»Semper reformari debet«: The life and work of Michael Balint

Abstract

Michael Balint’s work represents an important legacy of the Budapest psychoanalytic school of the early twentieth century, founded by psychoanalytic pioneer Sándor Ferenczi. In Balint’s distinctly relationship-oriented psychoanalytic opus, countertransference plays a central role, which is not only a legacy of his collaboration with Ferenczi, but also the result of the exceptionally fruitful professional work of the other members of the Budapest psychoanalytic school, led by Vilma Kovács, who developed a specific model of psychoanalytic training. Although this model of psychoanalytic training was rejected in later years for various dogmatic reasons, Balint nevertheless ensured that the basic tradition of the Budapest psychoanalytic school was preserved in the so-called Balint groups, with the help of which Balint succeeded in applying relationally oriented psychoanalytic thinking beyond psychotherapeutic activity in the narrower sense. At the same time, the legacy of the Budapest psychoanalytic school is also clearly reflected in Balint’s updating of psychoanalytic theory and the introduction of some of his innovative concepts, which not only rehabilitated the unjustly neglected work of his mentor Ferenczi, but also paved the way for later development of psychoanalysis.