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THE DICTIONARY
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211 Acknowledgements vii
1 Abbreviations and Signs xiii
2 Author’s Foreword xv
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4 Introduction 1
5 The Dictionary of the Work of W. R. Bion 19
6 Bibliography 319
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211 I would like to express my gratitude for the help and encourage-
1 ment in the preparation of this work, I received from associates of
2 the study group on Bion’s work, integrated by members of the
3 Venezuelan Psychoanalytical Association: Gonzalo González, Osea
4 Lombardi de Gustuti, Marilucía Castellanos de Maestres, Ana
5 Milagros Pérez Morazzani, Paolo Polito Di Sabato and Nancy
6 Segarra. I am also extremely grateful to Lucía Morabito Gómez, for
7 her laborious effort in translating, correcting and reviewing most of
8 this work.
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211 —.-> Advance of no-breast* through the horizontal axis of the
1 Grid*
2 ba basic assumption* (See: text)
3 baD basic assumption of Dependence* (See: text)
4 baA basic assumption of Pairing* (See: text)
5 baF basic assumption of Flight-fight* (See: text)
6 Cs* Awareness. (See: text)
7  Container
8  Contained
9  Container–contained* (See text)
30 D Depressive position
1 = Equivalent to. (See: Bion 1992, p. 54)
2 F Act of Faith* (See: text)
3 H* Hate
4 I* Idea* (See: text)
5 >-)-= Implies, means ( See: Bion 1992, pp. 58–59)
6 K* Knowledge (See: text)
7 K() Formula representing a relation between constant K and a
8 non-saturated element: *
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xii ABBREVIATIONS AND SIGNS

111 “ Envy, greed, murder, no respect for an object that does not
2 exist.(See: Cs* Withoutness*)
3 ”. Place where the object that does not exist was (See: Cs*)
4 K Minus knowledge.
5 O* Origin.
6 PS Paranoid–schizoid position.
7 * (Psi) The pre-conception or psychoanalytic function.
8 -.-> Progression of no-breast* through both axes of the Grid*
9 (.) Point* (See: text)
10 R* Reason*: (See: text)
1 <-.— Regression of no-breast* through the horizontal axis* of
2 the Grid*
3 <-.— Regression of no-breast* through both axes of the Grid*
4 s.d.s. Scientific deductive system*.
5 * (Sigma, Greek letter = S) >Totality of collective conscious-
6 ness* (See: Sigma*)
711 sm Proto-mental system* (See: text)
8 T Transformation*, act of (See: text)
9 T Transformation, process of
20 T Transformation, final product of
1 Tp Transformation of the patient
2 Ta Transformation of the analyst
3 Ta Transformation, act of, in the analyst
4 Ta Transformation, final product in the analyst
511 TK Transformation in K*
6 TO Transformation in O*
7 TOp Transformation in O of the patient
8 TOa Transformation in O of the analyst
9 Tp Transformation, act of, in the patient
311 Tp Transformation, final product of, in the patient
1 Tx Transformation, final product
2 W work group* (See: text)
3 * (Xi, Greek letter = x) Meaning: >psychoanalytic element*
4 non-saturated*=, also distance.
5 (+ -) Y mental growth* (See: text)
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8 “But there is no solution once and for all;
9 each solution opens another universe”
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1 “It takes a long time to find out who is
2 the biggest nuisance — the doubter or the
3 believer”
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5 “Go on asking the same question as often
6 as you like and I will answer it if I can,
7 Although probably in a different way each time”
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9 W. R. Bion
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1 “Intuitions without concepts are blind,
2 Concepts without intuitions are empty”
3 E. Kant
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211 Eigen (1985)1 has stated, with great exactness, that, “in order to read
1 Bion fairly, one must read him closely and, in part, on his own
2 terms. He is one of the most precise, if elusive, of psychoanalytic
3 writers”. A declaration that in simple terms labels the enormous
4 task of attempting to understand and translate Bion’s work, to ren-
5 der it more accessible to students and less sophisticated readers.
6 This was my purpose, however, it would be pretentious if not mis-
7 leading to believe that an endeavour of such a magnitude could be
8 achieved without numberless downfalls, multitudes of complica-
9 tions and possibly, several blunders. Even researchers of the calibre
30 of Grinberg and Bianchedi (1972) faced certain hurdles to follow
1 Bion’s proper intentions while attempting the earliest and only
2 summary of his contributions. Take for instance the word pre-
3 motion, mentioned in chapter 16 of Bion’s book Elements of Psycho-
4 Analysis (1963, pp. 75–76), where the reader is left with the doubt if
5 dealing with a printing misspelling for ‘premonition’, or a neolo-
6 gism implying a condition previous to an emotional state.
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Eigen, M., (1985) Towards Bion’s starting point: between catastrophe and
911 death. Int. J. Psychoanal. 66 321–330.

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xvi FOREWORD

111 I have a hypothesis: there is the feeling, when we follow his

2 work sequentially, of a successive tendency towards a greater com-
3 plication and a more elusive writing style. Starting with the clear
4 contributions on groups—written as a psychiatrist—and later as a
5 psychoanalyst, in his papers about psychosis, at one extreme; to the
6 rambling and bemused prose present in A Memoir of the Future, at
7 the other. His four books representing the main hardcore of his the-
8 ory: Learning from Experience, Elements of Psycho-Analysis,
9 Transformations, Attention and Interpretation, as well as Cogitations,
10 could be placed right in the middle. However, if we read the com-
1 pilation of his Brazilian conferences, which took place around
2 the same time he was working on A Memoir of the Future, we are
3 amazed at the transparency of his presentations and the efforts
4 he made to communicate his theories. When we speak with
5 Brazilians who met him and attended his conferences, we can intu-
6 itively gather the impression that they feel the rightful heirs to
711 Bion’s tradition.2 As stated in the Introduction to this Dictionary, I
8 think it is possible that the obscurity in his language might have
9 been a consequence of Bion’s sentiments about the rejection some
20 of his ideas had produced within the British Psychoanalytical
1 Society:3 I feel that Bion was obscure with the British, sober with
2 Americans and charming and understanding with Brazilians.
3 Another very important issue continuously present in Bion’s
4 contributions was his concern for the exactness of communication.
511 We learned from Francesca and from many of Bion’s own state-
6 ments, that he enjoyed reading and often quoting poetry, however,
7 the main body of his writing follows closely the precision of a
8 scientific deductive system, and like Socrates through the mouth
9 of Phaedo, he resisted the uncertainty of metaphors in order to pro-
311 tect himself from the fate of Palinurus. Expressions such as “in
1 approximation to”, for instance,—often used—mark his concern
2 with precision. During the psychoanalytic session, says Bion, two
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See for instance Donald Meltzer’s ambivalence in “The Kleinian
5 Development, part III”, in The Clinical Significance of the Work of Bion (1978).
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6 Perhaps we could now remember Bion’s own words: “Individuals cannot
reconcile themselves to a discrimination that means conscious separation of
7 themselves from a belief in their Freud-like [or Bion-like] qualities and recogni-
8 tion that Freud [Bion], a genius (mystic), no longer exists. Another Freud [Bion]
911 cannot be created no matter how essential he may be” (1970 p. 77).
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FOREWORD xvii

111 individuals attempt a dialogue: one using a scientific deductive

2 system similar to a ‘geocentric’ logic, ‘obvious but not true’; while
3 the other applies another deductive system based on a heliocentric
4 reasoning: true, but not obvious; it is evident that reversion of per-
5 spective could be a frequent complication. Bion often in his theo-
6 retical dissertations also created neologisms in order to bring
711 language within an area of comprehension.
8 I ask the reader for their munificence and understanding as they
9 peruse the pages of this book; to bear in mind the difficult task,
10 albeit in the whole picture, I feel very pleased with the effort and
1 can assure you that it has been accomplished with great dedication
2 and total candour. Finally I would like to confess, that although I
3 was not so fortunate as to be touched by his physical presence,
4 reading all about Bion’s work throughout these years has induced
5 a close affection toward his memory and an immense curiosity
6 about his legacy.
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A
2 dictionary could be defined as “a reference book that
3 enumerates in alphabetical order, terms or words that are
4 important for an activity or a particular matter, together
5 with a discussion of their meanings or applications”1. This is pre-
6 cisely the intention of the present dictionary, for it to be used as
7 a “reference book”, as an indispensable partner and a guide in
8 the adventure of the fascinating discovery, although highly dense,
9 complex and frequently frustrating, of Wilfred Ruprecht Bion’s
30 great legacy to psychoanalysis. Therefore, it should never replace
1 the reading of his original texts. It is proper now to quote his
2 words:
3 Even in language itself a dictionary is not all that is needed; one has
4 to understand the nature of language as well as the actual language
5 in which one is attempting to speak. [1974, p. 202]
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2 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 It is quite obvious that one of Bion’s greatest concerns had to do

2 with communication between two persons who do not know each
3 other: the patient and the analyst. Such communication represents
4 a struggle between two different deductive scientific systems: one
5 entrenched within its ghosts, its resistances, its repetition compul-
6 sions, its old defences, the lies of the mind, the inanimate etc.; and
7 the other stubborn in the search for incorruptible truth at all costs.
8 However, truth has its consequences, its violence; in Bion’s lan-
9 guage: turbulence, catastrophic changes, caesuras, death of hopes,
10 and painful achievements.
1 Bion was always suspicious of colloquial language, with its
2 terms pawed by the passage of time, corrupted by meanings and
3 saturated by antique desires impugning their origins. How differ-
4 ent from mathematical elements, from numbers for instance, which
5 remain unharmed as empty recipients always ready to be filled up
6 by anything without ever losing their identity: two tigers, ten coins,
711 five arrows, five computers. If only one could say “good evening”
8 using mathematical elements, Bion once exclaimed.
9
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1 The man
2
3 Just as it is important to know about the exceptional work of a great
4 creator such as Bion, it is also important to try to understand those
511 conscious or unconscious personal factors that could have induced
6 or channelled his work. I believe, for instance, that the psycho-
7 analytic methodology represented for Bion a selected fact which, to
8 our benefit, gave sense to the accidents of his existence. Bion must
9 be examined with an act of faith.
311 He was born of English parents on September 8, 1897 at Muttra,
1 located in the United Provinces of Northwest India. He was a vic-
2 tim of Victorian imperialistic manners, which privileged austere
3 education over the affective needs of the eight-year-old boy he was
4 in 1906, when he was sent to a boarding school in England—the
5 Bishop’s Stortford College—from where he never returned to his
6 paternal home. When, towards the end of his life, Bion finally
7 hoped to return to Bombay, the sudden assault of death in the form
8 of myeloid leukaemia, frustrated his plans. Meanwhile, the peace-
911 ful Los Angeles weather and the mysterious and exuberant
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INTRODUCTION 3

111 Brazilian jungle possibly served to lessen his search for the absent
2 monsoon and the inchoate memories from India. In a letter dated
3 March 23, 1951, he wrote to his girlfriend Francesca:
4
5 I am rather lucky because I love weather—all sorts of weather. I
6 think there is a lot to be said for being born, as I was, in India. To
me, rain was of course the great event, the monsoon, and I can even
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now, though I left India when I was eight, recapture the thrill of the
8
smell of parched land rain-soaked. [1985, pp. 73–74]
9
10 While his friend Frank Philips (1983) fondly remembers him:
1
2 I think of his love . . . of the wild flowers of England and France,
3 and of his watching, enthralled, during a fierce thunderstorm the
4 flashes of lightning and hearing the cracking and pounding of the
5 thunder. [p. 38]
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7 The burden of losing one’s home at an early age has such deter-
8 mining effects, that it would certainly define the future character of
9 an individual, something frequently confirmed by the transference
211 of many patients. Therefore, it was not surprising that Bion became
1 a specialist in the psychology of emptiness and the presence of
2 absences. Bion’s contributions became so relevant that they could
3 be equated to the appearance of negative numbers in the history of
4 mathematics. Thoughts are always set over the absence of things,
5 always providing a binocular vision, which covers both its presence
6 and the place where things used to be.
7 When he was only eighteen-years-old, he volunteered to enrol
8 for World War I. Although initially rejected by the draft office, he
9 managed to join the army with his parent’s support. What could
30 have motivated such a serious decision? The last vestiges of 1800s
1 “machismo” kind of romanticism? A special form of reaction forma-
2 tion in order to deal with castration anxiety inspired perhaps by the
3 ghost of “Arf Arfer”?,2 or to threaten the physical integrity of “the
4 loved-by-his-mother-Bion”, as a revenge perpetuated by the “aban-
5 doned-Bion”? We will never know; what we do know is that war left
6 injuries of the soul that constantly came back and perturbed him, as
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911 his father.
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4 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 memories that became visible as terrible ghosts in associations

2 relived by him every August 8th. Francesca Bion has summarized it
3 as follows:
4
5 The horror of that war inflicted on such young men did not con-
6 tribute to their maturity; it destroyed their youth and made them
“old” before their time. Bion’s remarkable physical survival against
7
heavy odds concealed the emotional injury which left scars for
8
many years to come. (It was clear that that war continued to occupy
9 a prominent position in his mind when, during the first occasion we
10 dined together, he spoke movingly of it as if compelled to commu-
1 nicate haunting memories.) The nightmare to which he refers3 still
2 visited him occasionally throughout his life. He grew old and
3 remembered. [1997a, p. 2]
4
5 Bion himself, exactly sixty years after Amiens, recalls the 8th of
6 August 1918, as follows:
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ing Tennyson] . . . Once more the world has reached the same kind
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of place in its journey around the sun which it occupied in the battle
20 of Amiens (8 August 1918) . . . The ghosts look in from the battle
1 again; Asser, Cartwright, and Sergeant O’Toole, the poor fellow
2 who complained that he was only an orphan, with his protuberant
3 ears, his red flushed face, his feelings of depression and anxiety,
4 and his confiding to me that this battle on which he was about to
511 embark together with the rest of the tank crew (I was not one of the
6 crew as I was now . . . second-in-command of the company) would
7 be his last. He was, of course, quite correct; very soon after the
8 battle started, Cartwright’s tank received a direct hit, and the entire
crew were killed. When I came across it, the bodies were charred
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and blackened, and poured out of the door of the tank as if they
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were the entrails of some mysterious beast of a primitive kind
1
which had simply perished then and there in the conflagration . . .
2 [1992, p. 368]
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4 Grotstein (1993) has suggested the possibility of an association
5
6 3
Bion described it in these terms: “It was almost impossible to distinguish
7 dream from reality. The tat-tat-tat of the German machine-guns would chime in
8 with your dream with uncanny effect, so that when you awoke you wondered
911 whether you were dreaming” (1997a, p. 94).
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INTRODUCTION 5

111 between the circumstance of having been the sole survivor of his
2 company and the later fabrication of terms such as “thalamic ter-
3 ror”, “nameless terror”, “catastrophic change”, etc. Bion appears to
4 have just escaped death on various occasions, not only when he
5 was the sole survivor of the physical disappearance of all his com-
6 pany, but also, as he himself recalls, when a sergeant pushed him
711 aside preventing him from being shot in the head; or, when leaning
8 on a trench embankment, he suddenly felt sprinkled by the brains
9 of the officer in charge, who, talking beside him, had been hit by a
10 sniper’s bullet. Always menaced by the fear of being accused as a
1 coward, Bion dealt with mechanisms of depersonalization: he felt
2 that he was floating a metre or so above his body. However, regard-
3 less of his unfair superego demands, he was decorated for his
4 courage, both by England and France. Francesca Bion refers to the
5 chapter on the Cambrai battle that took place in November 1917
6 and which is referred to in The History of the Royal Tank Regiment :
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8 Some of the tankmen fought on when “dismounted.” A striking
example was that of Lt. W. R. Bion who, when his tank was
9
knocked out, established an advanced post in a German trench with
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his crew and some stray infantry, and then climbed back on the roof
1
of his tank with a Lewis gun to get better aim at an opposing
2 machine-gun. When the Germans counter-attacked in strength he
3 kept them at bay . . . until a company of Seaforths came up. Its com-
4 mander was soon shot through the head, whereupon Bion tem-
5 porarily took over the company. He was put in for the VC (Victoria
6 Cross) and received the DSO. [F. Bion, 1995]
7
8 Bion grew up among groups, very large groups. From the age of
9 eight at boarding school, and afterwards, at the age of eighteen
30 when enlisted to fight in War World I, he was able to observe empir-
1 ically and suffer existentially the social behaviour and the immedi-
2 acy of anonymous multitudes. Therefore, it does not seem strange
3 that after his psychiatric training he felt attracted by group psy-
4 chotherapy. One of the great legacies Bion left corresponds to this
5 period. It was not so much what he observed about group behav-
6 iour—which is already extremely significant by itself—but the very
7 methodology with which he strenuously and courageously
8 observed such groups. Jacques Lacan (1947), having interviewed
911 Bion at that time, wrote:
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6 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 . . . as if frozen in an immobile and moonlike mask, accentuated by

2 the fine commas of a black moustache, which, no less than the large
3 physique and the swimmer’s chest that hold it up, contradict
4 Kretschmer’s formulae, when everything tells us that we are in the
presence of one of those beings who are solitary in even their high-
5
est achievements, and as we find confirmed in this man’s adventure
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in Flanders, where he followed his tank, switch in hand, into the
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breach, and paradoxically thus forced the iron gates of fate . . .
8 [Quoted by Bléandonu, 1994, p. 278]
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10 It is surprising to note Bion’s competence to guard himself
1 against the coercing, repetitive, and continuous group pressure,
2 from so many patients, to take over when in charge of the “leader-
3 less groups” project, at a time when he had not yet undertaken his
4 psychoanalytic training nor achieved, as did Ulysses, a productive
5 deafness. For many of us who started psychiatric training with
6 groups, it was much easier to react to the demand of a “therapeu-
711 tic leading role”, than to tolerate the uncertainty produced by the
8 impatient expectation of latent emotional structures, which Bion
9
has described as basic assumptions. Perhaps war left its marks on
20
Bion’s capacity for tolerance, in those critical moments of forced
1
expectancy in the face of imminent danger, when boldness or
2
imprudence could have signified a total loss. Possibly Bion’s early
3
separation from his parents, as well as having to coexist with the
4
emotional anonymity of boarding schools, could have introduced
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distance and affective withdrawal as a defence against the pain
6
produced by the loss, which he later might have transformed into
7
a reparative mechanism for objective scientific observations.
8
Francesca Bion (2000) recently questioned whether Bion’s mother
9
ever knew:
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. . . how longingly he would think of “home” while suffering the
2 miseries of prep school? [p. 11]
3
4 Julian, when asked about his father, said:
5
6 It was evident to me from an early age that my father was a man of
7 tremendous courage and immense compassion. Because of his
8 degree of self-control this was not always immediately apparent.
911 [F. Bion, 1995, p. 9]
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INTRODUCTION 7

111 Borgogno and Merciai (2000), based on Bion’s book Cogitations,

2 have tried to prove an apparent coldness in Bion towards his
3 patients, which they argued was expressed through attacks on them
4 produced by virtue of his intelligent and brilliant perceptions,
5 which at the same time were also “mentally narrow and generally
6 unpredictable” (p. 68). Following these same lines, they have inter-
711 preted Bion’s discourse with some of his patients:
8
9 . . . it thus seems that Bion renders null and void the patient’s des-
perate appeal. How else to explain his deafness during analysis to
10
a patient’s account of a “pullover which is beautifully knitted by his
1
wife but not suited for the baby’s cold” or of “trains that did not
2
behave as they should” [7 October 1959, p. 94] [p. 66]
3
4 It is interesting to note that these authors are at the same time co-
5 editors, together with Parthenope Bion,4 of a book that collects a
6 series of works presented to celebrate her father’s hundredth birth
7 date. Bion (1985) has referred to a passage where the few-months-
8 old Parthenope desperately cried and screamed calling for her father,
9 while he remained impassive seated at some distance and at the
211 same time prohibiting the nurse to lift her up. However, not being
1 able to resist any longer, and ignoring the prohibition, the nurse took
2 the baby in her arms. Finally, an ambivalent and regretful Bion con-
3 cludes: “The baby had stopped weeping and was being comforted
4 by maternal arms. But I, I had lost my child” (p. 70). Which could
5 have been the determining O of such a drama? Did envy, from the
6 “inner abandoned boy” in “pre analytic Bion”, try to take revenge
7 over the privileged (for having him) Parthenope? We do not know.
8 In his autobiography Bion recalls saying goodbye to his parents
9 at a hotel room in London, at the time he was going away to war:
30
1
4
Parthenope was the name chosen by Bion when reading Virgil’s Aeneid,
2
where it was used to christen a mermaid, half bird half woman, who was one
3 of those mermaids whose singing enchanted sailors and brought boats to their
4 destruction against the rocks. According to the myth, after failing with
5 Odysseus, mermaids immolated themselves, including Parthenope, whose
6 remains came ashore near Naples. Greeks then baptized the town with her
name as “Parthenopolis”, but being destroyed, it was rebuilt as “Neopolis”, or
7 “new town”, that afterwards changed to Naples. By uncanny coincidence,
8 Parthenope Bion and her daughter Patrizia also died in Italy, in a car accident
911 on July 16, 1998.
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8 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 I got there. In my parent’s bedroom the electric light cast its livid
2 warmth; they were glad to see me—that I knew. But I could feel
3 that her boy’s precocious departure for the war left my mother
4 kissing a chitinous semblance of a boy from whom a person had
escaped. But I was imprisoned, unable to break out of the shell
5
which adhered to me. [1982, p. 104]
6
7 While Bléandonu (1994) expresses:
8
9 Later in the autobiography he often gives the impression that he had
10 never had a father, a mother or, even less, a sister. Their obliteration
1 might be a kind of “final solution” to the oedipal predicament. As a
2 solution it resembles the psychotic’s destruction of the thinking
3 apparatus as a means of “undoing” the oedipal predicament.
4 [p. 277)
5
Growing up among boys and men might have induced in Bion
6
the need for unconsciously requesting affect from masculine fig-
711
ures, and thus producing confusion in his sexual identity. He gives
8
an example of such confusion in his autobiography when referring
9
to an event that took place during his adolescence, with Dudley, a
20
close friend at boarding school:
1
2 One night when I was lying on my bed with pyjamas on waiting
3 for Dudley to get into his bed, he suddenly discarded the towel he
4 had round his waist and jumped astride me as if challenging me to
511 wrestle. “Now how do you feel?” he said. I felt nothing physically;
6 mentally a sense of boredom and anti-climax, which soon commu-
7 nicated itself to Dudley who, after a few futile attempts to provoke
8 a struggle, got off. I was bitterly disappointed. I had no idea what
I wanted, but I did know—and the realization grew with time—
9
that I wanted it badly. I wished I had encouraged Dudley to go on
311
and then I would have found out what he was going to do. But now
1 I think Dudley did not know any more than I did. When I
2 expressed this to my psycho-analyst years later he was convinced I
3 knew. [1982, p. 74]
4
5 Before Klein, Bion had two analytic experiences. He never
6 mentioned the name of his first analyst and contemptuously called
7 him Dr FiP, a nickname taken from the initials of “feel–it-in-the-
8 past”, apparently parodying a common expression used by FiP
911 during sessions. Bléandonu (1994) suggests that it could have been
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INTRODUCTION 9

