Fair Shares and Mutual Concern: The Role of Sibling Relationships

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Enid Balint's 1972 article `Fair Shares and Mutual Concern' is the starting point of a consideration of the development from greed and rivalry towards a sense of fairness. Her account emphasizes patriarchal moral law, the early mother-infant relationship during demand feeding and parents' capacity to be concerned for each other despite differences of interest. What is missing is an examination of the role of sibling relationships, which have often been underestimated in both psychoanalysis and group analysis until relatively recently. A selective review of the literature attempts to fill this gap. It is proposed that group analysis not only vividly exposes sibling dynamics, it also allows them to be worked through and transcended.

This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit: