The Basic Fault: Therapeutic Aspects of Regression

When it was first published in 1968, Michael Balint's The Basic Fault laid the groundwork for a far-ranging reformation in psychoanalytic theory. This reformation is still incomplete, for it remains true today that despite the proliferation of techniques and schools, we do not know which are more correct or more successful--and all psychoanalysts continue to encounter intractable cases of mental disorder. Balint cogently argues that ordinary, 'rigid' techniques and theories are doomed to failure in such cases because of their emphasis on interpretation.