111 J. A. Hadfield, a psychiatrist from the Tavistock Clinic. His second

2 analysis, which lasted from 1937 to 1939 and was prematurely
3 aborted due to World War II, was with John Rickman, who was in
4 turn analysed by Freud and Ferenczi and later became Bion’s good
5 friend. It is quite possible that such experiences enabled Bion to
6 solve his anxiety-provoking confusions and his fear of women. He
711 first had a beautiful girlfriend, who ended up being unfaithful and
8 then, in 1939 at the beginning of the war, he met Betty McKritick
9 Jardine, a movie and theatre actress whom he finally wed. Three
10 years later Betty died while giving birth to their daughter
1 Parthenope, while Bion, selected by General Montgomery himself,
2 was enrolled as an army psychiatrist and was making arrange-
3 ments for Normandy’s “D day”. Unfortunately, he was not present
4 at the time of her death. Thirty-five years later he still questions
5 himself:
6
7 What killed Betty and nearly killed her baby? Physical malforma-
tion? Incompetent obstetrics? Callous or indifferent authorities? Or
8
the revelations of the hollow nature of the masculine drum that was
9
being so loudly beaten by her husband’s departure? [1985, p. 62]
211
1 And later on:
2
3 I had begged Betty to agree to have a baby: her agreement to do so
4 had cost her her life. [ibid., p. 70]
5
6
7 The Psychiatrist
8
9 After World War I, Bion studied History at Oxford (as well as
30 French at Poitiers University), where he was noticed, not only for
1 his encyclopaedic knowledge, but also for his outstanding skills in
2 sports, such as rugby and swimming. Two determining events took
3 place at this time: the tearing of a knee cartilage that destroyed his
4 expected chance of being selected to play rugby for England. And
5 his dismissal from Bishop’s Stortford College, his own school,
6 where he was teaching, after being accused by the mother of a
7 young boy, of supposedly having seduced him, something Bion not
8 only denied with acridness, but that also induced him to seek thera-
911 peutic help for the first time [1985, pp. 15-17].
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10 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 He decided to study medicine at University College Hospital in

2 London, graduating in 1930 after winning the gold medal for
3 surgery. “He launched himself straight into psychiatric practice”
4 (Bléandonu, 1994, p. 41). By 1932 he started his medical work at the
5 Tavistock Clinic.
6 According to Bion, any agglomeration of individuals interacts
7 according to predetermined links and constitutes a group, such as
8 family, office, neighbourhood, school, a tourist tour, etc. Sutherland
9 (1985), who worked with Bion during those years, stated that he
10 used the word “group” to refer to both group therapy and society
1 in general. “For him there was only one ‘socio-dimension’” (p. 33).
2 Every group, Bion teaches us, gets together with a purpose,
3 which represents its manifest reality, its reason to exist; it consti-
4 tutes the “work group” (W). However, hidden behind its shadows
5 lies a virtual reality, an undefined and undetermined space that he
6 labelled the “proto-mental system”, a region where the so-called
711 basic assumptions develop; these are predetermined conditions
8 that at a given moment emerge and take over the work group,
9 change its course and parasitize its purpose. Bion described three
20 possibilities: (a) the creation of a couple that would produce a
1 messiah, a messianic idea or a saving hope, and which he called
2 “pairing basic assumption”; (b) the fight or flight group, condi-
3 tioned by paranoid tactics similar to those observed during the war;
4 and lastly (c) the dependence group, which reproduces the rela-
511 tionship between the baby’s vulnerability and the adult omni-
6 potence.5
7 Bion experimented with his methodology on “leaderless
8 groups” during World War II, while he helped soldiers and officials
9 who were victims of “entrenchment panic”, then called “war neu-
311 rosis”. Later on he continued such experiments during his training
1 at the Tavistock Clinic, which later became a world famous study
2 group. However, regardless of his reason, it cannot be denied that
3 the result of such deep insight on the fatalism of human social
4
5
5
6 Bléandonu (1994) suggests that the classification of basic assumption was
possibly inspired by a concept introduced by J. A. Hadfield, a psychiatrist from
7 the Tavistock and possibly, as Bléandonu already mentioned, Bion’s first thera-
8 pist. Hadfield described the existence of three drives: “sexual libido, aggressive
911 or self-preservative and the drive towards dependence” (p. 43).
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INTRODUCTION 11

111 behaviour was enough to declare Bion a “man of achievements”,

2 and of “negative capability”, using Keats’ expressions.
3 In 1945 Bion started his analysis with Melanie Klein, as well as
4 his psychoanalytic training.
5
6
711 The psychoanalyst
8
9 Bion recalls that during the years of his analytic training a small
10 black cat who regularly defecated in front of the psychoanalytic
1 institute was named “Melanie Klein”: Melanie because it was black,
2 Klein because it was small, and Melanie Klein for being so bold.
3 During 1945 Bion started his analysis with this woman who
4 possessed great clinical intuition and uncommon courage, and he
5 continued until 1953.
6
7 In the course of these eight years a number of important changes
took place in his life. Once he was accepted by the British Psycho-
8
Analytical Society as a member, he began to be identified, through
9
his writing and his presentations, as a brilliant student of Klein. He
211
found a new psychic equilibrium—he married for a second time,
1 and flourished in the presence of a very understanding partner. He
2 was able to find Parthenope again, and to father two more children.
3 It was during this time that Bion prepared to publish his work on
4 group dynamics, as well as his first articles on psychosis.
5 Psychoanalysis had awakened in him a deep creativity which was
6 to stay with him until the end of his life. [Bléandonu, 1994, p. 93]
7
8 According to Meltzer (1978), Bion’s creativity increased greatly after
9 Klein’s death in 1960, suggesting that perhaps he had been subor-
30 dinating his originality to the ideas of his analyst and teacher.
1 The old problem of the “double”, already examined by Freud
2 (1919) and others, especially in Latin America, served Bion under the
3 epigraph of the “Imaginary twin”, both to defend Klein’s ideas about
4 the existence of an early pregenital Oedipus, as well as to graduate
5 from the British Psychoanalytical Society in 1950. It was his first
6 psychoanalytic work, followed by exhaustive and paradigmatic
7 research on psychoses and a phenomenological conceptualization of
8 a thinking theory or, in his own words, of an “apparatus to think
911 thoughts”. Thus we have: “Notes on the theory of schizophrenia”
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12 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 1953, “Development of schizophrenic thought” 1956, “Differen-

2 tiation of the psychotic from the non-psychotic personalities” and
3 “On arrogance” 1957, a year later “On hallucination”, “Attacks on
4 linking” 1959, and finally “A theory of thinking” 1962.6
5 It is quite obvious that, up to this moment, Bion is at great pains
6 to maintain the clarity of his concepts. The four following books,
7 however, which represent the fundamental pillars of his theoretical
8 contributions, do not unravel as easily; instead they contrast for
9 their hermetic opacity, where the concepts contained therein resist
10 the possibility of an easy exegesis. Bion seems to have suddenly
1 transformed into Oedipus’ Sphinx itself and is a puzzling guardian
2 of his secrets. Clarity would not return until the affectionate enthu-
3 siasm he received from the Brazilian and Argentinian Psycho-
4 analytic Associations operated upon Bion’s cryptic semantics, like
5 the “kiss from the Prince that opened Snow White’s eyes.”7.
6 Comparing the books Transformations and Elements of Psycho-
711 Analysis, Meltzer (1978), somehow disturbed, complains about the
8 difficulty encountered by the reader when faced with the mathe-
9 matical signs used by Bion:
20
1 In the present work no such hope sustains us in the face of the
proliferation of mathematics-like notations, pseudo-equations,
2
followed by arrows, dots, lines, arrows over (or should it be
3
under?) words and not just Greek letters but Greek words. How are
4
we to bear such an assault on our mentality? Is Bion Patient B in
511 disguise? [p. 71]
6
7 Referring to the article “On arrogance”, Meltzer (1978) ironically
8 says:
9
311 Certainly . . . the reading of the paper “On arrogance” at the Paris
1 congress struck many people as a shocking display of the very
2 hubris Bion was describing. [p. 31]
3
4
6
5 All of these papers, plus the article on the “Imaginary twin”, were com-
6 piled as a book together with a revision from Bion, under the title of (his) Second
Thoughts (1967).
7 7
It is always recommended that students who begin an enquiry into Bion’s
8 work, start with the Brazilian Lectures (1974), continue with Second Thoughts
911 (1967) and finish with the four books included in Seven Servants (1977).
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 13

INTRODUCTION 13

111 Could the heterodoxy present in Bion’s contributions, specially

2 his concepts of O and the “act of faith”—as can be seen in Attention
3 and Interpretation—have generated an envious attack on behalf of
4 the British psychoanalytic establishment of that time? In some edi-
5 tions of Transformations Bion quotes Shakespeare’s Macbeth as an
6 apothem that makes one wonder why he chose it:
711
Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men,
8
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
9
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves are clipt
10
All by the name of dogs.
1
2 On the other hand, if we follow the last chapters of Attention and
3 Interpretation, we can perceive, with a rather slanted view, a com-
4 plaint about the intolerance of psychoanalytic institutions. Regard-
5 less of the sophistication presented, as well as the hermetic
6 generalization of their statements, the last chapters allow an open-
7 ing towards a more mundane vision: the complaint submitted by
8 someone against the intolerance awakened by a new, different, and
9 exceptional contribution to psychoanalysis. In 1995 Francesca
211 wrote, quoting Wilfred Trotter and the influence he had on her
1 husband, in the following terms:
2
3 Trotter makes observations which remind one strongly of Bion’s
4 later views. He speaks of man’s “resistiveness to new ideas, his
submission to tradition and precedent”; of “governing power tend-
5
ing to pass into the hands of a class of members insensitive to
6
experience, closed to the entry of new ideas and obsessed with
7 the satisfactoriness of things as they are”; of “our willingness to
8 take any risk rather than endure the horrid pains of thought.”
9 [pp. 3–4]
30
1 According to Symington and Symington (1966), when Bion intro-
2 duced the concept of O, “some in the Klein group were quick to dis-
3 sociate themselves from his thinking from that time onwards”
4 (p. 10). Later on, after his trilogy A Memoir of the Future (1991)
5 appeared, while he was in California, many British analysts con-
6 sidered Bion had mentally deteriorated after leaving England, to
7 the point that “everything he wrote subsequent to his departure is
8 to be dismissed as the rambling of a senile man” (Symington &
911 Symington, 1966, p. 10).
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14 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 At the beginning of 1968, Bion moved to Los Angeles in res-

2 ponse to an invitation from a group of psychoanalyst innovators,
3 who, searching for new directions, became interested in Klein and
4 her followers. The children chose to continue their studying in Italy
5 and England. The change provided new hopes of freedom, an out-
6 let from the British atmosphere that, after a while, had become
7 suffocating, allowing Bion to write his magnum opus in the form of
8 a trilogy: A Memoir of the Future. “Had he remained in England”,
9 says Francesca, “he would certainly not have felt able to express
10 himself in this frank and revelatory way” (ibid., pp. 12–13). In the
1 Epilogue to this book Bion wrote:
2
3 All my life I have been imprisoned, frustrated, dogged by common-
sense, reason, memories, desires and—greatest bug-bear of all—
4
understanding and being understood. This is an attempt to express
5
my rebellion, to say “Good-bye” to all that. It is my wish, I now
6
realize doomed to failure, to write a book unspoiled by any tincture
711 of common-sense, reason, etc. [1991, p. 578]
8
9 But not everything was smooth and easy. Bion, who by then was
20 already just over 70 years old, had to face anti-Kleinian groups who
1 were experiencing his presence as a threat to the status quo, to the
2 old Freudian structures entrenched in “Ego-psychology” anachron-
3 ism. Grotstein (1993) remembers:
4
511 I remember an incident well where Albert Mason was able to obtain
6 the auditorium of the Los Angeles Institute for Bion’s presentation
7 of his Grid. The audience included mostly Kleinian aficionados, but
one classical member also attended out of curiosity. After Bion
8
extemporaneously presented his conception of the Grid, the record-
9
ing of which was later transcribed and published as one of his most
311
important works, this classical analyst began criticizing Bion as
1 to content and assumptions of his presentation and then even
2 critiqued him on his “poor English”. Bion’s reply was, “Well then,
3 there in nothing left to say that would not cause more heat than
4 light!” [p. 61]
5
6 In 1971 Bion referred to his relationship with colleagues in
7 California as a “total failure”, although he had also said, with his
8 characteristic dark humour, that “an analyst was welcomed only
911 when his work was a failure”. About Californians he said:
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INTRODUCTION 15

111 The relationship between myself and my colleagues here in Los

2 Angeles could be accurately described as almost entirely unsuccess-
3 ful. They are puzzled by, and cannot understand me. . . . There is,
4 if I am not mistaken, more fear than understanding or sympathy for
my thoughts, personality or ideas. There is no question of the situ-
5
ation—the emotional situation—being any better anywhere else.
6
I could say much the same for England. [1992, p. 334]
711
8
Around this time, Bion was invited by the Argentinians and greeted
9
by Léon Grinberg, who (together with Darío Sor and Elizabeth
10
Tabak de Bianchedi) some time later published his well-known
1
summary of his work. Grinberg (2000) remembered the verbal
2
attack made by a senile analyst who had managed to make his way
3
into the conference room. After a tense silence, Bion
4
5 . . . promptly said that he wished to pay tribute to someone, who
6 “in working with something so terrible as the human mind” had
7 become yet another victim within the psychoanalytic community.
8 The outburst of prolonged applause that greeted Bion’s words
9 clearly reflected the admiration that those present felt for such an
211 understanding, generous, and human response. [p. xx]
1
2 Obviously, at that moment, Bion had won the heart of the
3 Argentinians. However, it was Brazil and Brazilians who, privi-
4 leged by the exuberance of the “Amazonia”, had managed perhaps
5 to get closer to the childhood reminiscences of India, his native
6 country. The justification of the hypothesis on the weight a tropical
7 scenario might have had on Bion’s preferences, could be inferred
8 from comments he made about the uncanny feelings of familiarity
9 the lecture on the Mahabhrata produced on him, which made him
30 conjecture that the narrative of the Sanskrit text was read to him by
1 his nanny as bedside stories. But if we try to be even–handed, we
2 should not ignore the warm welcome that Brazil’s psychoanalytical
3 community provided to the “mais grande psicanalista does mondo.”
4 Francesca Bion (1995) recalled those feelings: “They are charming,
5 affectionate, cultured people—a pleasure to know and to work
6 with” (p. 13). Bion, on the other hand, compensated by providing
7 them with a clarity and enthusiasm such as he had never expressed
8 before to any public, it was a mutual affection of great productivity
911 and immense benefit, and the echoes from those moments still
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16 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 vibrate in the pages that contain the transcriptions. Bion was
2 obscure with the British, sober with Americans and charming and
3 understanding with Brazilians. It could be rather paradoxical,
4 however, that when Francesca complained about Bion postponing
5 the final correction of the conferences: “It would have been easier
6 to make a child take a dose of foul-tasting medicine”,—Bion
7 remarked: “I don’t like examining my own vomit.”[F. Bion, 1995}
8
9
10 A Memoir of the Future
1
2 Bion wrote two volumes of his autobiography, posthumously pub-
3 lished by his wife Francesca: The Long Week-End, and, using an
4 expression from Shakespeare, All my Sins Remembered. The latter
5 was embossed with love letters to Francesca, which shared so much
6 passion that it made sense of the fact that they were married two-
711 and-a-half months after they met at the Tavistock. Both books could
8 be considered a biography of Bion’s “conscious history”, whereas
9 A Memoir of the Future, described by Bion as a “book of fiction”,
20 could perhaps represent a biography of his “unconscious”.
1 A Memoir of the Future contains three parts published at different
2 times, although, in 1991, it was finally bound in a full volume pub-
3 lished by Karnac Books. The first book, The Dream, was originally
4 published in 1975, followed two years later by The Past Presented,
511 both originally printed by Imago Editora in Brazil. The last book,
6 The Dawn of Oblivion (1979), and the addendum: Key to A Memoir of
7 the Future (1981), were previously published by Clunie Press in
8 Scotland. The size, as well as the intricacy and density of its con-
9 tents, will make any evaluation of this book a very difficult task,
311 particularly if we are limited by the brevity of an introduction. It
1 requires an evaluation of its own.
2
3
4 The Grid
5
6 Bion has used a holistic and coherent “binocular vision” of the
7 mind, covering a wide spectrum: from the ultraspiritual to the inf-
8 raphysic; from the illumination by O to the reproduction of emo-
911 tions measured inside the rigid squaring of the Grid. If his intention
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 17

INTRODUCTION 17

111 and dedication can be understood as a global conception of the

2 mind, we should also, when understanding his work, conceive it
3 from a holistic approach: one Bion for an act of faith, and at the
4 same time, another for the “mathematization” of the mind, as a
5 defender of contradictions who was able to palpate the certitude in
6 the centre of uncertainty. After all, he often argued colloquially that
711 the mouth should be observed from the anus, as a telescope, and
8 vice versa. If we look only from the vertex of the Grid, we might
9 accuse him of being guilty of “scientist positivism”, trying to fulfil
10 the ambition of building, without men, a science for men. But if
1 we see him from the other extreme, from “O” or from an “act of
2 faith”, we could then accuse his work of “spiritualism” or “omni-
3 science”. However, in keeping with this view we might be com-
4 mitting the terrible sin of confusing the phenomenon itself with the
5 instrument of observation: it is not Bion’s mouth we should look at,
6 but the mind’s and its two faces, that glances like Janus: one inside
7 towards the rigid structure of biology, the other outside towards the
8 immeasurable becoming of timelessness. Attempting such an eva-
9 sive perspective represents precisely Bion’s absolute greatness. A
211 comprehensive exposition of the Grid is provided in this dictionary.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 18

111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 19

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 A
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Aberrant forms of change: Extraneous changes that take place
1 within a group dominated by one of the three basic assumptions,
2 when a new idea that demands development takes place but the
3 active basic assumption is unable to tolerate it. Bion (1948b) states:
4
5 If the dependent group is active, and is threatened by pressure of
the pairing-group leader, particularly perhaps in the form of an
6
idea which is suffused with Messianic hope, then if methods such
7
as resorting to bible-making prove inadequate, the threat is coun-
8 tered by provoking influx of another group. If the fight–flight
9 group is active, the tendency is to absorb another group. If the
30 pairing-group is active the tendency is to schism. [p. 156]
1
2 Abstraction: From the Latin abstrahere, meaning to “take out”, to
3 “bring”, to separate mentally from a particular object; or discretely
4 to consider a specific property; in simpler words, to discriminate
5 the universal from the individual (Foulquié, 1967). Bion (1962)
6 summarizes abstraction as the capacity of alpha-function to change
7 an emotional experience into an alpha-element [p. 56). Psychotics
8 and philosophers of science, adds Bion, present a similar problem
911 because they both try to change something abstract into something

19
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20 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 concrete. The former use what Segal (1957) described as “symbolic
2 equation”, while the philosopher in a similar fashion, attempts to
3 concretize abstractions creating as Aristotle did, the “mathematical
4 objects” or, as Bion did, the “psychoanalytical objects” (Bion, 1962,
5 p. 68)
6 A theory could be abstracted from a model, similar to Bion’s
7 theory of thinking, which was based on the digestive model.
8 Abstraction could reach such a level, that a simple word might con-
9 dense, by means of a constant conjunction, a limitless number
10 of emotions, to the point that Bion for instance, considers “daddy”,
1 “breast” or “penis”, true hypotheses (1962, pp. 66–67; 1992,
2 pp. 252–254). Abstraction, on the other hand, represents a mecha-
3 nism by which the Grid’s vertical axis progresses.
4 One of the reasons why psychoanalysis is not considered scien-
5 tific, says Bion (1992), is because theories often used by psycho-
6 analysts represent a combination of material from observation plus
711 abstractions derived from them. In other words, empirical informa-
8 tion is not satisfactory because it usually searches to create a theory
9 instead of providing veridical information about what has been
20 observed, while at the same time, the theory presented lacks the
1 rigorous requirements of scientific investigation (pp. 152–154).
2 Existing psychoanalytical theories would be similar to ideo-
3 graphs, representing an idea condensed in one word, or to abstrac-
4 tions with particularizations as opposite to generalizations (ibid.,
511 pp. 256–257). It is essential, Bion concludes (1963), to formulate
6 abstractions that allow generalizations similar to letters that when
7 combined, could create thousands of words. “Similarly the ele-
8 ments I seek are to be such that relatively few are required to
9 express, by changes in combination, nearly all the theories essential
311 to the working psycho-analyst” (p. 2).
1
2 Accommodation: see Assimilation
3
Acting-out: Bion says little about this subject. He mentioned it in
4
passing in relation to the theory of container–contained (), stat-
5
ing that when acting-out takes place during the analysis, the analy-
6
sis is also part of acting-out because it is contained by it.
7
8 When a patient can be said to be acting-out the analysis is “in” a sit-
911 uation of which the boundaries are unknown. If the behaviour
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A 21

111 characterized as “acting-out” is brought to the analysis it can be

2 accompanied by claustrophobic symptoms in the patient. [Bion,
3 1970, p. 110]
4
Although Bion gave no explanation about the relationship between
5
6 acting-out and claustrophobia, it can be inferred according to the
711 container–contained theory, that if analysis is contained by the
8 acting-out, the patient could end up feeling trapped. He also
9 referred to the attack made by psychotic patients on reality as a
10 form of “anti-social acting-out”, in order to get rid of the rest of
1 common sense (reality) that still remains. “In analysis it contributes
2 to the danger of murderous attacks on the analyst. The analyst’s
3 common-sense interpretations are attacked by being seen and felt
4 [for instance] as sexual assaults” (Bion 1992, p. 31). “Anti-social”
5 could be interpreted as a tendency towards narcissism, in the sense
6 explained by Freud as “secondary narcissism”, exactly opposite to
7 socialism (social-ism).
8 Bion also states that failure to interpret patient’s dreams, repre-
9 sents the greatest contribution an analyst could make towards pro-
211 duction of acting-out, whereas the patient’s greatest contribution
1 would be the incapacity to dream (ibid., p. 232).
2
3 Action: According to Freud (1911), it represents, together with
4 attention, notation, judgement, and thought, one of the functions
5 used by the ego to reach consciousness of reality.
6
7 A new function was now allotted to motor discharge, which, under
the dominance of the pleasure principle, had served as a means of
8
unburdening the mental apparatus of accretions of stimuli, and
9
which had carried out this task by sending innervations into the
30 interior of the body (leading to expressive movements and the play
1 of features and to manifestations of affect). Motor discharge was
2 now employed in the appropriate alteration of reality; it was con-
3 verted into action. [p. 221, original emphasis)
4
5 Bion has used this concept, together with those mentioned above,
6 as part of the horizontal axis of the Grid, in order to structure par-
7 ticular qualities and functions of the mind. Attempting to explain
8 the importance of projective identification in this function, Bion
911 states:
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22 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Freud distinguishes between a stage where muscular action is

2 taken to alter the environment and a stage when a capacity for
3 thought exists. I propose to include in the category presented by
4 the term “action” phantasies that the mind, acting as if it were a
muscle and a muscle acting as a muscle, can disburden the psyche
5
of accretions of stimuli. I include the Kleinian concept of the phan-
6
tasy known as projective identification in the category of “action”.
7
[1965, p. 36]
8
9 See Attention, Notation, Judgement, Thought, Horizontal axis,
10 Grid.
1
2 Act of faith (F): Represents the capacity to have faith in certain
3 ideas, hunches or intuitions that suddenly spurt while listening
4 during the analytical hour. It implies the capacity to accept the
5 absolute truth, the existence of O as an ultimate reality, in order to
6 structure the interpretation. Being able to reach such an attitude
711 will depend on the analyst’s discipline of listening while avoiding
8 using any memory or desire. Bion (1970) states:
9
Through F [act of faith] one can ‘see’, ‘hear’, and ‘feel’ the mental
20
phenomena of whose reality no practising psycho-analyst has any
1
doubt though he cannot with any accuracy represent them by exist-
2 ing formulations. [pp. 57–58]
3
4 It is very important that Bion also considers F as an essential com-
511 ponent of a rigorous scientific procedure, that has no relation with
6 the ± K system, but belongs to the O system. Although F can not
7 be represented in the Grid, it could be close to column 6 [ibid.,
8 pp. 43–44).
9 Trying to explain the concept of F, Bion (1970) remembers what
311 Freud once said in a letter to Andreas-Salomé, where he mentioned
1 his method of achieving a state of mind that would provide clarity
2 when the subject of investigation was particularly obscure. “He
3 speaks [Freud] of blinding himself artificially. As a method of
4 achieving this artificial blinding I have indicated the importance of
5 eschewing memory and desire” (p. 43).
6 A thought has a no-thing as its realization, meaning that any
7 thought is the consequence of the absence of the object. The act
8 of faith, on the other hand, has as its background something that is
911 unconscious and unknown because it has not happened yet, and
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A 23

