From Ferenczi to Balint: the development of the question of the training analysis

Abstract

This work deals with postulations by Ferenczi and Balint related to personal analysis of the training psychoanalyst. By proposing the so-called “active technique”, Ferenczi launched new requirements for the psychoanalyst’s function. It is observed that those requirements concerning personal abilities presented by the psychoanalyst engendered an increase in ambitions related to analysis aimed at formation which, according to Ferenczi, should extend beyond remission of symptoms until unconscious fantasies become exhausted. In his turn, Balint flew over the silence barrier that impeded application of the so-called “training analysis” since its adoption by IPA as a requirement for the formation of the psychoanalyst. One is to highlight here the author’s critical appraisal of forms assumed by training analysis within institutions affiliated with IPA and his approach to the development of the issue concerning formation analysis in the psychoanalytical movement since arrival of the first psychoanalysts up to the beginning of the 50’s decade in the XX century.