The International Balint Federation: past, present, and future

In the past 40 years the doctor's role in family medicine has been transformed by Michael Balint. Britain, his adopted country, was the birthplace of this change. Psychoanalysts, who led the original seminars at the Tavistock Clinic in London, conveyed psychotherapeutic skills to those doctors already established as general practitioners. The Balint movement later became world-wide. Leaders now include psychologists and Balint-trained family doctors. Everyone has broader ideas about patient-centred medicine, the doctor-patient relationship, and training-cum-research. Many groups are devoted to trainees and to medical students. The original dependence of family doctors on psychoanalysts has been converted by Michael Balint into interdependence, and he helped preserve the art of medicine by making the art more scientific. The International Federation is devoted to the sharing of experiences, reviewing of ideas, and the continued development of the Balint philosophy.