111 it is associated with a state of hallucinosis, something more

2 obvious in psychotic patients. The act of faith (F), says Bion,
3 (1970) is
4
5 essential to the operation of psycho-analysis and other scientific
proceedings. It is essential for experiencing hallucinations or the
6
state of hallucinosis. This state I do not regard as an exaggeration
711
of a pathological or even natural condition: I consider it rather to be
8 a state always present, but overlaid by other phenomena, which
9 screen it. If these other elements can be moderated or suspended
10 hallucinosis becomes demonstrable; its full depth and richness are
1 accessible only to “acts of faith”. [p. 36]
2
3 For Bion the act of faith represents a scientific state of mind only
4 if it is free of any element of memory or desire; in other words, the
5 act of faith allows a spontaneous thought, phantasy or hallucinosis
6 to appear only if this procedure takes place without any memory or
7 desire. He alerts us to the danger of connecting F with the super-
8 natural or with undesirable aspects of the mind, and thus satura-
9 ting it. He gave an example of a psychotic patient who during
211 analysis felt that the analyst’s words during the interpretation, flew
1 over his head and could be detected by what Bion felt were the
2 patterns on a cushion, and then travelled through his eyes back to
3 him. In order for the patient to be able to experience things in this
4 manner and in order for Bion to be able to grasp them, both the
5 patient and analyst must have been, according to him, in a state of
6 hallucinosis (ibid., p. 36).
7
The “meaning” of a statement in hallucinosis is not, however, the
8
same as its meaning in the domain of rational thought . . . In the
9 domain of hallucinosis the mental event is transformed into a sense
30 impression and sense impressions in this domain do not have
1 meaning; they provide pleasure or pain. [ibid., pp. 36–37]
2
3 A state of hallucinosis means that the analyst is trying to place
4 him/herself in a condition of no saturation, without memory or
5 desire, where any fantasy, idea or gut feeling that takes place
6 should be approached with an act of faith, regardless of how absurd
7 it might appear to be, and then be used to understand what is
8 happening. The main difficulty for the analyst is in the domain of
911 countertransference, in the capacity to “contain” painful memories
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24 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 or unresolved desires, or to abandon any narcissistic need. This is

2 why Bion states that
3
4 In the domain of hallucinosis the mental event is transformed into
5 a sense impression and sense impressions in this domain do not
have meaning; they provide pleasure or pain. [ibid., p. 37, my italics]
6
7 It might have been possible that the concept of F was already in
8 Bion’s mind by the time of his experience with groups:
9
10 There are times when I think that the group has an attitude to me,
1 and that I can state in words what the attitude is; there are times
2 when another individual acts as if he also thought the group had
3 an attitude to him, and I believe I can deduce what his belief is;
4 there are times when I think that the group has an attitude to an
5 individual, and that I can say what it is. These occasions provide
the raw material on which the interpretations are based . . . [1948b,
6
pp. 142–143]
711
8 Later on, while referring to the treatment of schizophrenic patients,
9 he states that countertransference must play an important part in
20 the analysis of these patients, but he then proposes to leave the dis-
1 cussion for later on. (1967, p. 24). Bion only refers explicitly to this
2 concept in his book Attention and Interpretation, and never mentions
3 it again. We could argue, perhaps applying also his notion of F, that
4 there could be a relationship between this concept and Zen
511 Buddhism.
6
7 Agglomeration: Bion defines it in contrast to the concept of articu-
8 lation, in so far as the latter means stability and integration to form
9 a complex whole. Agglomeration implies a particular situation
311 where the elements relate temporally and experimentally: “it is
1 appropriate to a particular situation when that situation is viewed
2 by the light of a particular hypothesis and during the time it is so
3 viewed” (1992, p. 159). It could be considered as an antecedent of
4 what Bion describes later as the bizarre object.
5
6 What appears to be an articulated sentence is an agglomeration of
7 objects, and is therefore not to be distinguished from the agglom-
8 eration manifest to the analyst as apparently inarticulate or inco-
911 herent speech. [ibid., p. 161].
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111 See Articulation and Assimilation.

2
3 Agoraphobia: see: Claustrophobia.
4
5 Algebraic calculus: see: Calculus.
6
711 Alpha-elements, or -elements: The product of alpha-function,
8 Bion describes them as “irreducibly simple objects” (1992, p. 181),
9 representing sensual impressions (visual images, auditory patters,
10 olfactory patterns, etc.), that could be stored as memory and even-
1 tually employed to create dream thoughts, conscious thoughts,
2 unconscious waking thinking, dream formation, contact-barrier,
3 memory and the capacity to learn from experience (1962, p. 26).
4 Originally Bion referred to them as “real, live, existing and bene-
5 volent objects”, capable of providing satisfaction to the baby, and as
6 completely opposite to beta()-elements, which were in turn
7 described as “dead and unreal objects” (1992, p. 133). He thought
8 originally that -elements might originate, beside the accumulation
9 of sense data, from the transformation of -elements by -function,
211 then named “dream-work-” (ibid., pp. 182–183).
1 The name of  first appeared in Cogitations, in a note without a
2 date but believed to be from the beginning of 1960. There Bion
3 conceived two levels in the organization of alpha-elements: one rep-
4 resenting the impact of an external event, and the second one, the
5 internal process of “digestion” of that event (1992, pp. 149–181):
6
7 1) Emotional experience  dream-work- [-function]  -
8 element  ‘narrativization’  dream
9 2) Sensation of waking event in which personality is partici-
30 pating as in an unfolding narrative  dream-work- [-
1 function] dream-thoughts.
2
3 There are two processes, one representing external emotional
4 experiences that are dealt with by alpha-function, which converts
5 them into -elements and makes them undergo a process of narra-
6 tivization (a historical sequence) (see: Narrative), so it can approxi-
7 mate to the emotional experience of waking life, and render it
8 suitable for storage and waking conscious thoughts. During the
911 second process, the narrative that has been stored is then changed
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26 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 into -elements that lend themselves to be used in unconscious

2 dream-thoughts, whether the personality is asleep or awake (1962,
3 p. 8, 1992, pp. 149–150). A child, for instance, that is going through
4 the emotional experience of learning how to walk, is able to do so
5 because -function stores the experience that will allow him to walk
6 later without having to be conscious of it.
7 -elements organize and cohere as they proliferate, to form a
8 contact-barrier, an entity that marks the point of contact and separ-
9 ation between conscious and unconscious elements and originates
10 the difference between them (1962, p. 17), or allows thoughts and
1 dreams to take place as well as to discriminate between being
2 asleep and being awake.
3 The process of elaboration of  and -elements can be read in
4 Cogitations pp. 62–63, written on August 10th, 1959. There Bion
5 identifies alpha-function with dream-work and beta-elements with
6 “indigested facts that have not being dreamed” (1992, p. 64). Such
711 constructs could be understood as extensions of primary and
8 secondary processes of classical theory.
9 Meltzer (1978) emphasizes the character of “empty concept”
20 that, according to him, Bion had provided the alpha-elements with:
1 “The ‘emptiness’ of this model was stressed over and over by Bion,
2 along with the caution against over-hasty attempts to fill it with
3 clinical meaning” (p. 119).
4
511 Alpha-function: Initially Bion referred to “dream work ”, which
6 he later tried to change when he felt it could bring confusion if it
7 were to be used in a manner different from that which Freud had
8 initially created it for (1992, p. 73); however, he continued using it
9 in the same manner even after making such a remark. The term
311 “-function” was used for the first time in Cogitations, in a note
1 possibly dated at the end of the sixties, which allowed Bion finally
2 to discriminate between dream-work proper and -function. To
3 build this theory he used concepts from Freud’s “The Interpretation
4 of Dreams” (1900) and “Formulations on the Two Principles of
5 Mental Functioning” (1911), as well as Klein’s notion of guilt, super-
6 ego and paranoid–schizoid and depressive positions.
7 -function represents an abstraction used to describe the capa-
8 city to change sense information into -elements (1992, p. 63), as
911 well as providing the mind with material to create dream thoughts
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A 27

111 that could allow discrimination between being asleep or awake,

2 conscious or unconscious and give a sense of identity and selfness
3 (1967, p. 115). The brain never rests; what exists is a fluctuation
4 between states of consciousness and unconsciousness, thanks to
5 -function and the permeability of the contact barrier that allows
6 one side to remain awake while the other is asleep. Before he dis-
711 criminated this function from dream-work, Bion stated that a series
8 of steps were essential: (a) to pay attention to sensuous impressions;
9 (b) to store this impression in the memory; (c) to change them into
10 “ideograms”; and (d) depending on which principle dominates the
1 mind, either to store them and to remember them if the reality prin-
2 ciple dominates, or to expel them under the influence of the plea-
3 sure principle.
4 -function is the product of an adequate relationship between
5 the baby and the mother, which permits the existence of normal pro-
6 jective identifications. Usually the baby is not fit to use his sense
7 information for himself, and this is why he needs to evacuate it into
8 the mother and to depend on her capacity for reverie, to change it
9 into -elements that he will then be able to use. -function works
211 over sense experiences and emotions, and if successful, it will pro-
1 duce -elements that could be stored as a contact barrier between
2 unconscious and conscious, capable of producing thoughts (1962,
3 pp. 17–18). If -function becomes inoperative, sense impressions
4 and emotions experienced by the person remain unaltered, creating
5 what Bion named the beta-elements, or following Kant, the thing-
6 in-itself or noumenon, different from -function that represents the
7 phenomenon. This function, besides been inseparable from
8 thoughts, conscious reasoning and learning from experience, can
9 also send conscious thoughts to the unconscious and thus alleviate
30 consciousness from an exaggerated weight of thoughts, for instance
1 when learning to create a habit. According to Bion, there is aparadox
2 in psychotic patients of an unconscious that although “on the sur-
3 face” cannot be made unconscious and used as material for mecha-
4 nisms of abstraction and concretization (1992, p. 71).
5 Attacks on -function induced by hate and envy towards the
6 breast that is capable of producing love, understanding or wisdom,
7 destroys the possibility in the patient to make contact with him/
8 herself or with others as living persons (1962, p. 9, 119), a feeling
911 possible to observe in mechanisms of “self-envy”.8 See: Dream-work.
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28 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Alpha-function, reversion of: see: Reversion of -function.

2
3 Alpha-space (-space): It consists of a space populated by objects
4 that are real and possess their own reality and their own limits,
5 infra– and ultra-real (like infra-red and ultra-violet). They can be
6 appreciated by ordinary thought and are indistinguishable from
7 those objects normally perceived by the senses, like things that
8 are “visible”, “audible”, “touchable”, etc. Bion was attempting to
9 describe the existence of a domain pertaining to reality, unknown
10 but approachable by intuition, only if special preparations were
1 made. When he argues about the existence of a psychoanalytic
2 domain with its particular realities, he is obviously referring
3 to phenomena such as hallucinosis, O and acts of faith. He
4 said:
5
6 . . . unquestionable, constant, subject to change only in accordance
711 with its own rules even if those rules are not known. These realities
are “intuitable” if the proper apparatus is available in the condition
8
proper to its functioning . . . The conditions in which the intuition
9
operates (intuits) are pellucid [see transparence] and opaque. [1992,
20
p. 315]
1
2 The main opacities that prevent the intuition of reality correspond
3 to understanding, memory, and desire. Such opacities act like
4 turbulences that obstruct transparence of an unsaturated psycho-
511 analytic listening that eventually will allow communion with O. In
6 order to avoid such opacities a permanent, continuous and lasting
7 discipline must be established (ibid.). (See: beta-space)
8
9 Altered focus: Concept used in group dynamics related to the dif-
311 ferent vertices or perspectives someone might choose to observe or
1 conceive a situation, like using different microscope lenses to inves-
2 tigate a thick section, implying that the instrument of observation
3 is a variable model of the structure of the situation being observed.
4 It should be differentiated from “binocular vision”. See: Dependent
5 basic assumption, Reversible perspective, Groups, Basic assump-
6 tion, Binocular vision.
7
8
911 8
See: López-Corvo 1992, 1994.
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A 29

111 A-morph: see: Noösphere

2
3 Analogy: Bion (1977a) used the term “analogy” in order to empha-
4 size the importance of the relationship between objects, instead of
5 the objects themselves: “confusion can occur because attention is
6 given to the two images used in the analogy, and not, which is the
711 important point, the relationship between them” (p. 26). The prob-
8 lem of being abstract to the point of being incomprehensible could
9 be overcome by being concrete, but the conflict then is that it could
10 be misleading. “The importance of the analogy is not the similarity
1 of one thing to another, but the relationship between the two”
2 (Bion, 1974, p. 19). See: Emotional links, Attacks on linking,
3 Binocular vision.
4
5 Analytic: Kant has distinguished between analytic and synthetic
6
propositions, just as he also differentiated a priori from empirical
7
propositions. An analytic proposition implies that something can
8
only be known by experience, for instance, to say that “the Angel
9
Falls is a very tall fall”, means that it has been seen. A synthetic
211
proposition, on the other hand, is one in which the predicate is
1
part of the subject, for instance, “a fat man is a man”, or “a white
2
building is a building”.
3
4
Analytic situation (setting): In Bion’s language it represents the
5
6 background or the setting where transformations (or “the process”
7 in classical analysis) would take place:
8
What I mean by “receptor” or “field” or “ground” can be most
9 simply grasped by analogy with painting in which the ground for
30 the transformation would be the canvas on to which the transform-
1 ation was projected [be it projective transformations or rigid
2 movement transformations] . . . I propose to discuss the problem
3 of the ground for projective and rigid motion transformations as if
4 it were stable and corresponded to what is regarded in classical
5 analysis as the analytic situation. [1965, pp. 113–114]
6
7 It would correspond to categories D1 or E1 of the Grid. See: Trans-
8 formations, Projective transformations, Rigid movement transfor-
911 mations
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30 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Animate and inanimate, difference between: Bion (1962) referred

2 to enforced splitting associated with a disturbed relationship with
3 the breast or its substitutes (p. 10). When envy obstructs the rela-
4 tionship with the good breast, provider of love, understanding,
5 solace, knowledge, etc., just as Klein (1946) described it during the
6 paranoid–schizoid position, the persecutory anxiety present can-
7 not obstruct the physical need for sucking that could jeopardize the
8 infant’s life. “Fear of death through starvation of essentials” said
9 Bion, “compels resumption of sucking. A split between material
10 and psychical satisfaction develops” (1962, p. 10). This situation
1 leads to an enforced splitting between physical need for survival on
2 one hand, and psychic satisfactions on the other; a condition
3 achieved by destruction of -function.
4
5 This makes breast and infant appear inanimate with consequent
6 guiltiness, fear of suicide and fear of murder [it is easier to destroy
711 something inanimate than something alive] . . . The need for
8 love, understanding and mental development is now deflected,
9 since it cannot be satisfied, into the search for material comforts.
[ibid., p. 11]
20
1
Psychotic patients or the Psychotic part of the personality, could
2
change an animate object into an inanimate one, or into the “thing-
3
in-itself” or beta-elements, as Segal (1957) has described it in her
4
concept of “symbolic equation”.
511
Another vertex to consider was discussed by Bion in his book
6
Cogitations, where he reflects on the attack made by the baby on
7
those objects linked with displeasure and with the consequent need
8
to placate them by means of idealization, due to guilt and persecu-
9
tory anxiety. Idealization is achieved through future transformation
311
into worshipped objects, for they acquire supra-human attributes
1
which, according to Bion, are achieved precisely because they are
2
dead. Bion says:
3
4 Contrary to common observation, the essential feature of the
5 adored or worshipped object is that it should be dead so that crime
6 may be expiated by the patient’s dutiful adherence to animation of
7 what is known to be inanimate and impossible to animate. This atti-
8 tude contributes to the complex of feelings associated with
911 fetishism. [1992, p. 134]
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111 In other words, the establishment of a useless dependency on those

2 objects would pay off the crime perpetuated through the attack on
3 the good objects. These objects however, being inanimate (dead) are
4 believed (invented) to be animate but, for this same reason, are not
5 capable of giving anything; for instance, expecting a miracle from a
6 figure made of plaster. Fetishism and some people’s religious faith
711 can be explained in this way. In other words, in the same way as the
8 inanimate becomes animate, the contrary also takes place; that is,
9 the animate becomes inanimate. It seemed that the “life” stolen
10 from live objects as a way to control them and avoid separation anx-
1 iety (“heterophobia”), would later be projected into dead (inani-
2 mate) objects that have been given life and have been idealized.
3 Guilt would be expiated, as Bion has said, by trying to obtain pro-
4 tection as well as trying to obtain a miracle from something that
5 doesn’t even have a life. See: Proto-real objects.
6
7 Animism: A state that contrasts with the difficulty of conceiving
8 others and oneself as living beings. It is distinguished by the need
9 to give living objects qualities of death and vice versa (1962, p. 9).
211 See: Fetishism; Proto-real objects; Animate and inanimate, differ-
1 ence between.
2
3 Anxiety: “All anxiety is related ultimately to The Anxiety, which
4 has two roots” (1992, p. 207): (1) the contents of the Oedipal situa-
5 tion, which has as its “scientific deductive system” the Theorem of
6 Pythagoras; (2) the fear produced by the Kleinian “Positions” that
7 have as their scientific deductive system Euclid’s theorem of Pons
8 Asinorum.
9
30 A priori: According to Kant, it represents a proposition that, even if
1 it could be elicited by experience, once known, it could be thought
2 of as having a basis other than experience. Russell (1945) says:
3 A child learning arithmetic may be helped by experiencing two
4 marbles and two other marbles, and observing that altogether he is
5 experiencing four marbles. But when he has grasped the general
6 proposition, “two and two are four” he no longer requires confirm-
7 ation by instances. [pp. 706–707].
8
911 Apparatus for thinking: see: Thinking, apparatus for.
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32 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Apparatus of perception: see: Perception, apparatus of.

2
3 Arm that fell off, dream of the: see: Significant dreams.
4
5 Arrogance, curiosity and stupidity: These concepts are based on
6 Bion’s article “On arrogance” (1957a, pp. 86–92) presented at the
7 International Congress of Psychoanalysis in Paris, July/August,
8 1957. He considers the occurrence of these three forms of behaviour,
9 “arrogance, curiosity and stupidity” in the same person, as the
10 expression of a “psychological disaster.” When pride appears
1 within an individual who is dominated by the life instinct, pride
2 becomes self-respect, but if the death instinct predominates pride
3 then becomes arrogance. In order to make clear the relationship
4 between these three concepts, he considers the Oedipus myth from
5 a perspective where the sexual crime is regarded as a secondary ele-
6 ment. The central crime then is Oedipus’ arrogance in “vowing to
711 lay bare the truth at no matter what cost” (ibid. p. 86); insisting that
8 Tiresias reveal the secret about the plague of Thebes. It could be
9 argued that Oedipus, dominated by his stupidity, could have
20 believed, because of his arrogance, that he was free from any
1 wrongdoing or from any possible sin.
2 A similar mechanism could have been present in the mind of
3 many dictators, such as Hitler for instance, whose stupidity and
4 arrogance forbade him from seeing that it would be impossible to
511 take over the whole world, of Gaea, as a simple metaphor for
6 his mother. Bion considers that, in practice, the analysis of these
7 persons may seem superficially to follow the patterns that we
8 are familiar with in the treatment of neurosis, while in reality,
9 the lack of improvement in spite of the analytical work that is
311 done, could represent the evidence that we might be dealing with
1 a true psychological disaster of such magnitude, that it may as well
2 correspond to a psychosis. A possible complication results from
3 the possibility of a transference collusion between the patient’s
4 curiosity, and the curiosity normally present in the analytical
5 procedure, which the patient could experience as an intrinsic com-
6 ponent of the “disaster”, or as an expression of some kind of per-
7 verse acting-out; a situation, Bion alerts us, that could be difficult
8 to avoid. In this case, the orientation of the analysis might be
911 analogous to the treatment of a psychotic patient: investigation of
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A 33

111 projective identifications, confusional states, depersonalization,

2 and delusions.
3 Bahía (1977) introduces a relationship between the analyst’s
4 negative capacity and his omnipotent and arrogant curiosity, the
5 wish to know the truth at any cost instead of being tolerant with
6 “no-knowledge” (K). In a sense, this could also represent the ana-
711 lyst’s attachment to his/her own desire, which could be extended
8 to the level of omnipotent curiosity, meaning a true stupidity.
9 About Bion’s work on arrogance, Meltzer (1978) ironically com-
10 mented: “Certainly, for instance, the reading of the paper ‘On
1 Arrogance’ at the Paris congress struck many people as a shocking
2 display of the very hubris Bion was describing” (p. 31).
3
4 Articulation: In an undated note written in Cogitations (1992), Bion
5 explained its meaning as:
6
7 . . . it is a name for the process of bringing elements together, inte-
8 grating them, so that the combined parts form a complex whole.
9 The meaning I attach to the word will be clear if its use is contrasted
211 with that of “agglomeration” . . . [p. 158]
1
Perhaps here could be inferred the notion of the “selected
2
fact” taken from Poincaré, that Bion would use so extensively
3
later on.
4
5
6 Assimilation:9 Bion gives this concept exactly the same sense given
7 to the digestive function, such as “assimilation of sensuous impres-
8 sions”, but emphasizing also that he does not employ it as a “tech-
9 nical term” (1992, p. 157) Assimilation is well preserved within the
30
1
9
2 Similar to Bion, Piaget also used the digestive apparatus as a model to
understand the mind. Piaget introduced the existence of two functions: (a)
3 Organization, and (b) Adaptation. Any act by a living being implies a certain
4 degree of organization: from a protozoa’s simple act of phototropism, to the
5 more complex act of mathematical calculus. Adaptation entails a dynamic and
6 progressive process that also involves two functions: (a) Assimilation; and (b)
Accommodation. Assimilation represents the act of incorporating an external
7 reality inside mental schemata that is already there. Accommodation, on the
8 other hand, represents the change that the schemata must suffer in order to
911 assimilate the new experience.
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34 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 “Non-psychotic part of the personality”, but it is destroyed by the

2 psychotic part. This destruction does not impede that incorporated
3 but non assimilated sensuous impressions could be stored within
4 the self as things-in-themselves or foreign bodies, that could be
5 used as material for discharge. Bion states that,
6
The objects formed by the process that excludes assimilation are
7
amenable to the usages of a personality employing projective identi-
8
fication and its introjective counterpart, but do not lend themselves
9 to any function other than evacuation and return. [ibid. p. 161]
10
1 Destruction of the capacity to assimilate could be the product of the
2 superego’s sadistic and fragmentary attacks under the dominion of
3 the death instinct, producing a mental state similar to the physio-
4 logical state of starvation, together with an increased fear of immi-
5 nent annihilation (ibid., p. 164).
6 Bion remarks that people often refer to these stored objects,
711 shaped outside the process of assimilation or “unassimilated sense
8 impressions”, with names usually given to words in common use.
9 They are not names of feelings but they are contained in
20 these words, which are felt as if they were feeling themselves. “The
1 words employed for this purpose are those used in articu-
2 lated speech to express relatedness, such as ‘and’, ‘with’, ‘in’, ‘out-
3 side’ and all verbs” (ibid., p. 160). Patients might try to evacuate
4 these objects because of accretions of stimuli, by means of muscular
511 movements, changes in mien, changes in posture or attitude.
6
What appears to be an articulated sentence is an agglomeration of
7
objects, and is therefore not to be distinguished from the agglom-
8
eration manifest to the analyst as apparently inarticulate or inco-
9 herent. [ibid., p. 161]
311
1 Predominance of life over death instincts, leads towards dominance
2 of the impulse to repair the capacity for assimilation, something
3 observed in the patient’s use of verbal expressions that could be
4 used for the construction of dream thoughts and dreams, as well as
5 communication or association. These verbal statements are capable
6 of articulating with each other, are not suitable for projective iden-
7 tifications and represent transformations still in the process of
8 moving towards greater transformations, according to the assimila-
911 tion of future sense impressions.
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A 35

