Concept
Philobatism
Michael Balint's name (1959), modelled on the acrobat, for an attitude in which a person feels safe in the open, friendly expanses between objects and treats objects themselves as unreliable hazards to be avoided. The philobat relies on their own skills and enjoys thrills such as speed, heights and exploration, where fear is mixed with confident hope; Balint set it against ocnophilia.
Read more- Introduced by
- Michael Balint
- Key works
- 1
- Related
- Ocnophilia
introduced by
- Michael Balint 1959 In Thrills and Regressions (1959) Balint names philobatism for the opposite attitude: avoiding objects and seeking the open, object-free expanses.
opposed by
- Ocnophilia 1959 Balint builds the two as a contrasting pair: the ocnophil holds on to objects and fears the spaces between them, the philobat trusts the spaces and mistrusts the objects. He treats both as answers to the discovery that objects are separate.