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

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, psychoanalyst, and pediatrician. She did pioneering work in the field of infant and young child ...

. She married

Michael Balint , , image = Monte Verità Gedenktafel Michael Balint 1K4A4638-b.jpg , caption = , birth_name = Mihály Maurice Bergsmann , birth_date = , birth_place = Budapest , death_date = , death_place = London , occupation = psychoan ...

, 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, and French. 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 in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

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

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Balint died later that year of a ruptured aortic aneurysm. 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 {{UK-psychologist-stub