111 Asthma: Bion writes a short note about asthma, in Elements of

2 Psychoanalysis (1963), when trying to explain the Grid with the use
3 of models other than the one provided by the digestive tract, such
4 as respiratory, auditory, and tactile. He says: “It is worth noting that
5 clinical manifestations of asthma become psycho-analytically
6 more meaningful if their relationship to the respiratory model for
711 thinking–feeling is recognized” (p. 96).
8
9 At-one-ment: A term created by Bion to represent a fusion with the
10 other, as a form of “incarnation”, “embodiment” or “incorporation”
1 (1965, p. 163). It could be equivalent to what has been defined as
2 “empathy”, but much more complex. He describes it as a form of
3 relationship with O, something possible only when the final becom-
4 ing of the transformation in O is reached: T  O ( = TO). This
5 kind of open intuition intended towards a communion or fusion
6 with the truth, should be distinguished by the analyst from sensu-
7 ous greed and gratifications where memory and desire are present.
8 “The experience of at-one-ment resembles possession and sensuous
9 fulfilment”, says Bion (1970, p. 33). In other words, memory and
211 longing dominated by the pleasure principle, will always be
1 directed towards something gratifying that will saturate the mind
2 and forbid the necessary freedom and nakedness required to be in
3 touch with the thing-in-itself or at-one-ment. Bion states: “The evo-
4 cation of that which provided a container for possessions, and of
5 the sensuous gratifications with which to fill it, will differ from an
6 evocation simulated by at-one-ment” (ibid.). He also refers to the
7 existence of what he calls a “constellation”, a function that will
8 facilitate the precipitation of a constant conjunction and will act as
9 a form of catalyser to facilitate the fusion with O or at-one-ment, or
30 transformation of O  K.
1 In summary, at-one-ment during the analytical session repre-
2 sents an “embodiment” with O, with the thing-in-itself or the truth,
3 achieved without memory and desire, different from the kind of at-
4 one-ment observed between a couple who love each other, but
5 whose embodiment is based on memory and desire and is deter-
6 mined by the pleasure principle. Some remembrances might surface
7 in a form Bion distinguishes by the name of “constellations”, but
8 they evolve on their own, forced by the associations produced by a
911 constant conjunction that will ease the process of at-one-ment.
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36 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Attacks on linking (or that which joins): Bion mentioned this
2 concept for the first time in 1957 (1967, p. 48), as an attempt to
3 understand why psychotic patients or the psychotic part of the
4 personality, always present a certain consciousness of reality,
5 notwithstanding the extreme attack made on their verbal thinking.
6 Bion felt these attacks were oriented not so much against reality
7 itself, but against verbal thought, which according to Freud (1911),
8 represents the existing relationship between reality sense impres-
9 sions and consciousness, that is, between external and internal
10 realities; this is why, if this link is destroyed, thought and object
1 relations are disturbed, but consciousness of reality remains.
2 Bion used attacks and splitting on the “primitive breast or
3 penis”, as paradigmatic of all attacks made on links, and also
4 described the mechanism of projective identification as the way
5 the mind tries to free itself from fragments resulting from such
6 attacks (1967, p. 93). The main contribution on this subject consists of
711 the emphasis made on the link and not so much on the object, as was pre-
8 viously expressed by Klein.
9 Attacks on the link are originally made during the paranoid–
20 schizoid position, which is controlled by part-objects, whose rela-
1 tions are established not with the shape of the breast, but with its
2 contents, not with anatomy but with physiology, with its functions,
3 such as nutrition, loving, hating, poisoning, etc. It represents a more
4 dynamic than static condition (ibid., p. 102). This kind of part-object
511 relationship with himself and with others explain expressions
6
7 . . . such as “it seems”, which are commonly employed by the
deeply disturbed patient on occasions when a less disturbed patient
8
might say “I think” or “I believe”. “When he says ‘it seems’ he is
9
often referring to a feeling—an ‘it seems’ feeling—which is a part
311 of his psyche and yet is not observed as part of the whole object”.
1 [ibid., pp. 101–102]
2
3 For some patients projective identification becomes the only
4 form of link or communication that they have access to in order to
5 make themselves understood. They are usually patients who when
6 babies, experienced “nameless terror” of dying, which was not well
7 taken or contained by their mothers. Afterwards, these feelings
8 changed to hatred and were experienced in the transference as if
911 they were not well understood, that the analyst was someone who
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A 37

111 neither accepted their complaints, nor alleviated them. “Thus” said
2 Bion, “the link between patient and analyst, or infant and breast, is
3 the mechanism of projective identification” (ibid., p. 105). In extreme
4 cases, primitive envy and hatred is changed into greed, which ends
5 devouring the patient and the analyst’s minds, with the use of
6 acting-out, delinquency or suicide threats (ibid., p. 106).
711 Another important link destroyed by envy is the relationship
8 between both parents, something observed in attacks on “that
9 which joins” the couple, as well as their creativity and achieve-
10 ments, experienced also in the incorporated image (ibid., p. 99),
1 which is then internally attacked with mechanisms of “self envy”
2 (López-Corvo, 1992, 1994). Judgement as well as curiosity, also rep-
3 resents possible targets for fragmentation and evacuation that will
4 interfere with the capacity to learn (ibid., p. 103). See: Emotional
5 links, L, H, K, K, L, Maternal reverie and Nameless terror.
6 Attention: According to Freud (1911), it represents, together with
7 action, notation, judgement, and thought, one of the functions
8 used by the ego to reach consciousness of reality.
9
A special function was instituted which had periodically to search
211
the external world, in order that its data might be familiar already
1
if an urgent internal need should arise—the function of attention. Its
2 activity meets the sense-impressions half way, instead of awaiting
3 their appearance. [p. 220, original emphasis]
4
5 Bion has used this concept, together with those mentioned above,
6 as part of the horizontal axis of the Grid, in order to structure par-
7 ticular qualities and functions of the mind.
8
9 Awareness: see: Conscious awareness.
30
1 Axiomatic algebra: see: Psychic mathematics.
2
3 Axiomatic deductive system: see: Scientific deductive system.
4
5 Axis of uses: see: Grid, horizontal axis of the.
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 38

111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 39

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 B
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Babel Tower, myth of the: see: Tower of Babel, myth of the
1
2 Basic assumption (ba): Bion uses this to represent emotional com-
3 plications, which appear at a given moment in a rather automatic,
4 involuntary and unavoidable manner within a working group (W),
5 changing its direction and determining how it will function subse-
6 quently (1948b, pp. 105, 117). Bion describes three kinds of ba:
7 “dependence”, “pairing” and “fight–flight.” All ba have a leader,
8 although in the pairing group it would be “non-existent”,
9 i.e. “unborn”: the leader may not be identified with a person, but
30 with a metaphor, an idea or an inanimate object; whereas in the
1 dependent group, sometimes the leader may be filled by the history
2 of the group or “the bible” (ibid., p. 155).
3 Because of circumstances related to its own dynamics, a group
4 could change from one ba to another, while the other two ba remain
5 hidden or latent (ibid., p. 97). The surfacing of a ba can be appreci-
6 ated because of the kind of emotions present that act as the
7 “cement” that keeps the group assembled; for instance guilt and
8 depression in the dependent group, Messianic hope in the pairing
911 group, anger and hate in the fight–flight group (ibid., p. 166). The

39
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40 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 change from one ba to another is promoted by the failure of the

2 defences present in the manifest ba, unable to deal with anxiety
3 induced by mechanisms of disintegration always present in the
4 group. This situation will encourage the need to make use of other
5 defences present in the latent ba (ibid., p. 163), perhaps because at
6 that moment the defences present in the ba that has been chosen,
7 “appear far more to have the characteristics of defensive reactions
8 to psychotic anxiety” (ibid., p. 189).
9 There are no conflicts about the predominance of one ba over
10 the other, because the main line of divergence is always with W
1 (work group) (ibid., p. 96). During the course of one hour, for
2 instance, a therapeutic group could be dominated by several ba, or
3 perhaps one ba would take over the group for several months. The
4 communication between members of the group is instantaneous,
5 regardless of cultural differences or incapacity to form symbols,
6 and can be achieved following a mechanism Bion referred to as
711 “valence”, or the tendency of an individual to “combine” with the
8 group, depending on a specific ba (ibid., pp. 151–152). The domi-
9 nating ba represents what Bion has described as the “establish-
20 ment”, which might be present in any existing social structure.
1 As already stated, a ba changes depending on the way the pre-
2 dominant defences from this manifest ba fail, giving place then to
3 other anxieties related to a latent ba. There are, however, other vari-
4 eties Bion has referred to as “aberrant forms of change”, linked to
511 the dominating ba and the presence of an external group.
6 Brown (1985) established a relationship between the three forms
7 of ba and the psycho-sexual stages of evolution described by Freud.
8 According to him the dependent ba would represent a form of
9 regression to the “oral dependent” phase characterized by the
311 interaction present in the baby–mother dyad; the fight–flight would
1 equally be a regression to the “separation–individuation” period
2 related to the anal stage, and finally, the pairing group would indi-
3 cate a regression to the phallic or Oedipal stage (p. 198).
4 Other researchers in the area of group therapy, such as Turquet
5 or Lawrence et al., have attempted to create new forms of basic
6 assumptions. Turquet (1974), for instance, defined the “Oneness
7 basic assumption” (Oba), which could be translated as a kind of
8 unity, referring to the members of a group who “seek to join in a
911 powerful union with an omnipotent force . . . to be lost in oceanic
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B 41

111 feelings of unity.” Lawrence, Bain and Gould (1996), on the other
2 hand, have suggested the presence of a fifth ba they refer to as “Me-
3 ness” (baM), which they define as a basic assumption completely
4 opposed to Turquet’s “oneness”, and representing the tendency of
5 the members to prevent the formation of the group, for they fear
6 they might “disappear” in the group or be persecuted by it.
711 See: Work groups, Dependent ba, Flight–fight ba, Pairing ba,
8 Schism, Oscillation of Dba, Valence.
9
10 Beckett, Samuel: From the beginning of 1934 to the end of 1935,
1 Bion analysed this Irish writer and 1969 Nobel Prize winner, some-
2 thing never mentioned by him in his autobiography (Bion, 1982,
3 1985). According to Anzieu (1986) perhaps both men might have
4 influenced each other, as some kind of “imaginary twins”, for they
5 had many things in common: French Huguenot ancestors who
6 escaped to England because of religious persecution, “schizoid and
7 narcissistic” features, as well as making use of culture as a “conti-
8 nent” to deal with psychotic components. Perhaps, says Anzieu, if
9 someone had asked Bion about his motivation to write he would
211 have given the same answer Beckett did: “Bon qu’á ça”, meaning:
1 “I am only good for that”.
2 Bléandonu (1994), on the other hand, stated that Beckett’s ther-
3 apy helped him not only to understand himself better but also to
4 show more of himself in his writings, even though he had to dis-
5 continue it prematurely because of the consolidation of a negative
6 therapeutic reaction:
7
8
Beckett could not progress until he could acknowledge his “addic-
9
tive” relationship to his mother. Nine years older than Beckett,
30
Bion, who was still in therapy with Hadfield, became, in the trans-
1
ference, the writer’s older brother Frank (it was in his bed that
2 “Sam” [Beckett] sought refuge from his nocturnal panic attacks
3 before coming to London). The two men shared many intellectual
4 interests, especially literature. At times they discussed, even argued
5 about, the nature of the creative process. According to Beckett, the
6 “analysis” was limping along . . . he could not make a choice
7 between Bion and his mother. His body somatized, producing
8 boils, tremors and an anal abscess. Beckett announced his intention
911 of stopping at the end [around Christmas] of 1935. [p. 45]
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42 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Beta-elements: (-elements): These represent sensual impressions

2 identical to what Bion, following Kant, has called the thing-in-
3 itself. He described them as “. . . objects compounded of things-in-
4 themselves, feelings of depression–persecution and guilt and
5 therefore aspects of personality linked by a sense of catastrophe”
6 (1963, p. 40).
7 At the beginning he referred to them as “indigested or non-
8 dreamed facts” that have not been transformed by -function
9 (1992, p. 64), and later on: “unreal or dead objects” in contrast with
10 -elements, to which he referred as “alive and real objects” [1992,
1 p. 133). Bion has also defined them as “. . . objects compounded of
2 things-in-themselves, feelings of depression–persecution [as seen in
3 the paranoid–schizoid position] and guilt and therefore aspects of
4 personality linked by a sense of catastrophe” (1963, p. 40). Finally,
5 in an undated note in Cogitations, he called them “-elements”
6 (1992, p. 181).
711 At the beginning all sensuous impressions belong to the proto-
8 mental system incapable of discriminating between mental and
9 physical impressions. Beta elements are not synonymous with mental
20 pathology, instead they represent a type of non-verbal communica-
1 tion, perhaps an intuitive one, commonly used by children (1974a,
2 pp. 127–128), by the psychotic part of the personality or by psy-
3 chotic patients. Because these individuals lack -function in order
4 to work through (digest, metabolize) abstractions, they use beta
511 elements that cannot be intellectually conceptualized and are thus
6 communicated by mechanisms of projective identification. Bion
7 says:
8
9 Beta-elements are a way of talking about matters which are not
311 thought at all; alpha-elements are a way of talking about elements
which, hypothetically, are supposed to be part of thought. The poet
1
Donne10 has written “the blood spoke in her cheek . . . as if
2
her body thought!” This expresses exactly for me that intervening
3
stage which in the Grid is portrayed on paper as a line separating
4
5
10
6 Her pure and eloquent blood
Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought,
7 That one might almost say, her body thought. [“The Second Anniversary. By
8 occasion of the religious death of Mistress Elisabeth Drury,” poem written
911 by British poet John Donne, 1572–1631].
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B 43

111 beta-elements from alpha-elements. Note that I am not saying that

2 it is either beta or alpha, but the line separating the two which is
3 represented by the poet’s words. [1990, p. 41)
4
If -function is troubled and therefore inoperative, sense
5
impressions as well as emotions remain untouched and become
6
-elements, which cannot be used to produce dream thoughts.
711
Instead they are evacuated through projective identifications that
8
discharge the mental apparatus from accretion of stimuli and influ-
9
ence as well as the configuration of acting-out. Such discharges can
10
take place through muscular movements or facial expressions, etc.
1
or can also be used in some kind of evacuative thought good for
2
manipulation (1962, p. 6).11 Even though they can be stored they do
3
not represent memories like -elements do, but represent “undi-
4
gested facts”, and in contrast with them too, they are not felt to
5
be phenomena but things-in-themselves. Beta-elements cannot
6
become unconscious and therefore cannot be repressed, suppressed
7
nor used to learn from experience.
8
The breast provider of love, security and wisdom, can in some
9
cases generate such cruel envy in the baby, that it could induce him
211
to attack the breast furiously and thus generate a conflict between
1
the need to suck in order to survive and fear of retaliation.
2
According to Bion, in those cases the only way out would be to
3
attack the alpha-function, which would make both, the breast and
4
the baby, feel like inanimate things (see: animate-inanimate) where
5
the homicidal or suicidal destructive impulses remain present.
6
When envy and aggression disturb the baby’s relationship with the
7
breast, there comes a point when the baby must continue sucking
8
in order to avoid death. The fear provoked by the destructive
9
power of envy induces splitting between psychic and material
30
aspects, that is, between the need for affection and the need for sus-
1
tenance respectively. This split makes him mistake the need for
2
affection for accumulation of material things, which represent
3
-elements. When the patient lacks the -function that enables him
4
to discriminate the animate from the inanimate, he then turns to a
5
6
7 11
Green (2001), has argued, referring to the Internet, that this form of com-
8 munication “reminded him too much of a hypothetical channel through which
911 beta-elements were discharged” (Personal communication).
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44 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 greedy accumulation of material things and a continuous search for

2 material comfort, considered by Bion as real representatives of
3 -elements. Because he lacks:
4
5 . . . the apparatus, -function by which he might understand his
predicament. The patient greedily and fearfully takes one beta-
6
element after another apparently unable to conceive of any activity
7
other than introjection of more beta-elements. [1962, p. 11]
8
9 This can be observed in the consulting room, for instance, by the
10 interest the patient shows towards the material objects around him,
1 such as furniture, the couch, etc. It can also be observed by the fact
2 that the patient is not capable of conceiving either himself or the
3 ones who surround him as live persons. Some patients frequently
4 come to consult under the following model: they feel themselves to
5 be machines, they do not know how well they function, and since
6 the analyst must know better they ask for help in much the same
711 way a mechanic fixes real machines.
8 -elements are saturated as are bizarre objects, but they differ
9 from them in that they only contain sense-impressions while the
20 latter also include ego, and especially superego, aspects (ibid., p. 26).
1 In some situations -elements can be changed into -elements, as
2 can be observed, for instance, during the maternal reverie: “. . . the
3 fear [of the baby] is modified [by the mother] and the -element
4 thereby made into an -element” (1963, p. 27). “It is tempting to
511 suppose”, says Bion further on, “that the transformation of -
6 element to -element depends on   and the operation of
7 PsD depends on the prior operation of  ” (ibid., p. 39). The
8  elements are dispersed, but they can reach cohesion through
9 PsD or through a selected fact, unless a container  is found
311 by the patient, that compels cohesion of the -elements to form the
1 contained  (ibid., p. 40), a change that Bion explains through
2 “psycho-mechanic” mechanisms. [ibid., p.84) See: Grid, vertical
3 axis.
4 A process of elaboration of these concepts, as well as of alpha-
5 function and alpha-elements, can be read in Cogitations (pp. 62–68),
6 written in 1959. There Bion identifies alpha-function with dream
7 work and beta-elements with “indigested facts that have not been
8 dreamed” (1992, p. 64). Such constructions about alpha and beta-
911 elements could be interpreted as an extension of “secondary and
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B 45

111 primary precesses” respectively, as they were described within

2 classical theory.
3 Green (2000) compares Freud’s concept of “unconscious Id
4 impulses” with beta elements. He states:
5
6 The main difference between Id and unconscious is that in Freud’s
711 thinking there were no representations of the Id. The Id was made
8 of impulses—a concept very close to Bion’s beta elements. He was
aware of that. The main difference between Bion and Freud could
9
be that for Freud the drives always had their source in the most
10
inner part of the body, whereas for Bion beta-elements may arise
1 from external stimuli . . . [p. 115]
2
3 These statements could be questioned, because Klein and Bion,
4 as opposed to Freud, believe that impulses and objects are not
5 separable, one is the “corollary” of the other. There is no such thing
6 as an impulse free of an object representation, therefore, even beta-
7 elements as things-in-themselves, as the ineffable, endure the
8 implicit presence of an object. How then can impulses be projected?
9 How can an object-free impulse be projected? When Bion compares
211 beta elements with sense impressions, he is referring to an object’s
1 sense impressions. That is why, as Green expresses it, these ele-
2 ments “arise from external stimuli”.
3
4 Beta-screen: see: Screen of beta-elements.
5
6
Beta-space (-space): According to Bion it represents a mental
7
space of “unthoughts”, “unthinkable thoughts” and thoughts
8
“without a thinker” (see: “wild thoughts”). A mental domain that
9
extends in time, space and style in such a manner that it could only
30
be explained (or thought by a thinker) using astronomical analo-
1
gies. In this universe there are also “constellations of alpha-
2
elements” capable of composing
3
4 . . . universes of discourse that are characterized by containing and
5 being contained by terms such as, “void”, “formless infinite”,
6 “god”, “infinity”. This sphere I shall name by borrowing the term,
7 noösphere . . . but as I wish to avoid too great a penumbra of
8 associations, particularly those activated by the term, “sphere”, I
911 shall employ a sign that is as devoid of meaning as I can make it
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46 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 (compatible with retention of its capacity for communicability)

2  (sigma).” [1992, p. 313]
3
4 What eventually would make a difference to the outcome of all
5 these constellations, would be the presence of a “thinker” contain-
6 ing an alpha-function capable of transforming, or not, any of these
7 wild thoughts or unthinkable thoughts, or using “lost” or wild
8 alpha-elements that eventually might allow an illumination by O as
9 a “formless infinity”.
10
1 Bible, the: Name used by Bion to refer to the manner in which a
2 dependent group behaves when trying to use past references or the
3 history of the group as an abstract entity to depend on, usually
4 when the group therapist refuses to promote dependency by disre-
5 garding the role of a leader.
6 The group resorts to bible-making when threatened with an idea
711 the acceptance of which would entail development on the part
8 of the individuals comprising the group. Such ideas derive emo-
9 tional force, and excite emotional opposition, from their association
20 with characteristics appropriate to the pairing-group leader.
1 [1948b, p. 155]
2
3 See: basic assumptions, dependent group.
4
511 Binocular vision: The use of vision as a regulating or integrating
6 element can be found in Bion’s article “The Imaginary Twin” (1967,
7 p. 3), where he refers to the way the “visual concern” experienced by
8 three of his patients represented “the emergence of a new capacity
9 for exploring the environment” and to resolveearly conflicts that
311 had always been there, although its observation was obstructed by
1 the lack of intellectual perception and the conflict brought by the
2 phantasy of the “imaginary twin”. Bion said:
3
I have wondered whether the psychological development was
4 bound up with the development of ocular control in the same way
5 that problems of development linked with oral aggression co-exist
6 with the eruption of teeth. [1967, p. 22]
7
8 Elsewhere, Bion (1962) states that Freud’s position considering con-
911 sciousness as a sense organ of psychical qualities, although true,
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B 47

111 was incomplete, because psychoanalytic vision required not only

2 the presence of consciousness, but of the unconscious too:
3
4 The model is formed by the exercise of a capacity similar to
that which is in evidence when the two eyes operate in binocular
5
vision to correlate two views of the same object. The use in psy-
6
choanalysis of conscious and unconscious in viewing a psychoan-
711
alytic object is analogous to the use of the two eyes in ocular
8 observation of an object sensible to sight. Freud attributed this func-
9 tion, the sense organ of psychical quality, to consciousness alone
10 [1962, p. 86]
1
2 The interaction of analyst and analysand could also act as a binoc-
3 ular vision (1965, p. 74).
4 In “Transformations” (1965), Bion puts forward arguments
5 about the “reversible perspective”, where a patient could be
6 observed to alter his attitude towards an object by changing his
7 view-point, representing a procedure that involves splitting in
8 time and space, because in this circumstance the patient and the
9 analyst’s time–space dimensions are completely different.
211 Reversible perspective can be understood as a kind of binocular
1 vision that will be dealt with and modified, paradoxically with the
2 help of the analyst’s binocular vision.
3 There is also a binocular vision between the presence and the
4 absence of an object represented for instance by a point, that is, the
5 place where the object was but no longer is, which can be observed
6 in language with words that signal the objects, or symbols that
7 represent them, but are not the real object. This form of binocular
8 vision is absent in psychotic patients or in the psychotic part of
9 the personality, because thinking is dominated by symbolic
30 equations.
1 Bion makes observations about binocular vision in relation to
2 time and space dimensions, like keeping one eye in the present and
3 another in the past or in the future. He differentiates, for instance,
4 between a patient who is conscious of his “past” that no longer
5 exists, as can be observed in the transference, and the mathemati-
6 cian who is unconscious of a “future” discovery that has not yet
7 come to pass. To represent these two positions he develops a scale,
8 which at one end represents the past, and at the other the future.
911 He gives the unconscious a sense, thus:
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48 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 ––––––––––> <–––––––––- –––––––>

