Before I Was I: Psychoanalysis and the Imagination

For Enid Balint, The Practice Of Analysis Can Be Compared With The Process Of Learning A Language. The Analyst Who Can Do This, She Says, Will Continue To Learn With Every Patient Who Comes To Him Throughout His Professional Life.. Enid Balint Has Been A Training Analyst Of The British Psycho-analytical Society Since The 1960s. She Founded The Institute Of Marital Studies At The Tavistock Clinic In London, And With Her Husband, Michael Balint, Developed The Training Method For Doctors Known As The Balint Group. She Is A Highly Original And Creative Psychoanalyst Whose Work Is Related To That Of Sandor Ferenczi, Michael Balint, John Rickman, Wilfred Bion, And Donald Winnicott. This Important New Book Traces The Evolution Of Her Professional Identity And Gives The Reader A Wealth Of Insight Into Both The Theory And Technique Of Psychoanalysis. Balint Shows A Primary Concern With The Nature Of Analytic Listening. She Focuses On The Understanding Of Pre-verbal And Bodily Processes, And The Interface Of The Pre-verbal And Verbal. Her Central Concept Is That Of Imaginative Perception, Without Which, She Claims, The World Around Us Cannot Be Seen And Felt As Alive. She Also Elucidates A Special Type Of Open Communication For Analytic Listening, And Shows How Technique Can Be A Way Of Continual Learning Rather Than Acquiring Specific Skills And Mechanisms. She Emphasizes Participant Observation And The Crucial Importance Of Mutual Concern. Numerous Case Studies Bring Her Ideas To Life And Demonstrate The Subtlety And Flexibility With Which She Uses Herself, And Lets Herself Be Made Use Of, As A Psychoanalyst. In The Final Chapter Of The Book - A Verbatim Account Of An Interview With Juliet Mitchell - Balint Describes How She Learns From Her Own Patients And Shows How The Analyst Can Work In Various Settings Without Losing Touch With Psychoanalytic Method And Theory. She Also Lets Us See How Many Questions She Still Finds Unanswered. Together With The Introduction By Michael Parsons, The Interview Helps To Place The Work Of Enid Balint Into A Broader Historical, Theoretical, And Clinical Context. Deeply Felt But Rigorously Conceptualized, This Jargon-free Volume Is Compelling Reading For All Who Are Concerned With The Problems And Struggles Of Working In The Field Of Human Relations. Introduction / Michael Parsons. Ch. 1. The Analyst's Field Of Observation (1974) -- Pt. I. The Analyst In The Consulting Room. Ch. 2. Three Phases Of A Transference Neurosis (1954). Ch. 3. On Being Empty Of Oneself (1963). Ch. 4. The Mirror And The Receiver (1968). Ch. 5. Fair Shares And Mutual Concern (1972). Ch. 6. The Analysis Of Women By A Woman Analyst: What Does A Woman Want? (1973). Ch. 7. Memory And Consciousness (1987). Ch. 8. Creative Life (1989). Ch. 9. Unconscious Communication (1990). Ch. 10. One Analyst's Technique (1991) -- Pt. Ii. The Analyst's Work With General Medical Practitioners. Ch. 11. The Psychoanalyst And Medicine (1975). Ch. 12. Talking Treatments (1982). Ch. 13. Research, Changes, And Development In Balint Groups (1987). Ch. 14. A Study Of The Doctor-patient Relationship Using Randomly Selected Cases (1967). Ch. 15. Training As An Impetus To Ego Development (1967) -- Pt. Iii. The Analyst's Work With Marital Therapists. Ch. 16. Marital Conflicts And Their Treatment (1966). Ch. 17. Unconscious Communications Between Husband And Wife (1968) -- Ch. 18. Enid Balint Interviewed / Juliet Mitchell. By Enid Balint ; Edited By Juliet Mitchell, Michael Parsons. Consists Of Papers By Balint Written Over A Period Of Forty Years. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 237-242) And Index.