Before I was I
Psychoanalysis and the Imagination
Description:... Balint shows a primary concern with the nature of analytic listening. She focuses on the understanding of pre-verbal and bodily processes, and the interface of the pre-verbal and verbal. Her central concept is that of "imaginative perception," without which, she claims, the world around us cannot be seen and felt as alive. She also elucidates a special type of "open communication" for analytic listening, and shows how technique can be a way of continual learning rather than acquiring specific skills and mechanisms. She emphasizes participant observation and the crucial importance of mutual concern. Numerous case studies bring her ideas to life and demonstrate the subtlety and flexibility with which she uses herself, and lets herself be made use of, as a psychoanalyst.
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