2 unconscious and unconscious; reciprocally, conscious and
3 <–––––––
4 conscious. The “state of mind of the mathematician unaware
5 of mathematical formal artifices can then be represented by
6 ––––––––––>
7 unconscious and that of the disturbed patient [who expresses
8 frustration intolerance about the absence of the breast can also
9 <–––––––
10 be represented] by conscious (1965, p. 85). The sense of the arrows
1 can also symbolize the denial of the present, because the patient
2 will try to search in the past for the scent of the absent breast with
3 his conscious, while the mathematician would keep the level of
4 future knowledge in his unconscious; this could be represented
5 with a point “where the present used to be.” See: Analogy, Links,
6 Attacks on linking, Reversible perspective, Intra-uterine life, No-
711 breast, Point, Symbolic equation.
8
9 Bishop George Berkeley: see: “Ghosts of departed quantities”
20
1 Bizarre objects: Are seen in psychotic patients, and are made of
2 particles that once free from the mind, become encysted in external
3 objects and will either contain these objects or be contained by
4 them, in the sense of the container–contained ( ) theory. These
511 objects differ from beta–elements because in their structure they
6 also have, beside these later elements, ego and superego traces
7 (1962, p. 25). “Each particle”, says Bion, “is felt to consist of a real
8 external object which is encapsulated in a piece of personality that
9 has engulfed it”. The external object then acquires the characteris-
311 tics of the projected particles; for instance, if the object is a gramo-
1 phone into which visual aspects have been projected, the psychotic
2 patient will feel that when the gramophone is working, it will also
3 be watching him, or listening, if the part projected is auditory (1967,
4 pp. 39–48). At the same time, the chosen object can control the func-
5 tion that contains it and, because these personality particles can be
6 felt as prototypes of ideas—and then words—external ideas and
7 objects become homologous to such a point that the capacity to
8 make symbols becomes impossible. Instead, as Segal (1957) has
911 described it, the patient equates, but does not symbolize.
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B 49

111 See: “symbolic equation”. The patient now moves in a world made
2 out of bizarre objects, which are ordinarily used as dream furni-
3 ture. Another consequence would be that when psychotic patients
4 discover that things are ruled by natural laws and not by the
5 omnipotence of their mental functioning, they become puzzled.
6 Something similar happened to a catatonic patient who felt that
711 when he joined his thumb and forefinger, the world would move,
8 birds would fly, people would breathe and so on. These objects
9 make up the dream material present in delusions (1967, pp. 81–82).
10 On the other hand, within the non-psychotic part of the personal-
1 ity, these bizarre “. . . objects, primitive yet complex, partake of
2 qualities which in the non-psychotic personality are peculiar to
3 matter, anal objects, senses, ideas and superego” (ibid., p. 51).
4
5 Bride’s Chair theorem: see: Theorem of the Bride’s Chair
6
7
8
9
211
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 50

111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 51

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 C
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Caesura: Greek and Latin related word, describes a short break or
1 pause made on certain occasions in verse. In “Inhibitions,
2 Symptoms and Anxiety”, Freud (1926) states: “There is much more
3 continuity between intra-uterine life and earliest infancy than
4 the impressive caesura of the act of birth would have us believe”
5 (p. 138). Bion extends the metaphor to include the existence of a
6 threshold that unites/separates or separates/penetrates different
7 dimensions described as similitude or differences; for instance, the
8 resistance in psychoanalytic communication (1987, p. 298), the
9 interaction between the mouth and the breast, intrauterine and
30 adult lives, between the individual and the couple or between
1 oriental and occidental cultures. Bion says:
2
3 Picasso painted a picture on a piece of glass so that it could be seen
4 on both sides. I suggest that the same thing can be said of the
5 caesura: it depends which way you look at it, which way you are
6 travelling. Psychosomatic disorders, or soma-psychotic—take your
7 choice—the picture should be recognizably the same whether you
8 look at it from the psychosomatic position, or from the soma-
911 psychotic position. [ibid., p. 306]

51
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52 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 In relation to time Bion formulates:

2
3 . . . the patient may express a fear of the future which has many of
the characteristics of a past which one thinks he could not possibly
4
remember; nor can he remember the future because it has not yet
5
happened. These things, so faintly expressed, may in truth be very
6 powerful. I can imagine that there may be ideas which cannot be
7 more powerfully expressed because they are buried in the future
8 which has not happened, or buried in the past which is forgotten,
9 and which can hardly be said to belong to what we call “thought”.
10 [1977a, p. 43]
1
2 Then he questions:
3
Can any method of communication be sufficiently “penetrating” to
4
pass that caesura in the direction from post-natal conscious thought
5 back to the pre-mental in which thoughts and ideas have their
6 counterpart in “times” or “levels” of mind where they are not
711 thoughts or ideas? That penetration has to be effective in either
8 direction. It is easy to put it in pictorial terms by saying it is like
9 penetrating into the woman’s inside either from inside out, as at
20 birth, or from outside in, as in sexual intercourse. [ibid., p. 45]
1
2 Bion speculates that many incidents in the mind of patients, just as
3 Freud expressed in relation to birth, might be strongly influenced
4 by what could have happened during their intra-uterine life. He
511 concludes:
6
So. . . .? Investigate the caesura; not the analyst; not the analysand;
7 not the unconscious; not sanity; not insanity. But the caesura, the
8 link, the synapse, the (counter-trans)-ference, the transitive–intran-
9 sitive mood. [ibid., p. 56]
311
1 Calculus: Bion used it as part of H category, the last one in the
2 “vertical axis” of the Grid, signifying how a scientific deductive
3 system could be represented using algebraic calculus. Different
4 signs are brought together in the algebraic calculus according to
5 certain rules of combinations, for instance: (a + b)2 = a2 + b2 + 2ab,
6 which may be successively replaced by numbers following the
7 scheme provided by this statement, a formula that will also retain
8 a certain capacity for saturation (1963, pp. 24–25 ). Bion established
911 a line of comparison between the latent content—for instance the
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C 53

111 latent content of a dream—and algebraic calculus, in the sense that

2 both could be regarded as the starting point of an expansion (like
3 free association in dreams and the successive expansion of mathe-
4 matical formulas, like replacing letters with numbers) that is coher-
5 ent within itself and is often found to be applicable to data of an
6 empirically verifiable kind (1992, pp. 127–130).
711 Differential calculus, introduced by Galileo, Newton and
8 Descartes, results in a satisfactory instrument useful to deal with K,
9 mainly in its inanimate dimension, but it is inadequate to induce
10 growth. It only allows accumulation of knowledge about know-
1 ledge or increment of K, but never of O.
2
3 Castration: Bion argues that true castration is the one the Id carries
4 out against the ego, similar to Klein’s (1931) description of the
5 sadistic attacks made by the child, in his own phantasies, against
6 his mother’s body. Bion also refers to extremely sadistic attacks
made against consciousness attached to sense organs, as well as
7
functions such as attention, notation, judgement, capacity to toler-
8
ate frustration, and motor discharge or action, and most of all, the
9
attacks made on thinking as seen in psychotic patients.
211
1 Catastrophic change: A concept that shows some resemblance to
2 “catastrophe theory”, introduced by René Thom, a French mathe-
3 matician who refers to abrupt changes between two stable states, as
4 a theory to explain many situations involving a rapid change of
5 behaviour such as occurs when an attacking animal turns to flight
6 or when a stock market crashes.
7 Bion relates “catastrophic change” to “subversion of the order or
8 system of things; it is catastrophic in the sense that it is accompanied
9 by feelings of disaster in the participants . . . [and that] it is sudden
30 and violent in an almost physical way” (1965, p. 8). It usually occurs
1 when a change that has taken place cannot be contained, following
2 the container/contained theory. For instance the case of a borderline
3 patient who, during analytical treatment, improves to the point of
4 building up psychotic symptoms, which induces alarm in other
5 people, such as the family physician, relatives and even lawyers
6 who get involved. Bion discriminates between a pre-catastrophic
7 and a post-catastrophic period, and evaluates the transformation
8 between the two in three main aspects: (a) subversion of the system;
911 (b) violence; and (c) invariants.
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54 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 First of all there is a subversion of the system because the ana-
2 lytic setting changes from one to different persons. (a) The first or
3 pre-catastrophic one is characterized by being theoretical, without
4 emotions, devoid of major changes, and with a predominance of
5 hypochondriacal symptoms. (b) The nature of its violence is con-
6 fined to interpretations and analytical insight, some kind of
7 “theoretical violence”. In the post-catastrophic period, by contrast,
8 the violence is obvious and it is present in the patient and the
9 analyst. Hypochondriacal12 elements however are less evident.
10 (c) Regarding the invariants present in the transformation, Bion
1 highlights that the patient’s hypochondriacal symptoms during the
2 previous stage have become external, for they have been trans-
3 formed into suffering and anxiety (impending law-suits, mental
4 hospitals, certification, etc.) suffered by the family, the patient and
5 the analyst during the post-catastrophic stage. Processes during this
6 catastrophic change correspond to the patient: Tp, Tp, Tp, which
711 represent the analyst’s major preoccupation, although he also
8 should consider his own: T, Ta, Ta, as well as T (public), (1965,
9 pp. 8–11) (see “abbreviations” at the beginning of this dictionary).
20 Transformations from an old system into a new one can take
1 place without the existence of a catastrophic change; for this to hap-
2 pen the old system must transform and adapt to the new one. When
3 the contrary takes place, the catastrophic change would be repre-
4 sented by the injury the new truth might create on the old one that
511 has not adapted (Grotstein, 1981, p. 24).
6
7 Causality, theory of: Refers to a cause–effect correlation, or neces-
8 sary sequence of events, following rational means. Corresponds to
9 a definitory hypothesis, or category 1 of the Grid (1965, p. 79). Bion
311 follows Hume’s postulates that deny a theory of causality, because
1 there is not a logical rationality between two events, but some kind
2 of initial accident that turns into a compulsion afterwards. Hume
3 conceived as a constant conjunction this determinant relationship
4 of causality, where one event follows another without any logical
5 presupposition (ibid., pp. 64–65). One difficulty of this system is that
6 it fails to discriminate between a deductive scientific system and
7
8 12
In the text “hypochandriachal” is written several times instead of
911 “hypochondriacal”.
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C 55

111 animism, that is, between depressive and paranoid–schizoid posi-

2 tions. Bion introduces the existence of two opposite systems, one
3 related to K considered as pseudo-causation, and another related
4 to K or causation proper. For instance, pseudo-causation could be a
5 chain of -elements, or situations related to absence of objects, the
6 “presence of an absence”, like minus breasts (see: point). Bion
711 explains:
8
9 The patient’s attention passes from one -element to the next, all
linked by a chain of pseudo-causation to deny that their “cause” or
10
genesis lay in the destruction and dispersal of their common origin.
1
[1965, p. 79]
2
3 Points in a line, meaning a continuous chain of events, could geo-
4 metrically represent both, causation and pseudo-causation (ibid.,
5 pp. 79–80).
6
7 Circle: Bion uses it as a geometrical visual image, similar to the
8 point or the line, all considered analogous to a pre-conception,
9 although belonging to category H of the Grid, because they repre-
211 sent algebraic transformations (1965, p. 100). Bion uses the circle as
1 a pictorial representation of the mind. He states:
2
3 The circle, useful to some personalities as a visual image of “inside
4 and outside”, is to other personalities, notably the psychotic, evi-
5 dence that no such dividing membrane exists. [ibid., p. 82]
6
7 It could be speculated that he is phenomenologically conceiving the
8 mind as similar to the Möbius strip.
9 A line that cuts a circle, says Bion (similar to the relationship
30 between an object and the mind), has the following possibilities:13
1 (i) Real and distinct (or actual and separate): inside the circle, in the
2 internal world; would represent a relationship in which analyst–
3 analysand work harmonically in search of O and its transformation
4 in K. (ii) Real and coincident (or actual and coincident): when the
5 line is a tangent equally inside and outside of the circle. It repre-
6 sents a relation dominated by feelings of omnipotence and ideal-
7 ization resistant to change. (iii) Conjugate complex: when the line
8
911 13
See figure in Complex conjugate.
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56 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 is completely outside the circle. Represents narcissism: a mirror rep-

2 resentation in which the external is compensated by the internal; for
3 instance, an analyst–patient interaction dominated by a reversible
4 perspective (ibid., p. 83).
5 The movement of a line around a circle, from a position inside
6 to merely tangential touching it and then completely outside, rep-
7 resents a transformation. “In the domain of thought,” says Bion,
8 “where a straight line can be regarded as lying within, or touching
9 or wholly outside, a circle, a transformation has been effected”
10 (ibid., p. 83). See: line, point, conjugate complex, no-thing, no-exis-
1 tence, no-breast, ,  .
2
3 Circular argument: Bion states “that probably any logical argument
4 is essentially circular” (1997, p. 18). An argument of this kind can
5 be seen in the patient who says that he feels angry because he is
6 depressed, and when asked why is he depressed, he then answers,
711 because he is angry. Bion classifies the “argument” in relation to the
8 “size” of its circularity:
9
20 I decided that the difficulties that arose depended (to extend the use
of the circle as a model) on the diameter. If the circular argument
1
has a large enough diameter, its circular character is not detected
2
and may, for all I know, contribute to useful discoveries such as I
3 understand the curvature in space to be . . . Conversely, the diam-
4 eter can be so reduced that the circle itself disappears and only a
511 point remains. [1997, p. 18]
6
7 A psychotic patient became very disturbed immediately after
8 his twenty-two-year-old younger brother committed suicide. A
9 very important problem with this patient was, as is often observed
311 with psychotics, the difficulty in following the bizarre sequence of
1 associations in his discourse. Some time later it turned out that this
2 patient felt so close to this brother because he was trapped inside a
3 very powerful dilemma, as a consequence of two different experi-
4 ences in his life. When he was thirteen and his brother eleven, he
5 accidentally shot him with a home-made rifle. Although he became
6 very ill he survived. It was then understood that the confusion in
7 his manifest discourse was the consequence of some kind of mono-
8 logue. For instance, he would say one word trying to express a
911 wish, and it was immediately followed by another word that was
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111 an anticipation of what he felt the Other—the interlocutor—wished

2 to say. It was an attempt to avoid the aggression from the projec-
3 tions of a very sadistic superego. Apparently he was trapped
4 between two different moments in his life: the present time when
5 his brother was dead because he had committed suicide, and the
6 past when the patient was the one who shot him but he had sur-
711 vived. In his monologue it seemed as if he was endlessly saying: “I
8 shot my brother, but he didn’t die, but he is dead, but I didn’t shoot
9 him” and so on. Such splitting of time was his manner of dealing
10 with the persecutory anxiety induced by his fratricidal impulses
1 present in the transference (Lopez-Corvo, 1994). The diameter
2 reduction of the circular argument between these two incidents was
3 so small and so fast, that it interfered with the patient’s discourse
4 making the dialogue absolutely incomprehensible.
5 Bion also adds:
6
7 There is implicit in this [in the diameter size] the possibility that
8 there must be distance between the correlated statements if mean-
ing is to be achieved. If “madness” is feared, the operation that
9
leads to meaning is avoided. The circular argument must therefore
211
be of small diameter to preclude the conjunction of meaning and a
1
feeling of madness. [1997, p. 20]
2
3 In other words, the diameter’s size represents a defence against the
4 awareness of madness: if the diameter is small there is less possi-
5 bility for consciousness of being sick and less danger of acting-out;
6 but if the diameter is greater and the argument acquires a sense that
7 could lead to awareness of madness, there is then the danger of
8 acting-out such as suicide.
9
30 Claustrophobia–agoraphobia: Bion says little about agoraphobia
1 or claustrophobia; he associates them with acting-out using the the-
2 ory of container–contained. Agoraphobia represents a contained
3 outside a container, while claustrophobia represents the opposite: a
4 contained trapped inside a container.
5
6 Acting-out, as it is ordinarily understood, takes place “in” the analy-
7 sis and analysis is then itself a part of acting-out . . . When a patient
8 can be said to be acting-out the analysis is “in” a situation of which
911 the boundaries are unknown. If the behaviour characterized as
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58 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 “acting-out” is brought to the analysis it can be accompanied by

2 claustrophobic symptoms in the patient. [1970, p. 110]
3
4 When the patient’s acting-out is contained by the analysis as a con-
5 tainer, the patient could feel trapped.
6
7 Clouds of probabilities: Represents an abstract and cryptic visual
8 model Bion used just once to represent questions taking place dur-
9 ing the session between the analyst and his patient and vice versa.
10 He might be referring to a model of psychoanalytic listening, of
1 “searching for a meaning” to take place, one of which, the trans-
2 formation O  K could be obtained by means of an act of faith,
3 similar to the model of hallucinosis he described in relation to
4 psychotic patients.
5 In this model Bion imagines the existence of two points, one cor-
6 responding to “clouds above” and another he refers as a “hot-point
711 in a summer’s day” located below. He considers also the tension
8 between both points. The entire model would fit in category C of
9 the Grid.
20 At a given moment the tension could change from clouds of
1 probabilities to clouds of possibilities, doubts, certitudes, depres-
2 sion, guilt, hope, fear, etc.; while the hot-point could correspond,
3 for instance, to the analyst or the patient’s genitals, dress, positions,
4 an insect in the room, or some other location that might acquire
511 relevance during the session. Bion compares the visual model (it
6 could be also odoriferous, audible, etc.) with a geometrical
7 model of points and lines, but this, he said, could be less open,
8 more saturated. The important thing, he adds, is for the model
9 to remain unsaturated “searching for a meaning”: ( ()) (1965,
311 pp. 117–118). See: Saturated–unsaturated elements, Psi, , Pre-
1 conception.
2
3 Cogitations: According to Francesca Bion, “Cogitations” represents
4 the name given by Bion to his “own thoughts transferred to paper.”
5 It is also the name of a posthumous recollection of some of Bion’s
6 manuscripts (1992, p. vii). Bion’s daughter, Parthenope, said that
7 these notes were perhaps written with the purpose of publication
8 at a given time, because she cannot otherwise explain why he took
911 them with him when he moved from England to Los Angeles, and
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111 then brought them back again ten years later when he went back to
2 England. There are also paragraphs where Bion approaches the
3 reader directly. In this sense Green (1992), had said:
4
5 Compared with Bion’s published works, the Cogitations are
6 thrilling to read and often less difficult to assimilate, because the
author’s formulations are less condensed and because he makes us
711
witnesses to the process of the unfolding of his thought. We liter-
8
ally follow him. [p. 585]
9
10
Commensal relationship: Represents a container–contained ( )
1
form of interaction, in which two objects share a third to the advan-
2
tage of all three, for instance the relationship between a child
3
(1) and his mother (2), where both can benefit from each other in
4
experience as well as mental growth (3) (1962, p. 91); or the thinker
5
who contains an idea or an invention with a purpose that is bene-
6
ficial for both, the inventor and his invention. In the first place there
7
is the sum of all the  represented as:  = ( +  + ), meaning
8
a continual series of doubts (ideas, inventions, etc.) or variables,
9
that are linked by emotions and could be best condensed as: n.
211
These contents would introduce themselves (see: wild thoughts) in
1
successive containers = ( +  + ) that could be better repre-
2
3 sented as n + n. The possibility of learning from experience will
4 be based on these successive fusions and integration, of n + n,
5 that should also remain open, free of rigidities and always ready for
6 any future assimilation. Any individual whose mind works in this
7 manner will display a capacity to retain knowledge and experience,
8 be able to use his past experiences and be receptive to new ones.
9 (ibid., pp. 92–93). It is obvious that K levels will depend on this kind of
30 commensal relationship.
1 Besides the commensal form of   relationship, Bion also
2 described the symbiotic and the parasitic one. See: Container–
3 contained, Symbiotic, Parasitic.
4
5 Common sense: From Bion’s statements about this concept, four
6 different points of view can be conjectured: (1) a conception estab-
7 lished from a public or social vertex; (2) a private, individual
8 or narcissistic vision; (3) a perceptive–cognitive vertex; (4) a
911 perceptive–emotional point of view.
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60 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 (1) It represents a sense that is common to more than one person,
2 or a sense used for recognition of a fact by more than one
3 observer, something often used in psychoanalytical presenta-
4 tions (1963, p. 10); it is related, according to Bion, with concepts
5 such as a ‘selected fact’, or a ‘link’ that unites facts having a
6 deep but hidden analogy (1992, p. 18).
7 (2) Common sense could also be used from a private vertex within
8 the individual, like “an adequate description covering an
9 experience felt to be supported by all the senses without dis-
10 harmony” (ibid., p. 10). For instance, the sudden and unpre-
1 dicted tactile contact with fur gives rise to the thought of an
2 animal that can be confirmed visually, and finally reaches a con-
3 sensus or a common sense agreement about what kind of
4 animal the fur belongs to. It is common sense that allows the
5 conclusion that the observed facts are really facts. Common
6 sense would be absent in the psychotic part of the personality,
711 when the delusional patient seems to have a feeling or a belief
8 that although compatible with his own delusion, lacks the
9 logical “sense” common to the rest of the observers.14 Bion
20 introduced this concept when he referred to his theory of
1 thinking. There he said:
2
3 The failure to bring about this conjunction of sense-data, and there-
4 fore of a commonsense view induces a mental state of debility in
the patient as if starvation of truth was somehow analogous to ali-
511
mentary starvation. [1967, p. 119]
6
7
(3) All the examples provided so far, from public as well as private
8
points of view, belong to a cognitive vertex.
9
(4) In relation to a “common emotional vision”, equivalent to a
311
vision of common sense, Bion states:
1
2 . . . a sense of truth is experienced if the view of an object which is
3 hated can be conjoined to a view of the same object when it is loved
4 and the conjunction confirms that the object experienced by differ-
5 ent emotions is the same object. A correlation is established. [ibid.]
6
7
8 14
I have referred to a similar aspect by the name of “schizoid secret”, using
911 as a paradigm the narrative of “Eleusian mysteries” (Lopez-Corvo, 1990, 1994).
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111 This correlation corresponds, for instance, to a child’s under-

2 standing that hated and loved aspects of the mother are one
3 and the same.
4
5 Common sense or the capacity to maintain an agreement with
6 the tenet that dominates a group, would be indispensable to sur-
711 vive within that group because, as Bion explains, the individual’s
8 welfare is secondary to the group’s survival: “Darwin’s theory of
the survival of the fittest needs to be replaced by a theory of the sur-
9
vival of the fittest to survive in a group” (1992, p. 29). If the indi-
10
vidual cannot maintain a common sense with the group, he would
1
have to face his fear of the group, that is, to privilege narcissism
2
over social-ism. When there is no common sense, there is the risk
3
of experiencing phantasy as a fact, a sort of narcissism that would
4
make public-ation impossible, because if published it would never
5
be scientific (ibid., p. 24). According to Bion, a private fact is made
6
public within the person
7
8 . . . when it has become a matter of common sense; that is, all his
9 senses combine to give the same information . . . Private knowledge
211 becomes public knowledge when the common sense of analyst and
1 analysand agree that the perceptions of both indicate that some
2 idea corresponds to an external fact independent of both observers.
3 (ibid., p. 197)
4 Although patients have common sense, usually they do not make
5 good use of it: generally, common sense is the least common of all
6 senses. The interpretation represents a public-ation of the analyst’s
7 private knowledge to his patient, a translation of thought into
8 action and a truth shared because the common sense present in
9 both would, in the long term, allow the cure to take place.
30 Nebbiosi & Petrini (2000) have introduced the hypothesis that
1 common sense is what allows a contact between two persons. When
2 contact is feared common sense is attacked giving place to megalo-
3 mania, indolence and psychosis, but if contact is tolerated, group
4 communication and sharing of knowledge and experience is possi-
5 ble (p. 167).
6
7 Communicable awareness: With this term Bion describes a mental
8 state signifying to “have knowledge” or to “know something
911 about”:
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62 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 “Knowledge” has no meaning unless it means that someone knows

