The Basic Fault: Therapeutic Aspects of Regression (Brunner/Mazel Classics in Psychoanalysis)

Michael Balint

ISBN 10: 0876302193 / ISBN 13: 9780876302194

Published by Brunner/Mazel, New York, 1979

About this Item

b-803.

Seller Inventory # b-923-08-jn

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Basic Fault: Therapeutic Aspects of Regression (Brunner/Mazel Classics in Psychoanalysis)
• Publisher: Brunner/Mazel, New York
• Publication Date: 1979
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0876302193
• ISBN 13: 9780876302194
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

In this volume, Michael Balint, who over the years made a sustained and brilliant contribution to the theory and technique of psychoanalysis, develops the concept of the 'basic fault' in the bio-psychology structure of every individual, involving in varying degree both mind and body. Balint traces the origins of the basic fault to the early formative period, during which serious discrepancies arise between the needs of the individual and the care and nurture available. These Discrepancies create a kind of deficiency state.

On the basis of this concept, Balint assumes the existence of a specific area of the mind in shich all the processes have an exclusively two-person structure consisting of the individual and the individual's primary object. Its dynamic force, originating from the basic fault has the overwhelming aim of 'putting things right'. This area is contrasted with two others: the area of the Oedipus complex, which has essentially a triangular structure comprising the individual and two of his objects, and whose characteristic dynamism has the form of a conflict; and the area of creation, in which there are no objects in the proper sense, and whose characteristic force is the urge to create, to produce

About the Author

Michael Balint, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., who died in 1971, was a psychoanalyst of international reputation, whose originality expressed itself both in clinical practice and in teaching. His involvement with the development of psychoanalytic theory and practice was paralleled by a concern with stimulating understanding of psychodynamic principles among other professional groups, particularly general practitioners. His varied and prolific writings attest to these aims.