Description
Book SynopsisWilfred R. Bion is considered a ground-breaking psychoanalyst. His thinking is rooted in Freud and Klein from where it takes an original flight. Reading Bion shows the evolution of his seminal insights in psychic functioning and puts them in a wider context.
Rudi Vermote integrates a chronological close reading and discussion of Bion's texts, with a comprehensive approach of his major concepts. The book is divided in two main parts:
- Transformation in Knowledge: Bion's odyssey to understand psychic processing or the mind
- Transformation in O: in which Bion reinterprets his former concepts from the dimension of the unknown and unknowable
The running text is put against a background of biographical data and scientific, artistic and philosophical influences on his work, which are highlighted in boxes and separate chapters. Bion's concepts are important for anyone dealing with the mind. His id
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
PART I: BEFORE THE CAESURA: TRANSFORMATIONS IN KNOWLEDGE
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- Biography, 1897–1996
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Experiences in Groups and Other Papers (1961)
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- Papers on psychosis (1953–1960)
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Learning from Experience (1962)
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Elements of Psychoanalysis (1963)
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Transformations (1965)
PART II: AFTER THE CAESURA: TRANSFORMATIONS IN O
- Biography, 1967–1979
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Attention and Interpretation (1970)
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Second thoughts: commentary on the Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis (1967)
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A Memoir of the Future (1977)
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Lectures, seminars and some short texts as preparation for the lectures (1973–1979)
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- Autobiography
- The further development of Bion’s ideas
CONCLUSION
ADDENDA
Listening to and Reading Bion by James S. Grotstein
My indebtedness to Bion by Antonino Ferro
Discovering Bion: A personal memoir by H.B. Levine