2 something, and this . . . is an assertion of relationship . . . The term,
3 “knowledge”, I propose provisionally to employ to describe a state
4 of mind indissolubly associated with a relationship between com-
municable awareness on the one hand, and the object of which the
5
person feels thus aware, on the other. [1992, p. 271]
6
7 Bion prefers “communicable” instead of “consciousness”, because
8 it is possible to know something and communicate it without being
9 conscious of it, or the opposite, to be conscious of something but
10 not be able to communicate it. See: Conscious awareness (Cs),
1 Awareness.
2
3 Communication: Bion described it as the capacity to make public
4 (see: public-ation) a private knowledge (1963, p. 92). When the ana-
5 lyst makes an interpretation, the facts implicit in it are no longer
6 private (1965, p. 31); also, when the analyst tries to make the uncon-
711 scious conscious, he is also making something private public. In the
8 process of communication there is a complex chain of events that
9 go from the unknown, the ineffable or O, to the final transforma-
20 tion that Bion has referred to as Tp (see: transformation). Take for
1 instance, the relationship established between a landscape, the
2 painter who reproduces it and the public capable of responding to
3 a conveyed emotion when admiring the piece of art (ibid., p. 32);
4 similarly, the public reaction towards the presentation of a psycho-
511 analytic paper could be related to the emotion elicited in the session
6 at the moment of transformation of O into K.
7 Bion refers to every analyst’s need to forge a private language to
8 fabricate the interpretation, avoiding saturation presented by some
9 words already worn-out by use, such as sex, fear, hostility, transfer-
311 ence, etc.; or technical terminology that is usually indistinguishable
1 from jargon, “just noises, “learnèd nonsense” (1987, p. 315).
2
3 I think that each analyst has to go through the discipline—which
4 cannot be provided for him by any training course that I know of—
5 of forging his own language and keeping the words that he uses in
6 good working order. [ibid.]
7
8 Complex conjugate: In mathematics a complex conjugate is repre-
911 sented by a pair of complex numbers whose imaginary parts are
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C 63

111 identical but differ only in sign, for example, 6 + 4i and 6 – 4i are
2 complex conjugates. Or in simple words, they are like a mirror
3 image of each other, a concept Bion has used to represent narcissism
4 geometrically: 2 would be the mirror image of +2.
5 He gives the example of a straight line, (representing an object)
6 which cuts a circle (symbolizing the mind) in two different points
711 that could be represented as point-pairs (see figure): (1) real and dis-
8 tinct, or actual and distinct: inside the circle, in the internal world,
9 would represent the analyst–analysand relationship working
10 harmonically in search of O and its transformation in K. Inside
1 and outside are distinguished, in a manner that the place where the
2 object (i.e. the breast) was represented as . (minus point), and
3 the place where the object is: .+, coincide. (2) Real and coincident, or
4 actual and coincident: when the line is a tangent equally inside and
5 outside of the circle. Represents a relationship dominated by feel-
6 ings of omnipotence and idealization resistant to change.
7 (3) Complex conjugate: when the line is completely outside the circle.
8 It corresponds to a narcissistic, or a mirror representation where the
9 external is compensated by the internal; for instance, an analyst–
211 patient interaction dominated by reversible perspective (1965,
1 p. 83). See: point-pair
2
3 O\
4
5 O\
6 O\
7
8 Concept: It represents a developmental level thinking process cor-
9 responding to category F of the Grid’s vertical axis. Concepts are
30 saturated elements, thoughts or fixed conceptions. See: Vertical
1 axis, Realization, Thinking, apparatus for; Thinking, theory of.
2
3 Conception: It represents a developmental level thinking process,
4 corresponding to category E of the Grid’s vertical axis. Because
5 it is the product of a combination between a pre-conception and a
6 realization, the conception remains in constant conjunction with
7 a satisfactory emotional experience (1967, p. 111). The conception
8 could be considered as a variable that has been replaced by a con-
911 stant. For instance, if a pre-conception of the breast is represented
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64 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 by the formula (), where  (see: psychoanalytic element) is an

2 empty or unsaturated (see: saturated–unsaturated) element waiting
3 to mate with a realization with the real breast, once this realization
4 takes place,  would be replaced by a constant or a concept (it
5 would be set, fixed). However, because the realization is never
6 absolute, it would allow new conceptions to remain open for fur-
7 ther realizations and new conceptions to take place (1963,
8 pp. 23–24). This theory reminds us of Piaget’s mechanisms of
9 “assimilation and accommodation”. See: Realization, Pre-concep-
10 tion, Saturated–unsaturated elements, Thinking, apparatus for;
1 Thinking theory of, Vertical axis.
2
3 Conjecture: From Latin conjectura, or act of conjicere, to throw
4 together, to combine. A doubtful opinion founded on weak proba-
5 bilities, supposition, presumption, hypothesis. In science, all
6 experimental truth goes through a conjectural phase.
711
8 Conscious awareness (Cs): Originally Bion identifies “conscious
9 awareness” with the “apparatus of perception”. In 1956 he said:
20
. . . attacks are directed against the apparatus of perception from the
1
beginning of life. This part of his personality is cut up, split into
2
minute fragments, and then, using the projective identification,
3 expelled from the personality. Having thus rid himself of the appa-
4 ratus of conscious awareness of internal and external reality, the
511 patient achieves a state which is felt to be neither alive nor dead.
6 [1967, p. 38, my italics)
7
8 This is a confusion Bion seems to have had in mind when he wrote
9 his “commentary” (see: Bion, 1967) around nine years later in 1965.
311 Here he said that it would be a mistake to use his 1956 remarks as
1
C category formulations and used by the reader as “disclosure
2
models”. They are to be read, forgotten, but permitted to reappear,
3 as part of the evolution peculiar to a particular psycho-analytic
4 emotional situation. [ibid., p. 154]
5
6 Discrimination is attempted afterwards when he tries to use geo-
7 metrical abstractions in order to represent aspects of the mind and
8 to differentiate between “being aware” and “being conscious”. The
911 former he represented with the letters Cs or the sign ±  , and
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C 65

111 would mean almost the opposite of the latter. “Being conscious”
2 would be equivalent to the definition given by Freud (1926), of a
3 “sense organ for the perception of psychic qualities”; being aware
4 or Cs, on the other hand, implies a condition similar to the photo-
5 tropism present in an insect, or the awareness (alertness?) of a
6 predator looking for its prey, or someone in search of an “absent
711 breast”; something Bion has represented as . (minus point), or the
8 place where the object was (see: no-object, point).   symbolizes
9 a direction contrary to that one normally followed by the vertical
10 (from A to H) and horizontal (from 1 to 5) axes of the Grid:  ,
1 and it is equivalent to A1, that is, to the category occupied by
2 -elements, but not so much by a -element as such, but to its con-
3 cept, something belonging not to A1 category but to D1, D3 or D4.
4 Cs and   would be inseparables and amount to an unsaturated
5 constant conjunction () that continuously seeks saturation, like
6 “hunger” looking for food.
7
8 This “consciousness” is an awareness of a lack of existence that
9 demands an existence, a thought in search of a meaning, a defini-
211 tory hypothesis in search of a realization approximating to it,
a psyche seeking for a physical habitation to give existence, 
1
seeking . [1965, p. 109]
2
3
  implies a category C3, and may be personified by a non-
-
4
existent “person”
5
6 whose hatred and envy is such that “it” is determined to remove
7 and destroy every scrap of “existence” from any object which might
8 be considered to “have” any existence to remove. Such a non-
9 existent object can be so terrifying that its “existence” is denied,
30 leaving only the “place where it was”. [ibid., p. 111]
1
2 See: No-thing, No-breast, No-existence, Point.
3
4 Consciousness: Bion’s contributions are based on Freud’s (1926)
5 definition of consciousness as a “sense organ for the perception of
6 psychical qualities.” Following Bion’s “thinking theory”, con-
7 sciousness is an organ that depends on -function to convert sense
8 information into -elements, in order to provide the mind with
911 material to fabricate dream-thoughts, as well as the capacity to
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66 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 sleep, to be awake, to discriminate between being conscious or

2 unconscious and to achieve a sense of self-awareness. For Bion this
3 level of abstraction is originally obtained from maternal reverie. A
4 baby’s rudimentary consciousness is not associated with its uncon-
5 scious, all self-impressions are of equal value, they are all conscious,
6 and it is the mother’s capacity for reverie, which functions as
7 a receptor organ, where all sensations that feed the baby’s con-
8 sciousness will be originally processed (1967, p. 116). The baby’s
9 rudimentary conscious is not able to process its sense information,
10 that should be evacuated inside the mother, and it will depend on
1 her own -function, if they are changed into -elements or not. “By
2 definition,” says Bion, “the term conscious relates to states within
3 the personality; consciousness of an external reality is secondary to
4 consciousness of an internal psychic reality” (1965, p. 86).
5
6 Conscious–unconscious, relation between: In Learning from
711 Experience, Bion (1962) stated that Freud’s theory (1911) about
8 consciousness being the only sense organ for the perception of psy-
9 chical qualities, was not satisfactory. His argument was not against
20 the validity of such asseveration, but against the fact that it did not
1 discriminate between the different kinds of interactions that take
2 place between the conscious and the unconscious. According to
3 Bion, the correct model would be depicted by the existence of a
4 capacity similar to the one given by binocular vision, whereby two
511 views of the same object are correlated. In psychoanalysis, the use
6 of both conscious and the unconscious to look at a “psychoanalytic
7 object” is similar to binocular vision. In order for images to super-
8 impose without generating double vision, one must look inwards
9 with the unconscious eye, with the same eagerness consciousness
311 looks outwards.
1 In the first place, the existing relationship between the pre-con-
2 scious and the unconscious is a container–contained relationship (
3 ) (similar to the one observed between the baby and the breast). In
4 other words and following Bion, it would represent the interaction
5 between a pre-conception and its realization, which results in a
6 conception. The baby’s instinctive need, similar to the unconscious,
7 represents a biological truth, which is universal, predetermined and
8 unchangeable. The main differences in the interaction between
911 “container” and “contained” would be determined by the oscilla-
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111 tions (plus + or minus ) within the maternal reverie and never by
2 the baby’s biological demands. The contained () (or unconscious)
3 is always the same; what changes is the container’s () (or con-
4 scious) attitude towards it. The fact that the truth could be well
5 received or might represent a threat will not depend on the truth in
6 itself, but on the one who receives it or disregards it. Such a differ-
711 ence would be the consequence of consciousness being dominated
8 either by the normal or by the psychotic part of the personality.
9 Bion established the existence of a special entity between the
10 unconscious and the pre-conscious, whose particular configuration
1 and physiology would depend on the mind being dominated either
2 by: (a) normal aspects; or (b) the psychotic part of the personality. In
3 the first situation he described the existence of a “contact barrier”,
4 representing a structure composed by the proliferation of coherent
5 and continuous alpha elements, demarking contact as well as sepa-
6 ration between conscious and unconscious and discriminating out-
7 side from inside realities. It will perform as a kind of permeable
8 membrane whose nature will depend on how the supply of -ele-
9 ments is established, and on how they relate to each other.
211 If, on the other hand, the mind is controlled by the psychotic
1 part of the personality, then the structure of this intermediary entity
2 between conscious and unconscious would be organized as an
3 agglomeration of beta-elements, he referred to this as a “screen of
4 beta-elements”, placed between the unconscious and the conscious
5 and responsible for a state of confusion similar to dreams, as well
6 as for the possibility of massive projections of beta-elements. These
7 elements might induce emotional changes in the analyst that could
8 determine the profile of the countertransference and the architec-
9 ture of the interpretation. See: Alpha-elements, Beta-elements,
30 Alpha-function, Contact barrier, Screen of beta-elements,
1 Agglomeration, Binocular vision, Container–contained, Maternal
2 reverie.
3
4 Constant conjunction: A concept Bion borrowed from the philoso-
5 pher David Hume, to explain how an object or a fact points to
6 another, although the ideas implicit in both are not at all related. It
7 seems as if there is nothing logical to explain their relationship,
8 which bears more towards a causality or cause–effect relation,
911 where both were linked by experience, by accident and remain
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68 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 associated. Two elements are in constant conjunction, said Hume,

2 when we infer one from the other not by reason, but from the par-
3 ticular experience that surrounded them, although we might fail to
4 penetrate inside the logic of such conjunction. This concept is dif-
5 ferent from the determinism described by epigenesis (Waddington,
6 1957; Piaget, 1971), where fatalism is present in the progression of
7 elements in a narrative, a history, or a myth, or in biological or geo-
8 metrical structures, in the sense that each step is indispensable to
9 the sum of the preceding steps although they are independent from
10 the initial one. For instance, if we recite the alphabet, letter N would
1 not be present at the beginning at all, at the level say of C, but once
2 we reach letter M, N will be a determinant and compulsory step. In
3 other words, the relationship is not based on chance, like the con-
4 stant conjunction, it is part of a narrative where one event follows
5 the other (like the Oedipus myth) fatalistically.
6 For Bion, constant conjunction has a meaning that could be
711 represented as Ps   D, that is, according to him, it is, together
8 with the selected fact, what determines the interaction between the
9 paranoid–schizoid and the depressive positions (1965, pp. 80, 108).
20 The term is first mentioned in Cogitations in a note headed
1 “Scientific Method” dated January 10th, 1959 (p. 13) and afterwards
2 in “A Theory of Thinking” (1962 in Second Thoughts, 1967).
3 However, it is not used in Learning from Experience (1962) or
4 Elements of Psycho-Analysis (1963) in spite of its importance for the
511 understanding of concepts such as “model”, “scientific deductive
6 system” or “narrative” and its difference from the interaction of
7 paranoid–schizoid and depressive positions.
8
9 Constellation: An obscure concept seldom used by Bion, who
311 described it as a term that “represents the process precipitating a
1 constant conjunction.” (1970, p. 33n) He refers to the analyst’s prepa-
2 ration to listen to the patient without memory or desire, in order to
3 allow a state of at-one-ment with the patient’s discourse and for O
4 to take place. The analyst will avoid remembering or desiring, but
5 “a relevant constellation will be evoked [instead] during the process
6 of at-one-ment with O, the process denoted by transformation O 
7 K” (ibid.). It seems from this description, that “constellation” is a pre-
8 cursor or a catalytic state reached by the analyst while listening to
911 the patient without memory or desire, that will allow the precipita-
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C 69

111 tion of constant conjunctions, in order to reach a condition of at-

2 one-ment with O. In other words, it represents the paradox of
3 allowing memories or associations (constant conjunctions) to take
4 place, while avoiding remembering them. See: Memory, Desire, Act
5 of faith, O, At-one-ment, Transformation of O K.
6
711 Contact-barrier: In order to depict what he thought was an entity
8 composed by the proliferation of coherent and continuous alpha-
9 elements, Bion used the same term Freud used to describe a neuro-
10 physiological unit known later as the synapse. The contact-barrier is
1 supposed to be located amid the conscious and the unconscious,
2 demarking their contact as well as separation between each other
3 and discriminating outside from inside realities. It will perform as a
4 kind of permeable membrane whose nature will depend, on how
5 the supply of -elements is established, and on how they relate with
6 each other. Alpha-function, during wakefulness or when sleeping,
7 changes sense impressions, related to an emotional experience, into
8 alpha-elements. These elements as they proliferate, may cohere,
9 agglomerate, get sequentially ordered to give the appearance of a
211 narrative, get logically or even geometrically ordered (1962, p. 17).
1 According to the nature of the transition from conscious to uncon-
2 scious and vice versa, the contact-barrier could affect memory and
3 the characteristics of some particular memories. It also defines the
4 nature of defences, deciding the way consciousness behaves in rela-
5 tion to the unconscious, either repressing it or allowing it to become
6 conscious and to be used as a thought that might reveal the truth.
7 Investigation of psychotic patients, or on the psychotic part of
8 the personality, allowed Bion to become aware of a kind of con-
9 scious and unconscious interaction different from that observed in
30 neurotic patients, basically a lack of resistance about unconscious
1 elements becoming conscious, as well as a disturbance in memory
2 processes. Such observations induced Bion to create another psy-
3 chological construct he referred to as the “screen of beta-elements”
4 or “Beta-screen”.
5 Meltzer (1978) associated contact-barrier with Klein’s concept of
6 “unconscious phantasy” (pp. 41–42), although it could also resem-
7 ble the notion of “defence” in classical theory. Unconscious phan-
8 tasy, on the other hand, could be related to the concept of O
911 introduced by Bion.
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70 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Container–contained, interaction: The clinical notion of this theory

2 seems to have been mentioned for the first time when Bion, in his
3 1959 article “Attack on Linking”, refers to the mother’s aptitude to
4 deal with the baby’s “primary aggression and envy”. Bion used
5 several words to describe the mother’s reaction: “unreceptiveness”,
6 to “remain balanced”, “comfortable state of mind” and finally,
7 when describing the transference–countertransference interaction
8 with a patient, he says: “Projective identification makes it possible
9 for him to investigate his own feelings in a personality powerful
10 enough to contain them.” (1967, p. 106, my italics).
1 The concept of “container–contained” corresponds to an
2 abstraction model of psychoanalytical realizations, representing a
3 psychoanalytic element to which Bion bestowed the signs of :
4 ‘container’ and : ‘contained’, meaning feminine and masculine
5 respectively, but without having a specific sexual connotation (1970,
6 pp. 106). They are linked, according to the pleasure principle, to
711 objects or concepts such as vagina–penis, mouth–breast, thinker–
8 idea, or to models such as ‘evacuation–retention’, ‘remembering–
9 forgetting’, etc. (ibid., p. 29). The preference about when to use this
20 model is similar to the decision of when to “include” or “exclude”
1 something, and related to questions like “what?”, “where?”,
2 “when?”, or why is something included or excluded? Bion des-
3 cribes three different kind of links between container and con-
4 tained: (a) commensal, (b) symbiotic, and (c) parasitic (1970,
511 p. 95–96; 1962, p. 91).
6 Because of alpha-function operations, a baby is capable of
7 incorporating relations of the kind present in  . One word could
8 contain a meaning, or the opposite: a meaning could contain a
9 word; the relationship between the two will be established follow-
311 ing one of the forms mentioned above: “Commensal” will mean
1 that both, container and contained benefit from each other; for
2 instance an invention could benefit from a thinker and vice versa.
3 Or it could be ‘symbiotic’, and then one will destroy the other,
4 for instance the word testify was originally represented by Egyptian
5 hieroglyphics with the picture of male genitalia, meaning that
6 only men, having testicles, were qualified to bear witness. Today
7 the meaning of the word still remains, but the concept that origi-
8 nally contained it disappeared. Finally the relationship could be
911 “parasitic” where both,   would destroy each other, for instance
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111 a relationship dominated by envy and revenge, that at the end will
2 only have K as a result.
3 Using Jaques (1960) notion of “integrative reticulum”, which
4 describes the existence of a complex mental schema that will help
5 the mind finally to acquire the idea of a total object, Bion explains
6 how growth, intricate and successive, between container and con-
711 tained, achieves such levels of abstraction that allows the possibility
8 of learning from experience. Development follows the evolution
9 of Klein’s paranoid–schizoid and depressive positions, and will
10 require at a given moment, the presence of a “selected fact”.
1 Contents () characterize doubts, questions or variables linked by
2 emotional experiences, that successively add to each other within
3 the containers (), in a continuum that could be portrayed as n +
4  n, corresponding to a process that at the end will guarantee
5 growth and capacity to learn from experience. This learning will
6 depend on the capacity of n to integrate and to keep open at the
7 same time, free of rigidity and ready for further assimilations. An
8 individual in whom this mechanism operates will be capable of pre-
9 serving knowledge and experience, and capable of using his past
211 experiences as well as being receptive to new ones (1962, pp. 92–93).
1 Therefore, the level of K will depend on this kind of “commensal”
2 relationship, for instance, the successive complexity of new
3 hypotheses that will form systems and later on deductive scientific
4 systems. Bion also relates the apparatus for thinking to I (Idea),
5 assuring that the material out of which the apparatus is formed and
6 has to deal with, is I (1963, p.31).
7 There is on the other hand, as was stated previously, a  
8 situation completely dominated by envy, where the result will not
9 be K but K. Under these circumstances the baby splits and pro-
30 jects its feelings of fear inside the breast together with envy and
1 hate, a condition that obviously will prevent the appearance of the
2   commensal relationship that will have K as a product. In this
3 condition it is felt that the breast enviously removes all goodness
4 and valuable elements that could metabolize the baby’s fear of
5 death, and in its place forces back inside denigrated residues that
6 will determine the manifestation of a nameless terror, a kind of
7 container–contained provision that Bion represents as K. This con-
8 dition becomes very serious when the breast not only is unable to
911 neutralize the wish to die, but removes the wish to live (1962,
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72 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 pp. 97–99), represented again by Bion as (minus)   and quali-

2 fied as a without-ness, meaning:
3
4 . . . an internal object without an exterior. It is an alimentary canal
5 without a body. It is a super-ego that has hardly any of the charac-
6 teristics of the super-ego as understood in psycho-analysis: it is a
“super” ego. It is an envious assertion of moral superiority without
7
any morals. In short it is the resultant of an envious stripping or
8
denudation of all good . . . and will continue this process till  
9
 represents hardly more than an empty superiority–inferiority
10
that in turn degenerates to nullity. [1962, p. 97]
1
2
Co-operation: A form of voluntary relationship, conscious or
3
unconscious, that can prevail among members of a Work group
4
(W). The organization and structure induced by “co-operation” in
5
the group, would stimulate further co-operation. It is equivalent to
6
the concept of valence within the group dominated by a given basic
711
assumption.
8
9
Correlation: From Latin correlatio, meaning the character of two
20
correlative terms, where one cannot take place without the other.
1
There is a correlation, for instance between slim and fat, husband
2
3 and wife, etc. From the point of view of mathematics, it corresponds
4 to the rigid relationship presented by two variables that will occur
511 in a way not expected on the basis of chance alone. In geometry, for
6 instance, two quantities are correlated when the value of one vari-
7 able determines the other; for instance, the diameter is correlated
8 with the surface of the circle. Bion introduces the possibility of
9 using “correlation” in splitting, as observed in reversible perspec-
311 tive, where the two fragmented parts correlate with each other. It
1 could also be observed in addictive behaviour, where the perverse
2 aspect correlates with the part that due to guilt, repents. There is
3 correlation in binocular vision, between conscious and uncon-
4 scious, common sense and selected fact, between projected and
5 introjected identifications, etc. (1965, pp. 66–67).
6
7 Countertransference: From his experience with groups, Bion intro-
8 duced the importance of the use of countertransference to formu-
911 late an interpretation:
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111 It could be justly argued that interpretations for which the strongest
2 evidence lies, not in the observed facts in the group but in the sub-
3 jective reactions of the analyst, are more likely to find their expla-
4 nation in the psychopathology of the analyst than in the dynamics
of the group. [1948b, pp. 148–149]
5
6
Bion anticipated what later on would be expressed more con-
711
cisely by Heimann (1950), Racker (1953) and Grinberg (1957) among
8
others, on the important role played by projective identification in
9
the structuring of countertransference. He said:
10
1 It is my belief that these reactions are dependent on the fact that the
2 analyst in the group is at the receiving end of what Melanie Klein
3 (1946) has called projective identification . . . the experience of
4 countertransference appears to me to have quite a distinct quality
5 that should enable the analyst to differentiate the occasion when he
6 is the object of a projective identification from the occasion when he
is not. The analyst feels he is being manipulated so as to be playing
7
a part, no matter how difficult to recognize, in somebody else’s
8
phantasy. [1948a, p. 149]
9
211 About this last aspect, Bléandonu (1994) adds:
1
2 When the concept of countertransference began to appear in the
3 psychoanalytic literature of the 1950s, Bion had encountered the
4 phenomenon a good ten years earlier. His writings on psychosis, in
5 their originality and their density, are immediately distinctive.
[p. 108]
6
7
In 1953, in his article “Notes on the theory of schizophrenia”
8
(1967, pp. 23–35), Bion stated that the “Evidence for interpretations
9
has to be sought in the countertransference and in the actions and
30
free associations of the patient. Countertransference has to play an
1
important part in analysis of the schizophrenic . . .” (ibid., p. 24).
2
Fourteen years later in Cogitations (1992), in a note dated March
3
1967, he talks about the importance of experimenting with perse-
4 cutory as well as depressive feelings, during the analytical session,
5 before producing the interpretation:
6
7 I suggest that for a correct interpretation it is necessary for the ana-
8 lyst to go through the phase of “persecution” even if, as we hope,
911 it is in a modified form, without giving an interpretation. Similarly,
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74 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 he must pass through the depression before he is ready to give an

