Description
How do we become truly alive? This is the question at the heart of Before I was I. This collection of papers, written over a period of some forty years, is grouped into three sections, showing her work with individual patients, doctors, and marital therapists. Not many have contributed so fruitfully to such different areas of psychoanalytic activity – throughout the book we see Balint working as an analyst, and her identity as such is essential to her work. Deeply felt but rigorously conceptualised, Before I was I is compelling reading for all who are concerned with the problems and struggles of work in the fields of human relations. Enid Balint was a training analyst and leading figure of the British Psycho-Analytical Society and a member of the International Psycho-Analytical Association. Internationally known for her work on the doctor-patient relationship, she was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. She also founded the Institute of Marital Studies in London.
