Alice Balint (born Alice Székely-Kovács; 18981939) was a Hungarian

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...

Early life

Balint's mother, Vilma Kovács, had also been a psychoanalyst. Balint was also a childhood friend of

Margaret Mahler Margaret Schönberger Mahler (May 10, 1897 in Ödenburg, Austria-Hungary; October 2, 1985 in New York) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist,

. She married

Michael Balint Michael Balint ( ; 3 December 1896 – 31 December 1970) was a Hungarian psychoanalyst who spent most of his adult life in England. He was a proponent of the object relations school. Life Balint was born Mihály Mór Bergsmann in Budapes ...

, also a psychoanalyst, in 1920. The two soon moved from Hungary to Berlin. However, they returned to Budapest in 1924, and lived at No.12 Mészáros Street, five floors above the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society's Polyclinic, which opened in 1931.

Career

Balint wrote the book ''The Psychoanalysis of the Nursery'', which was first published in Hungarian in 1931, and later in German, Spanish, French, and English. Balint planned to translate it into English herself, but died before being able to. It was published in English in 1953. Balint, her husband, and their son moved to

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

in 1939, as did many other Hungarian psychoanalysts who were anxious about

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Balint died later that year of a ruptured

aortic aneurysm An aortic aneurysm is an enlargement (dilatation) of the aorta to greater than 1.5 times normal size. Typically, there are no symptoms except when the aneurysm dissects or ruptures, which causes sudden, severe pain in the abdomen and lower back ...

. She and her husband left behind one son, John A. Balint (1925–2016).

References

Hungarian psychoanalysts 1898 births 1939 deaths 20th-century Hungarian women Hungarian emigrants to England Deaths from aortic aneurysm 20th-century British psychologists {{UK-psychologist-stub