Annual Essay & Creative Writing Award

History of the Balint Society Essay prize 

Inaugurated in 1979 for ‘the best essay submitted on how Balint training has affected medical practice’, the annual Balint Society UK essay prize has been attracting an increasingly diverse and, more recently, international interest. Now, more than four decades later, the winning essays provide an illuminating snapshot of the history of Balint work being done within the British Society and beyond. 

The very first winning essay was awarded to Sally Hull, a GP practicing in Stepney in East London titled ‘Excursion to Maida Vale’ and was published in volume 9 (1981) of the journal. The first medical student to share the prize was Noah Moran, whose account of his experience as a fourth-year medical student was published in volume 37 (1989). With more frequent and high-quality entries from medical students, a separate ‘student’ category was created in 2020, and in that inaugural year was shared by Vikram Kholi (City St George's Medical School) for his essay A Reflective Account: Understanding the Psychological Challenges of Medical Practice, and Rosalie Cattermole (Leicester Medical School) for her poem: The Others

Guidelines & submission requirements

The competition is open to anyone involved with Balint work except for current members of the Balint Society Council. 

Submissions should be related to experiences of Balint as a group member, leader or at a Balint event. They may be in the form of an essay, a short story or other creative writing form. Medical theses, dissertations and previously published papers are not suitable for this prize. 

The judges will be looking for evidence of reflection by the author on themselves, the patient(s) and the group experiences, and for progression of ideas. They will value the use of language that is precise and engaging, with a notable sense of ‘voice’, awareness of the audience (readers of the journal) and purpose. The use of metaphor, imagination (and other literary tools) and a varied sentence structure are desirable.

Submissions should be presented in English as a Microsoft Word document, size 12 font and be double spaced. They should be suitable for publication in the Balint Society Journal without further amendment. They should include:

• Author’s name, title, place of work and email address
• Title of the submission
• Appropriate references in a standard form – maximum 10 references
• All patient identifying attributes must be removed or heavily disguised so that they cannot be identified
• The maximum word count is 4000 words

Submissions will be anonymised and judged by at least three members of the Balint Society UK and a consensus reached. The judges’ decision will be final.