Journal of the Balint Society 1973

A medical journal with the cover designed by Pasmore certainly came as a surprise to me so I had to dig deeper for this one. Victor’s brother Stephen Pasmore (1910-2003) was married to Jean (1909-1996) – both medical practitioners and the first married couple to become members of the Balint Society. The Balint Society was set up in 1970 and is based on the 1950s work of psychoanalyst Michael Balint and his wife Enid who developed the idea of psychological training for practising doctors, which provided a deeper patient-provider understanding. At the time of this issue, in 1973, Jean was the Vice President and Stephen was the Honorary Secretary of the Society. It was Stephen who decided to ask his brother Victor to design the cover for their journal in time for their first issue. Here Pasmore has come up with the central organic shape that was a predominant feature at this stage of his career. It is actually two shapes here that fit together like jigsaw pieces, and beneath is a linear sequence. The doctor, instead of drawing his picture of the patient by studying every element of his make-up, uses the abstract artist’s technique and builds up his knowledge of the patient by starting with a blank mind with no preconceived ideas of what he intends to do. (Stephen Pasmore). Stephen draws a comparison with the process of this work and that of the patient- doctor relationship. Just as Victor would have developed the image as he went along, with no preconceived notion of the outcome, so is the relationship between the doctor and patient as encouraged by the Balint system – both begin as a blank canvas. It is interesting to note that the Balint Journal kept this cover image from it’s first publication in 1971 up until 2013.
I found, online, A Note on the Design for the Front Cover of the Journal by Stephen Pasmore, which is well worth reading in full. It shows Stephen’s admiration for Victor, his interest in his work, his understanding of it particularly on an emotional level, and his ability to connect to it on a much wider spectrum.

In 2018, Victor Pasmore’s children, John Henry Pasmore and Mary Ellen Nice, donated over 500 books and exhibition catalogues to the University of Malta, Archives and Rare Books Department 

The Victor Pasmore Gallery is open to visitors at APS House, 274 St Paul Street, Valletta.