The Psychoanalytic Languages: On the Intimate Rivalry of Michael Balint and D.W. Winnicott

Abstract

This article presents and discusses a two-decades-long correspondence between Michael Balint and D.W. Winnicott. Alongside closeness and friendship, the letters reveal tensions, disagreement and even rivalry between these two figures on three main levels: personal, cultural and theoretical. The debate can be framed around the question of whether or not the British School of psychoanalysis that emerged in the 1950s – and in which Winnicott and Balint were arguably the most senior figures – was a continuation of the psychoanalytic tradition that developed before World War II by Sandor Ferenczi and the Budapest School. The article argues, however, that there is another meta-theoretical level to the debate between the two: they passionately try to define what psychoanalytic language is, and disagree about its real nature.