front cover of The Basic Fault
The Basic Fault
Therapeutic Aspects of Regression
Michael Balint
Northwestern University Press, 1968
When it was first published in 1968, Michael Balint's The Basic Fault laid the groundwork for a far-ranging reformation in psychoanalytic theory. This reformation is still incomplete, for it remains true today that despite the proliferation of techniques and schools, we do not know which are more correct or more successful--and all psychoanalysts continue to encounter intractable cases of mental disorder. Balint argues that ordinary "rigid" techniques and theories are doomed to failure in such cases because of their emphasis on interpretation.

The Basic Fault continues to illuminate the crucial current issues in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in general: the nature of self, the role of developmental defects, the value of empathy, and the central importance of the relationship between therapist and patient. This paperback edition includes a foreword by Paul H. Ornstein discussing the impact of Balint's work at the time of its publication and its continued importance now.
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front cover of The Clinical Diary of Sándor Ferenczi
The Clinical Diary of Sándor Ferenczi
Sándor Ferenczi
Harvard University Press, 1988
In the half-century since his death, the Hungarian analyst Sándor Ferenczi has amassed an influential following within the psychoanalytic community. During his lifetime Ferenczi, a respected associate and intimate of Freud, unleashed widely disputed ideas that influenced greatly the evolution of modern psychoanalytic technique and practice. In a sequence of short, condensed entries, Sándor Ferenczi’s Diary records self-critical reflections on conventional theory—as well as criticisms of Ferenczi’s own experiments with technique—and his obstinate struggle to divest himself and psychoanalysis of professional hypocrisy. From these pages emerges a hitherto unheard voice, speaking to his heirs with startling candor and forceful originality—a voice that still resonates in the continuing debates over the nature of the relationship in psychoanalytic practice.
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