Psychoanalyst and welfare worker. Born Enid Flora Albu. She was involved in the organisation and administration of the Family Welfare Association and Citizens' Advice Bureaux. After her first marriage (to Robert Eicholtz) ended, she started working with Michael Balint, and eventually married him. They wrote several books together, and developed the idea of treating married couples with problems, separately, with each partner having a different therapist.
2022: The Royal College of General Practitioners held an exhibition about the contribution of women to the GP service and there we came across a prototype of the Balint plaque (full-size and orange), together with a small information panel that read: "Michael Balint (1896 - 1970) and Enid Balint (1903 - 1994) were not GPs. But these two psychoanalysts profoundly influenced general practice. Michael and Enid met at the Tavistock Clinic, following his emigration from Hungary shortly before the Second World War. By the time they married in 1953, Enid was already guiding groups of social workers to consider their working relationships with the families they were supporting, a clear precursor to Michael's approach with doctors. Their contribution to the development of the profession was helping GPs to reflect on their doctor-patient relationships, to improve therapeutic practice. The Balint Society, founded in 1969, has extended their philosophy and approach to more recent generations globally."
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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