2 interpretation . . . I am fortified in this belief by the conviction that
3 has been borne in on me by the analysis of psychotic or borderline
4 patients. I do not think such a patient will ever accept an interpre-
tation, however correct, unless he feels that the analyst has passed
5
through this emotional crisis as a part of the act of giving the inter-
6
pretation. [1992, p. 291]
7
8 Later he said: “We may assume that what the psychoanalyst says
9 about the analysand is likely to be true of the psychoanalyst him-
10 self” (ibid., p. 361).
1 During his conferences in Brazil in 1974–75 (1987, p. 26; 1974,
2 pp. 87–88, 189), Bion distinguished between the conscious feelings
3
the analyst experiences towards his patients and therefore can be
4
used to build interpretations, and those feelings the analyst is not
5
aware of and therefore cannot be used, unless they become con-
6
scious. It is to these last feelings that Bion has referred as true counter-
711
transference.
8
In one of his supervisions in Brazil in 1975, one of the present-
9
ing analysts expressed his difficulty in communicating with one of
20
his patients: “I was never sure if the difficulty of establishing con-
1
tact lay with me or with the patient.” Bion answered the following:
2
3 That is always worth considering. But here again I think there is a
4 fallacious argument because analysts think that they can use a
511 countertransference. That is an inaccurate way of thinking. You can
6 use a feeling you have, but countertransference you cannot use. By
7 definition I cannot do anything about my countertransference;
8 there is nothing to be done with it except to go to an analyst and
9 get analysed. But most of us have to put up with the fact that there
311 is no analyst to whom we can go. [1987, p. 26]
1
2 Similar expressions were used the previous year in Rio de Janeiro:
3
Countertransference is a technical term, but as often happens the
4 technical term gets worn away and turns into a kind of worn out
5 coin which has lost its value . . . The theory about a countertransference
6 is that it is the transference relationship which the analyst has to the
7 patient without knowing he has it . . . One cannot make use of one’s
8 countertransference in the consulting room; it is a contradiction in
911 terms. To use the term in that way means that one would have to
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C 75

111 invent a new term to do the work, which used to be done by the
2 word “countertransference”. It is one’s unconscious feelings about
3 the patient, and since it is unconscious there is nothing we can do
4 about it. [1990, pp. 122, my italics)
5
And some time later while in São Paulo, when someone asked him
6
about the analyst making use of the countertransference to build
711
the interpretation, Bion said:
8
9 I think it would be better to get another analyst, because the ana-
10 lytic interpretations which are stimulated by countertransference
1 have a good deal to with the analyst. If the analysand is lucky they
2 may also have something to do with the analysand. Sooner or later,
3 an analysis which is based on the countertransference will come to
4 disaster, or at any rate failure, because all the interpretations will
5 have little to do with the analysand and a great deal to do with the
6 analyst. In physical medicine this would become apparent fairly
7 early if the surgeon operated on the strength of countertransference
8 and not on the strength of the anatomical and physiological find-
9 ings. [ibid., p. 191]
211
He also refers to the danger of counter-acting, for instance in
1
relation to malignant murderous and sadistic hate devoid of insight
2
that the patient might induce in the analyst. According to him, the
3
4 lack of insight, or resistance to using it by the patient, could pro-
5 voke similar feelings in the analyst, for instance: “damned-if-I’ll-
6 give-an-interpretation” feeling. “Why should I give him an
7 interpretation without being given what I call ‘evidence’?” (1992,
8 p. 301). He continues as if talking to himself:
9
I feel a deep lethargy. I cannot see my way, and when I cannot see
30
my way I feel no disposition to act as if I could, or in a way that
1 would give substance to a reassuring phantasy that I could. I do not
2 know. Nor does anyone else. It is absurdly simple really—unless
3 one wants to complicate it. When there is nothing to do—don’t do
4 it! [ibid., pp. 301–302].
5
6 It is difficult not to question the conflict, not to say confusion, Bion
7 presents to his readers, when comparing all these remarks about
8 countertransference, with his description of what an act of faith or
911 becoming O consists of. One could ask the following question: Is
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76 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 there any sufficiently analysed analyst free from countertransfer-

2 ence feelings, in the sense expressed by Bion, who therefore knows
3 that when he makes an interpretation in a “state of hallucinosis”,
4 is “enlightened by O” or makes use of an “act of faith”, he is not
5 dealing with his own countertransference? It is possible that Bion
6 might have discriminated between a “pathological” component,
7 corresponding to “countertransference proper”, and a “normal”
8 one related to O and to the act of faith. Although conceptually dif-
9 ferent, such statements might be related to the demarcation made
10 by Gitelson (1952), between the analyst’s reaction to the patient as
1 a whole (or the “analyst’s transference”), and the reaction to partial
2 aspects of the patient (or the “analyst’s countertransference”);
3 a delineation widened by Racker (1953) when he differentiated
4 between “concordant” and “complementary” forms of counter-
5 transference.
6
711 Crossroads: Bion uses this word to designate the crossing of the
8 roads in Thebes where Oedipus slays his father. It represents action
9 or column 6 of the Grid. The problem, says Bion, would be to know
20
. . . what impulses must dominate when thought is translated into
1
action, or from meditation into decision, or from one state of mind
2
into another . . . This struggle may be regarded indifferently as tak-
3 ing place within the psyche, outside it, or tangentially . . . [1965, pp.
4 95–96]
511
6 Bion relates the “crossroads” to the paradigmatic emotion in all
7 transformations; emotion in the sense of the violence implicit in
8 the Oedipal murder, be it real or fantasy, which he symbolizes also
9 as the penis’ transformation from child to adult, represented as the
311 “no-penis.” See: Conjugate complex.
1
2 Cs: see: Conscious awareness.
3
4 Cure, the: Psychotic patients might use mechanisms of splitting,
5 evacuation of the sense organs and hallucinations as the expres-
6 sion of “an ambition to be cured”, a condition that will make these
7 symptoms appear as creative activities (1967, p. 68). The “curing
8 process” in these patients can be seriously affected by “secondary
911 splitting”, that is, by the repression of defences just when the
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C 77

111 depressive position has been initiated during analytical treatment

2 ending up in a regression to a paranoid–schizoid massive splitting.
3 Dreams can be useful tools as reliable indicators of progress, in the
4 same way they are in the analysis of non-psychotics, for instance
5 when images of “total objects” come into view (ibid., p. 80). A
6 change to the depressive position could be rather traumatic and
711 often induces regression or secondary splitting, with all the danger
8 that this implies, including suicide or the impossibility of recovery
9 (ibid., pp. 80–81).
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 78

111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 79

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 D
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Dba: see: Dependent (group) basic assumption.
1
2 Deductive axiomatic system: see: Scientific deductive system.
3
4 Definitory hypothesis: Name used by Bion to designate column 1
5 of the Grid. It represents the potentiality of all distinctions as yet
6 undeveloped, like a group or a conjunction needing to be bound by
7 a name. It always presupposes a negative element because if we
8 assume that something is, in some ways we are also assuming that
9 it might not be, in another way; if we say this dictionary is about
30 Bion we are implying that it is not about somebody else (1970,
1 p. 24). We could imply that something is in the same manner we
2 could imply that it is not, a condition that will allow an opening or
3 the possibility to infer one or the other. For instance, if a person is
4 capable of tolerating frustration, there is no reason for that person
5 not to assume the possibility that something is, an attitude that will
6 allow for it to become an unsaturated pre-conception open for sat-
7 uration. But if on the contrary frustration intolerance is “excessive”,
8 then the individual may react against that “something” to deny and
911 destroy its existence. A model could be the baby unable to tolerate

79
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80 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 weaning because being restricted by the loss of the breast, it cannot
2 accept what is left of that loss. If the patient does not tolerate the
3 definitory hypothesis, the pre-conception cannot be reached, some-
4 thing that could correspond in the Grid to D4 (1970, p. 16).
5 Bion has also used an ironic publication of Bishop George
6 Berkeley about Newton’s differential calculus, to emphasize this
7 aspect of the negative element in the definitory hypothesis, using
8 the Bishop’s expression of “ghosts of departed quantities” (1965,
9 pp. 157–158).
10 A word, like “daddy”, could represent a group of facts that
1 remain together within the word, in constant conjunction. There-
2 fore, daddy could stand for a definitory hypothesis because of the
3 group of situations that implicitly is holding together. From a math-
4 ematical point of view, says Bion, “one” (1) being the negation of
5 the group, could be equivalent to a negative hypothesis, to a void
6 of hypotheses; or the other way around: “the negative quality of the
711 definitory hypothesis is a denial of the group” (1965, p. 150). Bion
8 invented the concept of psychic turbulence to describe a state
9 of expectancy and relinquishment, equivalent to column 1 of the
20 Grid.
1 Ferreira (2000) suggested that what Bion said about definitory
2 hypothesis implicitly carries the existence of three subdivisions:
3 (a) the definition of the concept; (b) the negative aspect of that
4 definition; and (c) the annihilation of the definitory hypothesis.
511 (p. 186) See: Grid, horizontal axis. “Ghosts of departed quanti-
6 ties”, Psychological turbulence.
7
8 Déjà vu: Short-lived experience concerning a reduplication of
9 memory. Bion tries to explain it using what he calls “fundamental
311 rules in the use of dreams” or myths: (1) all dreams have only one
1 interpretation and only one; in other words, the representations or
2 alpha-elements that support dreams or myths, follow an order
3 according to a particular constant conjunction; (2) every dream has
4 a corresponding realization representing (like the realization of a
5 wish) a purpose, which is usually so insignificant or so uncommon
6 that it never takes place, but on some occasions, when the resem-
7 blance between the content of a dream and a conscious purpose
8 is so alike, the person has the impression that what has been dreamt
911 has been fulfilled; a mechanism observed in the phenomenon
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D 81

111 known as déjà vu. Bion also said that alpha-function has two
2 meanings: one will be to store up a narrative in the form of
3 memories corresponding to a real experience that could be used to
4 build a dream, and another one, experienced in dreams as well as
5 when awake, corresponding to a déjà vu. [1992, p. 230)
6
711 Delusion: Represents the mechanism used by psychotic patients to
8 interact with their bizarre objects; that is, the way in which they are
9 “contained” by them, or they “contain” them (1967, p. 82).
10 Delusions are usually associated with pre-conceptions in search of
1 conceptions, because of their mating with realizations that do not
2 approximate to pre-conceptions closely enough as to saturate them,
3 but do approximate closely enough to give rise to a conception or
4 a mis-conception. Normally, “the pre-conception requires satura-
5 tion by a realization”, says Bion, “that is not an evacuation of the
6 senses but has an existence independent of the personality” (1965,
7 p. 137). In other words, reality should be sensed as it is by its pri-
8 mary qualities, and should not be confused with projections or
9 evacuation of the senses.
211
1 Denude: Bion used it to signify impoverishment of the personality
2 associated with hostile and destructive impulses such as envy. He
3 differentiates it from “negative growth” which is more related to
4 attacks on reality or on knowledge (K).
5
6 Dependent basic assumption (baD): The basic assumption of this
7 group culture stands for the ambivalence experienced between the
8 need to create a leader on whom to depend, and at the same time
9 the feeling that he cannot be trusted. The need to establish an indi-
30 vidual relationship with the leader prevails, because he is felt to
1 be the only one able to cure or to provide solutions. The model
2 is similar to the doctor–patient or the teacher–pupil relationship.
3 The leader could be any member of the group that might be will-
4 ing, and at other moments, the history of the group is considered as
5 the “bible”. The power placed on the leader is felt to come from
6 magic and not from science. Frequently, silence is used to try to
7 deprive the therapist, the “scientist”, from the material he might
8 have required for his “investigation”, in order to maintain the illu-
911 sion of the magician. Some members consider the group to be a
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82 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 religious sect; also, the greed of the group might contrast with the
2 individual’s needs (1948a, pp. 74 and 78). Feelings of guilt because
3 of greed and depression predominate (ibid., p. 166).
4 Bion refers also to a variant or dual of baD, representing some
5 kind of reversible perspective, where a group dominated by baD
6 defends itself from the therapist’s attitude of not taking responsi-
7 bility for the group, by doing exactly the inverse, that is, they
8 protect and nourish the therapist who refuses to look after them
9 (ibid., pp. 119–121). Another important aspect is the tendency of this
10 type of group, if allowed to evolve spontaneously, to choose the
1 sickest member as a leader, something frequently observed in many
2 countries or in religious sects (ibid., pp. 121–122). See: Basic assump-
3 tions (ba), Pairing ba (Pba), Flight–fight ba (Fba), Oscillation of
4 baD and Group, Group culture.
5
6 Depression: Bion says little about clinical depression: “Depression
711 represents the place where the breast or any other lost object was”,
8 while the “space is where depression or any other emotion was”
9 (1970, p. 10).
20
1 Depressive position (D)-paranoid–schizoid position: see Depres-
2 sive position.
3
4 Desire: It is the product of an unsatisfied or non-saturated idea,
511 related to the future just as memory is to the past, although both are
6 linked with past sense experiences (1970, p. 45). Bion explains that
7 the concept of wish he is interested in, does not refer to simple rem-
8 iniscences or anticipations, but is related to experiences acquired
9 through sense impressions, which are already formulated and rep-
311 resent evocations of feelings that contain pleasure or pain, belong
1 to category 2 of the Grid and are used for transformations of O into
2 K. For instance, like the wish to cure the patient or the need to
3 remember theories that will interfere with the access to an act of
4 faith representing the ultimate reality, the unknowable truth or O
5 (ibid., p. 30). If the psychoanalyst does not free himself from
6 memory and desire, he faces the risk of inducing in the patient the
7 fantasy of being prisoner inside the analyst’s wish (ibid., pp. 43–43).
8 This is something often observed in “false-self” pathology.
911 Bion confesses:
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D 83

111 For example, I think it a serious defect to allow oneself to desire the
2 end of a session, or week, or term; it interferes with analytic work
3 to permit desires for the patient’s cure, or well-being, or future to
4 enter the mind. Such desires erode the analyst’s power to analyse
and lead to progressive deterioration of his intuition. [ibid, p. 56]
5
6 Disclosure Model: Concept used once by Bion in 1965 when he
711 made written comments to re-evaluate previous papers, published
8 again in 1967 under the heading of Second Thoughts (1967, p. 154).
9 “Disclosure model” was a concept coined by archbishop of Canter-
10 bury Ian T. Ramsey to describe abstract models used to cross mean-
1 ings from one kind of observation with another one. Some of the
2 examples he used were the discoveries of such things as “a circle
3 also being a polygon with an infinite number of sides”, or in rela-
4 tion to what is involved or to the kind of commitment implicit in a
5 disclosure such as a surgeon finding a friend on the operating table,
6 or even more, finding his wife. It would be like invoking an insight,
7 a disclosure of meaning or the existence of givenness of some-
8 thing not appreciated previously. A certain relationship between
9 this concept and the selected fact, can be evoked. See: Cs.
211
1 Dismantling: Term used by Meltzer to describe a special form of
2 defence observed in autistic and obsessive patients, which he differ-
3 entiates from mechanisms of splitting, where aggressive impulses
4 are used for the purpose of destroying linking. A process of dis-
5 mantling is characterized by an immediate and transitory suspen-
6 sion of mental activity, overall the attention. It takes place in a rather
7 more passive than active way, like a wall that crumbles away slowly
8 through the force of time, weather, fungi, and so on, but which could
9 restore itself suddenly; similar to those little toys that remain upright
30 by the tension of a thread that secures the pieces of wood together,
1 but could tumble down if pressure is applied underneath the base
2 and would recover its posture again once the pressure was released.
3 Because aggression is absent, persecutory anxiety is also insignifi-
4 cant. A good example can be observed in the incapacity of autistic or
5 obsessive patients to distinguish a person from an inanimate object
6 as a consequence of dismantling or suspension of attention, which
7 allows them to denude individuals from their living presence or to
8 reduce them to a simple non-existence. There is a quote from Bion
911 in relation to psychotic patients, in which autism is not mentioned,
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84 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 that shows great resemblance to what is said by Meltzer, but

2 since Bion wrote it in a note dated 1960, nineteen years before Meltzer
3 published his investigation on autism, it is worth reading it.
4
5 Evacuation of emotion, evidenced by the absence of all connections
6 that are emotions, leads to disintegration of the patient because that
which holds the objects together is no longer available. This differs
7
from splitting in that it is a passive falling apart of the objects. [1992,
8
p. 161]
9
10 The absence of violence referred to by Meltzer in this kind of
1 defence, seems more obvious in autistic rather than obsessive
2 patients, in whom passive aggressive mechanisms are present. Dis-
3 mantling is more often observed in Anglo-Saxon than in Latin
4 cultures.
5
6 Displacement: Bion refers to displacement in time, from past
711 events to some other situation in the immediate present, like the
8 one observed for instance, in the transference. He says:
9
20 What seems to have happened is that the immediate cause is sup-
1 pressed, perhaps before it has become clear to the patient that he
2 has [not]15 been stimulated at all [that nothing has happened]. And
3 at once the old “memory” is substituted for the awareness of the
current event. The subject of the early story becomes the main char-
4
acter, after the patient, in the current day-dream, which has been
511
drawn across to shut out the thinking proper to the immediate
6
reality situation. Is not this account sufficient? [1992, p. 137]
7
8 Another explanation provided by Bion is related to mechanism of
9 projective identification, for instance, when a present event is pro-
311 jected on to someone in the past, presently absent in time and
1 space. At the end he asks:
2
3 In short, is it not possible that the mechanisms that Freud describes
4 as peculiar to dream-work are in reality found to be operating over
5 a wide area of the psyche and in a great number of different func-
6 tional fields? [ibid., pp. 137–138]
7
8 15
In the original, the negative particle “not”, was omitted, however since it
911 seems not to make sense without it, it has been considered a mistake.
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D 85

111 Disposition: Any given mental state or attitude, present in any

2 individual as a consequence of a series of internal and external cir-
3 cumstances that would compel that person towards that particular
4 way or disposition.
5
6 A man may be disposed to envy, or to violence of emotion, or to
711 regard truth or life highly, or to be intolerant of frustration.
Whatever it is that causes him to be so disposed, I shall call his state
8
of mind at the time he is so disposed, his “disposition”. [1992,
9
p. 262]
10
1 Dissociation: Bion used this term to describe fragmentation in
2 less disturbed pathologies such as neurosis (hysteria), different
3 from splitting used to illustrate minute fragmentation as observed
4 in more severe pathologies like psychosis or in the psychotic part
5 of the personality. Dissociation will depend on primary verbal
6 thoughts that could be used, as Freud expressed it, by the body and
7 the organs as a form of language.
8
9 Distance: Bion used the term to describe something unknown, to see
211 coming, like the “ghosts of a departed quantity”, or the distance that
1 there once was but is no longer there. He represents it by the
2 following formula: Distance =  (), where () = a non-existing quan-
3 tity, or where the quantity used to be or will be, but never where it
4 is presently, like an unsaturated element, “an evanescent increment
5 or departed quantity”. He associates distance with transformation
6 in O, for instance, the distance () that could exist between O and
7 T, or in other words, the time it will take the analyst to know (K)
8 what the patient is saying, to be illuminated by insight, or for O to
9 take place; and the time it will take before the next O takes place in
30 the mind of the patient or the analyst. He distinguishes between one
1 direction from the position of “not-knowing” (K), or “not-becoming”
2 (O), to the position of “knowing” or “becoming”; and the opposite
3 direction: from “knowing” or “becoming” to “not-knowing” or “not-
4 becoming” (O or K), and so on:
5
6 Transformations in K may be described loosely as akin to “know-
7 ing about” something whereas Transformations in O are related to
8 becoming or being O or to being “become” by O. The “distance” ()
911 between O and T may be artificially described in a series of stages.
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86 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Assuming a direction O T, O can be said to “evolve” by (a)

2 becoming manifest (or “knowable”) TK (b) by becoming a
3 “reminder”, an “incarnation” . . .  (c) by becoming TO or “at-
4 one-ment”. Assuming the reverse direction T  O [1965, p. 163,
5 my italics).
6
See: Hyperbole.
7
8
9 Donne, John: British poet (1572–1631), quoted by Bion from a short
10 strophe of his poem “The Second Anniversary. By the occasion of
1 the religious death of Mistress Elisabeth Drury”:
2
Her pure and eloquent blood
3
Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought,
4 That one might almost say, her body thought.
5
6 See: Beta-element.
711
8 Dream furniture: Constitutes an ambience structured by “things”
9 similar to bizarre objects, which according to Bion represents the
20 world of psychotic patients. Would be composed by a diffusion of
1 sensuous particles, ideas or words, which being projected inside
2 some external objects, will encyst them, either containing or being
3 contained by them and will provide them as well with the charac-
4 teristics of the projected part. For instance, if what has been pro-
511 jected is “sight” or “hearing”, the object in question would be
6 experienced as looking at or listening to the person. These objects
7 represent the furniture that normally would form dreams, but with
8 psychotic patients, however, it will be part of their everyday life.
9
311 Dreams: Considered a category in the vertical axis of the Grid,
1 together with dream thoughts and myths, corresponding to row
2 C. “They are”, says Bion, “private myths” (1963, p.92), and repre-
3 sent an
4
5 . . . emotional experience . . . that is an attempt to fulfil the func-
6 tions which are incompatible; it is in the domain of the reality
7 principle and the pleasure principle, and represents an attempt to
8 satisfy both. That is to say, it is an attempt to achieve frustration
911 evasion and frustration modification and fails in both (1992, p. 95)
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D 87

111 Something related to Freud’s statement about dreams representing

2 wish satisfaction, a concept many psychoanalysts disagree with and
3 Bion considers rather irrelevant. He also states that the dream man-
4 ifests contents corresponding to a “narrativized collection of visual
5 images” or alpha-elements organized following a constant con-
6 junction (ibid., p. 233).
711 The “sense” of a dream he explains as follows:
8
9 One of the reasons why sleep is essential is to make possible, by a
10 suspension of consciousness, the emotional experiences that the
1 personality would not permit itself to have during conscious
2 waking life, and so to bring them into reach of dream-work-16 for
conversion into -elements and a narrative form, consecutive and
3
dominated by a causation-theoretical17 outlook, suitable for being
4
worked on by conscious rational processes of thought. [ibid., p. 150]
5
6 Also:
7
8 . . . the core of the dream is not the manifest content, but the emo-
9 tional experience; the sense data pertaining to this emotional
211 experience are worked on by a-function, so that they are trans-
1 formed into material suitable for unconscious waking thought, the
2 dream-thoughts, and equally suitable for conscious submission to
3 common sense. [ibid. p. 233]
4
Bion is in agreement with Freud’s remark that dreams are
5
guardians of sleep, but he differs from him on the role given to
6
“dream-work”, in that it is able to discriminate between sleeping
7
and waking activities:
8
9 But Freud meant by dream-work that unconscious material, which
30 would otherwise be perfectly comprehensible, was transformed
1 into a dream, and that the dream-work needed to be undone to
2 make the now incomprehensible dream comprehensible. [ibid., p. 43]
3
4 Bion thinks that it is the conscious and not the unconscious material,
5 which is subject to dream-work, that makes it more satisfactory for
6 storage and more suitable to be used in the transformation of the
7
8 16
Afterwards Bion changes “dream work-” to “-function”.
17
911 See Causality, theory of.
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88 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 paranoid–schizoid into the depressive position: “Freud says

