Description
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 cogently argues that ordinary, “rigid” techniques and theories are doomed to failure in such cases because of their emphasis on interpretation. The interpretive technique is most useful to patients who suffer from conflicts emerging from the Oedipal period of development; but the “difficult” cases (many of whom are now referred to as borderline personality disorders) must be treated differently, as these patients suffer from the consequences of a more fundamental disorder: “the basic fault.”
Balint understands the basic fault as the result of a skewed relationship between the child and a person in its environment, a trauma which leads to primitive object relationships, intense and overwhelming anxiety, and propensity to regression under stress. In response to this phenomenon, Balint distinguishes between malignant regression and a benign form of regression that can lead to a “new beginning.” Abandoning ego psychology, he develops a theory of primary love and the primary object relationship which puts him in the forefront of British object relations theorists and anticipates the ideas of figures such as Heinz Kohut. Above all, he holds that the most important aspect of therapy is the patient–analyst relationship, and that the analyst must learn to be attentive to the subtle details in the evolution of this relationship.
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.
