An Introduction To Object Relations – Lavinia Gomez (1)

He travelled widely in America and Europe, working and writing with Enid as closely as he had with Alice: a photograph from the 1960s (Haynal 1988: 114) shows him gazing at her adoringly. His relationships with Alice and Enid bring to mind the ‘harmonious interpenetrating mix-up’ from which he felt all object relations grew. Balint developed diabetes and heart problems in his later years, and died in 1970. Enid Balint continued to work in the field of applied psychoanalysis and early development until her death in 1994.

Balint is remembered as a warm, volatile, expressive man, opposed to dogmatism and with an extraordinarily wide range of interests and enthusiasms. His idyllic relationships with Alice and Enid resonate the wistful love he expressed for his mother in a letter to his sister- in-law after his parents’ deaths.

The same letter demonstrates the ambivalence of his relationship with his father: ‘It is true that I had neglected my father for a long time. We never got along too well’, he wrote, adding conscientiously, ‘But I inherited my intelligence, my logical mind, my capacity for work from him’ (quoted in Haynal 1988: 112). Ferenczi seems to have been Balint’s good father, and perhaps his work with the medical profession brought his two fathers, both general practitioners, together in his mind. Much of his work involves attempts to reconcile oppositions, perhaps reflecting the inner and outer conflicts in his life.

He seems to have made unusually creative sublimations of these in happy if one-sided relationships and worthwhile practical and theoretical contributions in his work. His relative marginalisation probably stems from his cross-professional work, his anti-partisan stance and his association with the neglected and unfortunate Ferenczi. Balint brought the Hungarian tradition to Britain and Object Relations. He was deeply influenced by Ferenczi, who was Klein’s first analyst and a close friend and colleague of Freud until his independent thinking led to their estrangement.

Ferenczi broke new ground in his work with those patients whom Freud deemed too narcissistic for psychoanalytic treatment. Ferenczi believed that they were traumatised through a lack of love rather than innate instinctual conflict, proposing an Object Relations hypothesis startlingly early. He spent his professional life following up the implications for practice of this reorientation. Ferenczi’s attempts to supply the affection he thought these patients had lacked led to successes but also to difficulties.

He ended up taking one patient on holiday with him, and became entangled in a double relationship with his mistress and her daughter who later became his patient. Similar scenarios disturbed and embarrassed his colleagues, especially Freud, and eventually his work was shunned until Balint brought Ferenczi’s compassionate, enquiring approach to mainstream psychoanalysis. Like Ferenczi, Balint’s main focus wads the effect of theory on practice rather than the creation of a new theoretical structure.

Very many people have given help and encouragement during the writing of this book. I would first of all like to thank Gill Davies, of Free Association Books, whose patient and clear guidance and personal interest and encouragement made the whole process far less daunting and much more enjoyable. Tim Bartlett, of New York University Press, has also been consistently helpful and constructive.

Like all teachers, I have learned a great deal from the students of psychotherapy and counselling with whom I have worked. Their lively and challenging questions and arguments have helped me clarify my thinking as nothing else could. So also, in a different way, have all those who have shared their worlds with me in therapy and supervision, where the roots of understanding grow in mutual experience.

Those people whose personal experience is used as illustrative material have made a special contribution. All such material is used with permission, apart from the brief vignettes which are based on amalgamations rather than single individuals. Identifying details have been changed. David Dyke, Catherine Leder, Kristiane Preisinger and Adella Shapiro all offered useful comments on the text, and Professor John Balint and Professor André Haynal made specific contributions to the chapter on Michael Balint.

I am especially appreciative of the careful and critical reading of the whole text carried out by Anthea Gomez. While all shortcomings remain my responsibility, her detailed comments led to substantial improvement and her continued enthusiasm was always heartening. Thanks, finally, to Cathy and Chris Gomez, who make sure I remember always that things other than work are important; and to David Smart, whose lucid mind, warm encouragement and reliable cooking all helped the writing process along.

Vili INTRODUCTION The purpose of this book is to introduce the world of Object Relations to students of psychotherapy and counselling of all theoretical approaches, as well as to other interested people. It is divided into two parts: theory and application. The first part opens with a summary of Freudian theory, the base from which Object Relations grew. It goes on to chart the historical development of Object Relations through the varying perspectives of its major founding contributors.

The second part discusses practical and theoretical questions which arise in the application of an Object Relations approach.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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