Three Cities, Three Syndromes, Three Challenges for the Doctor/Therapist

This is the opening speech of the international ­Israeli Balint conference at the Dead Sea in connection with the IBF council meeting which was held in the beginning of March 2008. Some thirty delegates from abroad and some seventy locals participated. Group work was also made available to interested family members of the delegates of whom many work in the same or adjacent fields! The Israeli ­Balint Society is indeed a very active and dynamic one as everyone being to an international Balint conference will have noted. 

As mentioned below an originally planned IBF council meeting for the autumn of 2006 had to be cancelled due to the war in southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006 and the ongoing intense firing of rocket missiles at the time of the planned con­fer­ence in Zichron Yaakov, to which some 35–40 Is­raeli delegates came and only four foreigners – ­Heide Otten, Ernst Petzold, another German col­league Johanna Dreger and me. That is what I am referring to in the opening lines. “L’shana haba’a” (“Next year…”) refers to the traditional Jewish Passover tale about the Exodus from Egypt (Hagaddah shel Pesach) and are the beginning words of the wish “Next year in Jerusalem”. At the Zichron Yaakov conference the most misanthropic and ironic commentator even added “L’shanah haba’a b’Sderot” referring to the southern Israeli city which suffered the most from the missile bombardment. 

In Hebrew: Dear Israeli Balint colleagues,

It is a great pleasure for me to address you at the opening of this conference and to share with you the satisfaction of having this conference here.

We meant to hold the IBF council meeting at ­Zichron Yaakov together with your national meet­ing in the autumn of 2006 but it was cancelled. Those of you who were there may recall at the closing session you discussed with us, the four ­foreign participants, the possibilities for the next years. One of you with more than a touch of irony said “ l’shana haba’a …” It was an internal remark indeed, not meant for the ears of the visitors. But if so, it is not commendable to paraphrase a Pass­over saying. Maybe some of you thought a meet­ing like this would not take place?

Well, here we are. It did not take a miracle, it did not take 40 years but good work and the invita­tion of a very active and inspiring Israeli Balint ­society. To you, our hosts of this conference – well done and thank you for your invitation.

Dear Balint friends,

I suspect these words were Hebrew to you. To me too, but I had help. And I wish Albert Veress were here, so I could have assured him I would spare no effort to speak Hebrew in the Hungarian and ­Romanian language at our next world congress in Brasov next year.

I was expressing my delight in being here when I addressed our Israeli Balint friends in the opening of my speech.

The idea to hold an IBF council meeting has been on the agenda for about 4 years. It was scheduled for autumn 2006 but was cancelled. I am happy that it eventually materialised and that we have gathered here today. Coming to a place means also giving recognition to the people there. We know from our international congresses in recent years that the Israeli Balinters have contributed to and enlarged the scope of Balint work in a significant, stimulating and creative way. In my previous meetings with the Israeli crew I have been impressed by the intensity and high level of work. And here we will have a more thorough ­taste of the Israeli Balint flavour.

When we work in Balint groups we have a frame of time and space. But as we work on a case ­to­gether we become oblivious of outer geography and time. As we meet in the groups at our international conferences it is quite clear that these discussions could take place anywhere on this planet and that clin­ical experiences can be shared regardless of national differences. Generally we have no problem recognising ourselves in the clinical work of another colleague no matter where it has taken place. This common ground makes for the vitality and spontane­ity of our meet­ings. Indeed geography and ethnicity can be every­thing between a very important issue to a most minor one.

Still here, it is difficult not to think of the significance of geo­g­raphy. This tiny area is in focus for the entire Western cultural ­hemisphere. With a little imagination we could expect to see the Roman Legion led by Petronius coming down the road. The fleeing Essences have just dropped their holy scrolls into some ­cavities nearby. A few decades before – in a tense but still peaceful period – Jesus may have been here to pray and have a religious dialogue with these very Essences whom he no doubt was very close to. And a few decades before that we may see before our eyes king Herod with his court retiring for his winter stay here. And certainly ­Peter O’Toole could drop in here at any moment.

Geography may affect some people. Let me dwell on this idea a little and discuss three syndromes connecting odd and over­whelming states and geography. I will try to connect these ­syndromes to our clinical practice and to Balint work. Not only patients but also doctors can be affected in a way that have a ­bearing on these three syndromes – The Jerusalem syndrome, The Stockholm syndrome and The Stendahl syndrome named ­after the French author and early psychologist though that syn­drome refers to a place in between Jerusalem and Stockholm – ­Florence.