was Ferenczi's distrust for the structural model, which praised the maturity of the ego and its verbal, social, and adaptive abilities. Ferenczi's view of ego maturation as a trauma derivative was strikingly different from the theories of all other psychoanalytic schools and seems to be responsible for Balint's understanding of regression as a sort of inverted process that enables the undoing of the sheltering structures of the mature mind. Balint's understanding of the relation between mature ego and regression diverged not only from the ego psychologists, who emphasized the idea of therapeutic alliance, but also from most of the authors who embraced the object-relational view, like Klein (who considered regression a manifestation of the patient's craving for oral gratification), Fairbairn (who gave up the notion of regression), and Guntrip (who viewed regression as a schizoid phenomenon related to the ego weakness). According to Balint, the clinical appearance of a regression would depend also on the way the regression is recognized, is accepted, and is responded to by the analyst. In this respect, his position was close to Winnicott's reformulation of the therapeutic action. Yet, the work of Balint reflects the persuasion that the progressive fluidification of the solid structure could be enabled only by the analyst's capacity for becoming himself or herself [unsolid].     

Winnicott's dream: some reflections on D. W. Winnicott and C. G. Jung

The author discusses D. W. Winnicott's 1964 review of C. G. Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, emphasizing the psychological effect the reviewing process had on Winnicott himself. Writing the review constellated Winnicott's unconscious, and he reported having a healing dream 'for Jung and for some of my patients, as well as for myself'. Winnicott's 'countertransference' to Jung helped him personally, and the review was Winnicott's first written formulation of his theory on 'The use of an object'.     

Understanding the dynamics of the patient-physician relationship: balancing the fiduciary and stewardship roles of physicians

There has been growing concern about the effects on the patient–physician relationship of the increasing demands on physicians to balance their fiduciary and stewardship responsibilities, what has been called double agency. Various authors have proposed ways to restore patient centeredness to the patient–physician interaction. We have previously discussed the need to establish a patient–physician alliance to achieve this aim and to facilitate achieving this balance in mutual understanding. In this essay, we examine six concepts derived by Michael Balint from research seminars with primary care physicians. These six concepts are (a) the basic fault; (b) the physician's apostolic function; (c) the mutual investment company; (d) the drug doctor; (e) the deeper diagnosis; and (f) the conspiracy of anonymity. We believe these six concepts describe basic forces that shape the patient–physician relationship and allow for the development of an alliance between patients and physicians that can help preserve the essentials of the relationship.     

Shame,Ministry, and Theological Education: Leaves from the Notebook of a Defiant Seminarian

Many young adult Christians are highly influenced by relativism of all sorts, which can lead them to a state of doubt. If they voice their doubts too loudly, they are often shamed and abandoned by their elder Christians who do not have (or, perhaps better, do not voice) these doubts. I suggest that those of us involved in youth ministry must meet our youth where they are at, that is, meet them in their doubt, which is not, in my view, a bad place to be. This article focuses on a psychoanalytic understanding of shame and draws from the work of Donald Capps, Erik H. Erikson, Heinz Kohut, and D. W. Winnicott.     

Winnicott's children: The holding environment and therapeutic communication in brief and non-intensive work

This paper discusses brief and non-intensive work using a Winnicottian framework for understanding the processes involved. The importance of play, communication and interpretation are considered within the careful establishment of a unique holding environment for each patient. Parallels are drawn with ordinary development and care of the infant and young child. Two clinical examples are given to illustrate these concepts. The first describes the treatment of parents and children following the accidental death of the youngest child, and the second describes time-limited work with a sexually abused and abusing teenage boy. The value of providing a range of psychoanalytic treatments to meet the range of needs of patients is discussed. The importance of conceptualizing such treatments in ways that do not imply that they are ‘diluted’ psychoanalysis is also stressed, particularly with a view to the increasing pressure on therapists to offer help to as many children as possible within limited treatment time.     

Zones of Maturation and Regression,and Psychoanalytic Technique

This article summarizes Balint's thoughts on the fundamental problems of psychoanalytic technique and their links with libidinal development as conceived by him.     

社群、精神性传统和中国社会中的灾难(英文)

本文假定深切的处境观念和社群疗法是受害者"家庭"观念重建的最好途径。本文作者认真响应中国心理学会主席张侃的号召,重视中国的本土资源和精神遗产对于中国人在心理治疗中作用。本文沿袭了沃尔什将重建社群作为缓解创伤和灾难效果的四种方式:分享对创伤事件的认知,分享丧失和存活的经验,社群的重新组织和关系的重新建立。有人认为在灾难之后,精神性也可以在意义和社群的复原中扮演着积极的作用,前提是尊重信仰,鼓励信仰者使用自己的信仰语言,而不是把信仰当作工具来寻求心理健康。文中引用的例子包括俄罗斯乌克兰人中的门诺派教徒在社群/宗教重建中的努力,还有中国人对2008年5月12日汶川大地震中对灾难的回应方式。     

Pluralism, Otherness, and the Augustinian Tradition

Recent work on religious pluralism profits from the systematic theological framework offered by the Augustinian tradition, which uses interrreligious dialogue in the service of its larger conversionist purposes. In so using dialogue, the tradition transforms our vision of the epistemic problem of pluralism into the theological problem of otherness; interreligious dialogue reflects the self's inescapable dialogue with God, and reveals the self as constituted by such dialogue. Thus, those more mundane forms of dialogue, which engage the self in conversation with others, offer opportunities for the further manifestation of the Divine love and the fulfillment of the divine purpose.     

On holding and containing, being and dreaming

Winnicott's concept of holding and Bion's idea of the container-contained are for each of these analysts among his most important contributions to psychoanalytic thought. In this light, it is ironic that the two sets of ideas are so frequently misunderstood and confused with one another. In this paper, the author delineates what he believes to be the critical aspects of each of these concepts and illustrates the way in which he uses these ideas in his clinical work. Winnicott's holding is seen as an ontological concept that is primarily concerned with being and its relationship to time. Initially the mother safeguards the infant's continuity of being, in part by insulating him from the 'not-me' aspect of time. Maturation entails the infant's gradually internalizing the mother's holding of the continuity of his being over time and emotional fl ux. By contrast, Bion's container-contained is centrally concerned with the processing (dreaming) of thoughts derived from lived emotional experience. The idea of the container-contained addresses the dynamic interaction of predominantly unconscious thoughts (the contained) and the capacity for dreaming and thinking those thoughts (the container).     

Whaling,Bullfighting, and the Conditional Value of Tradition

Res Publica - The paper develops an account of the value of tradition that completes that of Samuel Scheffler and employs it to discuss whaling and bullfighting. The discussion, however, is...     

超越传统：动态进化心理学研究进展

立足于基本适应目标与决策原则的功能分析,致力于心理过程多维度的动态考察,动态进化心理学在坚持适应主义原则基础上,将基因与经验、环境同时纳入心理发展解释框架,更为彻底地贯彻了有机体与环境交互作用观,在一定程度上克服了传统进化心理学的局限。但由于忽略社会实践的作用,它所展示的更多的是生物学意义上的人的发展图景,对心理过程的动态分析亦难以挣脱形而上学的桎梏。