The Legacy of Michael Balint

Abstract

Michael Balint's lead article, “Repeat Prescription Patients: Are They An Identifiable Group?” inaugurated the first issue of Psychiatry in Medicine, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1970. A few years later, this Journal would be renamed International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine ( IJPM). Who is this author of over 165 papers, 10 books, practicing psychoanalyst from 1926 to 1970, director of the Budapest Psychoanalytic Institute from 1935 to 1939, consultant at the Tavistock Clinic from 1948 to 1961, President of the British Psycho-Analytical Society from 1968 to 1970, literary executor of Sandor Ferenczi, a foremost theorist of object relations, and international educator and statesman for general practitioners? We would like to review for you some of the formative experiences in Michael's life that wedded psychoanalysis and general practice, and how they contributed to his major educational commitment over 40 years to furthering the understanding and integration of psychosocial factors in the practice of primary healthcare as experienced by doctors all over the world. We would also like to highlight some of his major insights and see to what extent they are incorporated in contemporary medical education and practice. We believe that some of his major insights have been neglected and others have been further amplified and extended. Our intention is to speak not only to medical students who desire to pursue medicine related directly to patient care but as well to seasoned practitioners who continue on a daily basis to care for individual patients and their families.