2 Aristotle states that a dream is the way the mind works in sleep: I say
3 it is the way it works when awake” (ibid.). Bion insists that the depen-
4 dence of waking life on dreams has been overlooked, for dreaming is
5 indispensable for the storage of sense impressions acquired when
6 awake that will then become the “contents of memory” (ibid., p. 47).
7 Alpha-function, states Bion—previously known as “dream-
8 work-”(ibid., pp. 43–49)—is necessary for the formation of dreams,
9 which have a similar “censorship” and “resistance” function in the
10 creation of a barrier (“contact barrier”), necessary to keep the
1 unconscious from becoming conscious and to preserve the individ-
2 ual from a psychotic state: “the ability to ‘dream’ preserves the per-
3 sonality from what is virtually a psychotic state” (1962, p. 16). In
4 this theory, dreams create the basis for a structured thinking that
5 allows alpha-function to create alpha-elements.
6 In relation to psychotic patients, Bion compares their dreams
711 with a hallucinatory process where the bizarre behaviour in the
8 consulting room can be used as associations to understand the
9 dream content, which is usually announced but never referred to,
20 by this kind of patient (1967, p. 78). Such lack of association repre-
1 sents the transference of a hallucinated breast “that gives no milk”
2 (1992, p. 141). Narrating a dream verbally would require a capacity
3 to tolerate temporality as well as causality (ibid., p. 1). Bion com-
4 pares the difficulty in narrating a dream with the phenomenon of
511 “invisible–visible hallucinations”, affirming that it will take many
6 years of analysis for these patients really to report a dream, because
7 very often what they might be saying is that their apparatus of
8 perception is compromised by trying to expel something. In this
9 case dreams would be a “nocturnal evacuatory process” of the
311 mind trying to get rid of any unpleasant thing the individual feels
1 it has incorporated during the day, something similar to the excre-
2 tory function of the bowels. Bion also insists on the relevance of
3 vision as a mechanism of excretion, often used by psychotic
4 patients to expel image-ideograms of some dreams, analogous to
5 the means used by visual hallucinations (ibid., pp. 66–67). Dream
6 thoughts could also represent the undigested aspect of some event,
7 which after being dreamed might appear as if it has been digested,
8 a process that will allow learning from experience. Dreams seem
911 to work in a manner similar to the digestive apparatus, and to
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D 89

111 analyse them would mean to examine the content of the ingested
2 food. Different from Freud, Bion did not consider dreams to be the
3 satisfaction of repressed impulses, but as a process of digestion of
4 the individual’s particular truth, something absolutely essential for
5 the growth of the mind, like food is for the growth of the body. In
6 this sense it could be said that dreaming represents a mechanism by
711 which conscious lies18 are made obvious and truth is revealed.
8 The presence of total objects in dreams can indicate a manifes-
9 tation of mental growth, a mechanism that should be considered
10 because
1
The “peculiarity” of the dream to the psychotic is not its irration-
2
ality, incoherence, and fragmentation, but its revelation of objects
3
which are felt by the patient to be whole objects and therefore fit
4 and proper reason for the powerful feelings of guilt and depression
5 which Melanie Klein has associated with the onset of the depressive
6 position. [1967, p. 80]
7
8 Bion proposes some fundamental rules about dreams and
9 myths: (a) “All dreams have only one interpretation and only one”,
211 that is, all representations or alpha-elements that organize a dream,
1 follow an order according to a particular constant conjunction.
2 (b) “Every dream has a corresponding realization, which it there-
3 fore represents.” The realization would be similar to the satisfaction
4 of a wish, but it would be so rare that it will usually never take
5 place, with the exception of a few times when the dreamer has the
6 illusion that the dream has come true; a mechanism also described
7 as déjà vu:
8
In a dream an act appears to have consequences; it has only
9
sequences. What is needed is a spatial model to represent a dream.
30 [1992, p. 1]
1
2 (c) “. . . certain factual experiences will never be understood by the
3 patient, and therefore will never be experiences from which he
4 can learn, unless he can interpret them in the light of his dream or
5 the myth . . .” (1992, pp. 230–231). See: Insanity, realization of,
6
7
8 18
Latin had provided the same basic root to mind (mentis) as well as to lying
911 (mentior), perhaps meaning that ‘the mind lies’.
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90 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Evacuation, Dream work, Dreams furniture, déjà vu, Meaningful

2 dreams.
3
4 Dream-thought: Bion uses this concept in the same manner Freud
5 did. In a footnote written in 1925, Freud said:
6
7 At bottom, dreams are nothing other than a particular form of
thinking, made possible by the conditions of the state of sleep . . .
8
The fact that dreams concern themselves with attempts at solving
9
the problems by which our mental life is faced is no more strange
10 than that our conscious waking life should do so. [1900,
1 pp. 506n–507n]
2
3 And in another footnote, from 1914:
4
5 Thus the dream’s function of “thinking ahead” is rather a function
6 of preconscious waking thought, the products . . . phenomena. It
has long been the habit to regard dreams as identical with their
711
manifest content; but we must now beware equally of the mistake
8
of confusing dreams with latent dream-thoughts. [ibid., p. 580n]
9
20 Dream-thoughts, disinvested from idiomatic expressions, are visual
1 metaphors presented as symbolic representations of disturbances
2 presented during dream-work. They are usually made of conden-
3 sations, displacements, and fragmented childhood memories, usu-
4 ally of a visual kind. The concrete content of dream-thoughts is
511 gathered and elaborated during the mechanism of regression dur-
6 ing the dream-work, leaving the analytical work to reconstruct the
7 links that were destroyed during the dream-work.
8
9 Dream-work (): The name “dream-work-” was used by Bion
311 originally to describe a combination of Freud’s concept on “dream-
1 work” proper, and what later became Bion’s “theory of functions”,
2 including -function as well as reverie capacity, and alpha and
3 beta elements. Although Bion agrees with Freud about the rele-
4 vance of dreams in preserving sleeping in that they discriminate
5 between sleeping and waking activities, he disagrees with him on
6 the role of dream-work:
7
8 But Freud meant by dream-work that unconscious material, which
911 would otherwise be perfectly comprehensible, was transformed
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D 91

111 into a dream, and that the dream-work needed to be undone

2 to make the now incomprehensible dream comprehensible. [1992,
3 p. 43]
4
The main difference with Freud’s concept of dream-work hinges on
5
Bion’s notion that it was conscious, not unconscious material—as
6
Freud had stated—that was subject to dream-work. The conscious
711
material is stored as memory and later used to create dreams as
8
well as to make transformations from the paranoid–schizoid to the
9
depressive position. “Freud says Aristotle states that a dream is the
10
way the mind works in sleep: I say it is the way it works when
1
awake.” (ibid., pp. 43, 47)
2
Originally Bion referred to “dream-work-”19 but later on he
3
changed it to merely “” in order to avoid confusion with Freud’s
4
original idea (ibid., p. 73); however, he continued using it in the same
5
manner even after making such a remark. The term “-function”
6
was used for the first time in Cogitations, in a note possibly dated at
7
the end of the sixties, which allowed Bion finally to discriminate
8
between dream-work proper and -function. To construct this con-
9
cept Bion used Freud’s “Interpretation of Dreams” (1900) and
211
“Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning” (1911),
1
as well as Klein’s notion of guilt, superego and paranoid–schizoid
2
and depressive positions. Before he distinguished this function
3
from dream-work, he stated that a series of steps were essential for
4
this function to operate: (a) to pay attention to sensuous impres-
5
sions; (b) to store these impressions in the memory; (c) to change
6
them into “ideograms”; and (d) depending on which principle dom-
7
inated the mind, either to store them and to remember them if real-
8
ity principle dominated, or to expel them under the ruling of the
9
pleasure principle.
30
1
See: Alpha-function, Alpha-elements, Beta-elements, Dreams,
2
Dream-thoughts.
3
4
Dream-work-: see: Alpha-function and Dream-work.
5
6
7 19
A month after suggesting the name of “dream-work-” Bion changed it
8 to just “”, in order to avoid confusion with Freud’s original concept of “dream-
911 work”, although he felt it was too abstract.
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92 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Dual: see: Reversible perspective.

2
3 Dual of Dependence group, the: see: Dependent basic assumption
4 (baD)
5
6 Dynamic links: Changes between categories A and H of the verti-
7 cal axis of the Grid, could be of two kinds: mechanics and dynam-
8 ics. Mechanical links correspond to the structure  , where a
9 pre-conception (row D), for instance, is contained in a conception
10 (row E), and this one in turn is contained in a concept (row F), and
1 so forth. Dynamic links on the other hand, are reached by means of
2 H, L and K elements. The benignity of the operation  will
3 depend on the nature of the dynamic link; the degree of persecu-
4 tory anxiety, for instance, will be related to the interaction between
5 the envious attacks (H) and the love relationship (L) directed
6 towards the breast (1963, p. 34) See: Link.
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 93

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 E
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Eckhart, Meister: see: Meister Eckhart.
1
2 Emotional links: Among all the possible emotional links (envy,
3 gratitude, depression, sex, guilt, etc) that relate the self to itself and
4 to other persons, Bion has chosen three: love (L), Hate (H) and
5 knowledge (K). Such a selection, says Bléandonu (1994),
6
7 . . . of L, H and K is motivated not by the need to represent the total-
8 ity of emotional facts of the session but by the need for a key which,
9 like a musical key, can give the value of the other elements which
30 combine to create a statement. [p. 161]
1
2 These links signify relationships between animated objects and
3 are considered by Bion as hypotheses+ or psychoanalytical ele-
4 ments that portray constant conjunctions and contain all the other
5 emotions (1963, pp. 249–250; 262–270). Each link represents what-
6 ever it is that it should represent, although there are situations in
7 psychotic patients or the psychotic part of the personality, where
8 the word is no longer the representation of a thing, but the thing in
911 itself or, following Segal (1957), a symbolic equation.

93
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94 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Links perform like hypotheses expressing a constant conjunction

2 between feelings related or not to the senses: (a) “those represented
3 by terms that are succinct hypotheses of constant conjunction of cer-
4 tain sense impressions”, for instance to say “I hate the sea”, the sea
5 is perceived by the senses; (b) those represented by terms that are
6 succinct hypotheses of the constant conjunction of impressions not
7 related to the senses—for example, “I hate depression”, depression
8 does not have taste or odour (1992, pp. 266–267).
9 In cases of a wrong representation the K link might correspond
10 to K (minus K), analogous to H or L, although L is not the
1 same as H or vice versa. Different from physical things, psychic
2 qualities have no sensual information; anxiety for instance, has no
3 smell or taste. In this sense, Bion suggested that hypochondria
4 might represent an attempt to establish a link with a psychic
5 quality, when substituting physical sensations with sense informa-
6 tion that are absent in psychic quality. Communicating with
711 patients presents similar limitations: how do we know what
8 patients are talking about if their anxiety has no physical qualities?
9 The only reference we can depend on in these cases is our own,
20 because there is no odour or taste to compare them with.
1 L and H may very well represent the classical notion of life and
2 death instincts, whereas K could represent the epistemophilic
3 instinct introduced by Klein. See: L, H, K, K (Minus K), L
4 (Minus L), Catastrophic change.
511
6 Emotions: Bion represents them as Love (L), Hate (H) and their cor-
7 responding negatives: L, H; although L is not equivalent to H,
8 perhaps it could be more related to “indifference”. In classical
9 psychoanalysis they correspond to the concepts of sexual and
311 aggressive drives. Together with knowledge (K), Bion regards
1 them as passions (1963, p. 4), as well as links that unite persons,
2 hypotheses or psychoanalytic elements.
3 Emotions deform the outline of ideation (I or K) (See: Grid), in
4 a fashion similar to the one observed when a reflection on the sur-
5 face of a lake is distorted by the breeze, or any other incident that
6 produces a turbulence. Emotions represent complications that take
7 place during the progress of any process dominated by ideation, as
8 can be observed during the psychoanalytic process, which is emi-
911 nently cognitive. However, during this process, emotions could act
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E 95

111 as undesired but unavoidable complications, in both the analyst

2 and patient, in the form of transference and countertransference,
3 that will induce true turbulence in the form of a catastrophic
4 change during the process of insight.
5 Bion questions whether the Grid can be used for situations dif-
6 ferent from K: “It is a part of common experience that strong feel-
711 ings of love and hate affect ability to discriminate and learn” (1965,
8 p. 70) The Grid, oriented towards knowledge similar to psycho-
9 analysis, will be disturbed like the surface of a lake, with the pres-
10 ence of emotions. In the horizontal axis a feeling of love could
1 correspond to category 1, as a definitory hypothesis (ibid.).
2 Using the notion of turbulence and catastrophic change, Meltzer
3 (1986) has defined the emotional experience as:
4
. . . an encounter with the beauty and mystery of the world which
5
arouses conflict between L, H and K, and minus L, H and K. While
6
the immediate meaning is experienced as emotion, maybe as
7 diverse as the objects of immediate arousal, its significance is
8 always ultimately concerned with intimate human relationships.
9 [p. 26]
211
1 Empirical: An empirical preposition represents what can only be
2 known with the help of sense perceptions, by ours or those of some
3 one we trust. Historical facts, the law or geographical descriptions,
4 for instance, belong to these categories. See: A priori.
5
6 Enforced splitting: Described by Bion as a form of splitting result-
7 ing from a disturbed relationship with the breast, when the baby
8 feels forced to choose between the need to suck in order to survive,
9 and the threat of envious attacks against the breast and fear of retal-
30 iation. The dread of the destructive power of envy induces a split-
1 ting of the mind between psychical needs, such as love,
2 understanding, and solace, on one hand, and material needs on the
3 other. This splitting provokes a confusion between the need for
4 affection and accumulation of material things as a representation of
5 -elements. When the person lacks an -function to help him dis-
6 criminate between inanimate and animate things, he then resorts
7 to acquiring material things, one -element after the other, end-
8 lessly (1962, pp. 10–11). This form of behaviour can be observed in
911 the consulting room, in the interest some patients convey about
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96 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 material things, such as the furniture, finding it difficult to con-

2 ceive themselves as “alive” persons, as well as other people who
3 surround them. They usually come for consultation thinking of
4 themselves as a sort of machine that is not performing properly,
5 although ignoring its mechanism and expecting the analyst to
6 know best, like a good “mechanic” who could fix any wrongdoing.
7
8 Envy: Bion’s conception of envy is very similar to Klein’s. In
9 Cogitations (1992) he states that envy plays a very important role
10 in psychotic patient’s projections:
1
2 Envy contributes to the belief that external objects are the patient’s
thought. Since he cannot admit dependence on an external object,
3
he claims (in order ultimately to escape feeling envy) that he is, like
4
the breast that feeds itself, the producer as well as the consumer of
5
that on which he depends for this life. [1992, p. 120]
6
711 And some time latter:
8
9 Splitting of the breast enables the infant to take the milk without
20 understanding its dependence on the breast and the indulgence it
1 extends to him. Such understanding involves hate and envy, and
2 these impel attacks on the apparatus of understanding20 to prevent
the stimulation of envy—envy thus destroying envy. The attacks
3
mean that in effect the breast as a source of understanding, the
4
“mental” breast, is felt to be destroyed since no apparatus to under-
511
stand it means no understanding of it, and so no “it” to understand.
6 [ibid., p. 188]
7
8 At a given time he also alludes to mechanisms of “self-envy”
9 (Lopez-Corvo, 1992, 1994); for instance, when referring to the analy-
311 sis of a patient in his article “Attacks on Linking” (1959), he said:
1
2 This recurrent anxiety in his analysis was associated with his fear
3 that envy and hatred of a capacity for understanding was leading
4 him to take in a good, understanding object to destroy and eject it—
a procedure which had often led to persecution by the destroyed
5
and ejected object. [1967, p. 97]
6
7
8 20
It is quite possible that the “apparatus of understanding” represented at
911 this time what later on he named “apparatus for thinking thoughts”.
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E 97

111 And a bit further on, more explicitly:

2
3 I said that he felt so envious of himself and of me for being able to
4 work together to make him feel better that he took the pair of us
into him as a dead piece of iron and a dead floor that came together
5
not to give him life but to murder him. [ibid.]
6
711
Bion considers the existence of a primary and essential form of
8
envy, capable of explaining the incapacity observed in psychotic
9
patients to achieve satisfaction, even with the use of hallucinations,
10
a mechanism based on the omnipotence of being able to provide
1
anything, while in reality it provides nothing at all:
2
3 Apparently [patient] X can get nothing from analysis. In feeling it
4 is a hallucination in which he cannot have either love or hate, I am
5 an object manipulated—like a masturbatory object—to obtain grat-
6 ification but which yields none. Why is this? Does it mean that envy
7 is primary and precludes the possibility of any gratification, even
8 hallucinatory gratification? (1992, p. 112)
9
211 Establishment: Is defined by Bion as:
1
2 that body of persons in the State who may be expected usually to
3 exercise power and responsibility by virtue of their social position,
wealth and intellectual and emotional endowment . . . I propose to
4
borrow this term to denote everything from the penumbra of asso-
5
ciations generally evoked, to the predominating and ruling charac-
6 teristics of an individual, and the characteristics of a ruling caste in
7 a group . . . Because of my choice of subject it will usually be used
8 for talking about the ruling “caste” in psycho-analytic institutes.
9 [1970, p. 73]
30
1 He also differentiates between the group and the establishment:
2 while the main purpose of the former is to produce the mystic, the
3 intention of the latter is to maintain the continuity of the group. The
4 establishment, in other words, represents the dominant basic
5 assumption (ba) that imposes itself on other basic assumptions,
6 regardless of the group being social or therapeutic.
7 The advent of the genius, mystic or messiah is established, at
8 least from a religious vertex, on the separation and preservation of
911 such separation, between god and men, by means of mechanisms
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98 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 of idealization towards god and devaluation towards men. Bion

2 describes the relationship between the group and the mystic, as a
3 kind of container–contained interaction according to commensal,
4 symbiotic or parasitic forms of associations. Paradigmatic of these
5 dynamics are the events that surrounded the lives of Jesus and
6 Freud, who were well appreciated while alive by their disciples as
7 ordinary people, but were so idealized after death, that any form
8 of criticism was unsustainable and considered a sign of heresy
9 (1970, pp. 76, 80–81). Bion describes three progressive stages in
10 the interaction between the group and the mystic: (1) In the first
1 stage there is not a real confrontation between god and men
2 because there are no differences among them. (2) During the second
3 stage, there is a contrast between the infinitude of god and the fini-
4 tude of men. (3) In the third stage, some individuals, particularly
5 mystics, need to reaffirm a direct experience with god of which they
6 have been, and still are, deprived by the institutionalized group
711 (ibid., p. 77).
8 The communication between the mystic and god takes place
9 according to certain models; for instance, in the case of Christianity
20 it is achieved by means of a “light” or a “voice”. “It is significant”,
1 adds Bion, “that psychoanalysts seeking direct access to an aspect
2 of O . . . conduct their affairs through language”, but lacking certain
3 sensuous support, such as memory, desire or understanding (ibid.,
4 pp. 81–82). Followers of the mystic, who feel close to him, can
511 demonstrate their divine origin by means of an “inalienable ele-
6 ment” which is part of the deity, but resides within themselves and
7 allows them to represent the establishment. The description of these
8 dynamics is very clear and easy to follow (see: 1965, Chapter 7). It
9 can be interpreted as a direct allusion to the hierarchy established
311 within the IPA, many institutes and local associations, as well as the
1 psychoanalytic Congresses, something possibly experienced by
2 Bion in the British Psychoanalytical Society. See: O, Mystic,
3 Commensal, Symbiotic, Parasitic.
4
5 Euclidian geometry: Euclid lived in Alexandria between 323 and
6 285 BC. Although some of his contributions are still relevant in the
7 field of mathematics, most of his postulates related to geometry are
8 considered inexact and have been abandoned since the nineteenth
911 century. His work covers five axioms and five “commune notions”
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 99

E 99

111 where he described the point, the line and the circle, which Bion has
2 used, together with other geometric schemes related to projective
3 transformations, spatially to represent myths, conflicts, symptoms,
4 personality characteristics, patient–analyst interaction, etc. He justi-
5 fies the importance of such concepts on the basis that geometry orig-
6 inally represented an abstraction from the realization of external
711 space, and could then find its realization again in the mental space
8 whence it originated. This means that geometry was initiated from
9 practical needs, for instance having to measure the surface of a
10 portion of land, where calculation of a triangle’s surface was very
1 useful. Afterwards, mathematics became very abstract, losing the
2 initial connection with the human needs that originally gave them
3 meaning (1963, pp. 88–89; 1992, pp. 203–204). “My suggestion”, says
4 Bion, “is that its intra-psychic origin is experience of ‘the space’
5 where a feeling, emotion, or other mental experience was” (1965,
6 p. 121) (see: mental space). Bion uses geometric elements to repre-
7 sent biological realities such as emotions, no-emotions or anxieties
8 of psychotic intensity, for instance the point (.), the line ( ___ ), ,
9 , <-.— and <-.— . The last four symbols represent backward
211 movements through the axes of the Grid of the “line” meaning “no-
1 penis” or the “point”, meaning “no-breast”.
2 Following Plutarch, Bion associates the Oedipus myth with a
3 right-angled triangle, not only because of the triangulation of the
4 myth, but also because of the ancient Greek’s description of the tri-
5 angle as a “three-kneed-thing” and equal legs. Onians (1951)—
6 who could never be accused of supporting Freud’s theories on
7 sexuality—argued that the knees were frequently associated with
8 the genitals in early Greek literature. “This has made me look”, says
9 Bion, “at Euclid’s Fifth Proposition in a new light. It also makes one
30 inclined to attempt a revaluation of the question traditionally attrib-
1 uted to the Sphinx” (1992, p. 202).
2 Bion introduces a distinction between geometric and mathe-
3 matical elements, whereas the former are primarily associated with
4 presence or absence, existence or non-existence of the object, the
5 latter are related to the condition of the object itself: be it a whole,
6 a fragmented, a total or a partial object. Also, while a “geometric
7 space” would be associated with depression (absence–presence,
8 separation), mathematical elements would be related to persecution
911 and to Klein’s paranoid–schizoid position (1965, p. 151).
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100 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Throughout a great part of his work, Bion insisted on the great
2 advantages that the substitution of mental abstractions for geomet-
3 ric elements would represent for psychoanalysis. Describing what
4 he called “the infinite universe of projection” in psychotic patients,
5 he argues:
6
7 For the investigation of this mental state the patient cannot, but
the analyst can, employ points, lines and space. The geometer
8
has used them for the investigation of three-dimensional space and,
9
by the substitution of algebraic geometry for the figurative geo-
10 metry of Euclid, has been able to extend his investigation to multi-
1 dimensional space and leave Euclidean space to be used for
2 psychological preparation for the non-Euclidean geometries now
3 available. [1970, pp. 14–15]
4
5 Meltzer (1978), when comparing the book Transformations with
6 Elements of Psycho-Analysis, explains the difficulty the reader has to
711 face when dealing with mathematical signs used by Bion:
8
In the present work no such hope sustains us in the face of the pro-
9
liferation of mathematics-like notations, pseudo-equations, fol-
20
lowed by arrows, dots, lines, arrows over (or should it be under?)
1 words and not just Greek letters but Greek words. How are we to
2 bear such an assault on our mentality? [p. 71]
3
4 See: horizontal axis, vertical axis, Grid, Conscious awareness,
511 mental space.
6
7 Evacuation, process of: Mechanism used by psychotic patients or
8 by the psychotic part of the personality, to expel split-off parts of
9 the mental apparatus using different paths, in order to inoculate
311 external objects (see: bizarre objects). According to this, eyes, for
1 instance, could suck or eat, sight might be expelled through the
2 anus or the skin and thrown away in a corner of the room, words
3 could be seen, as could odours or other sensations (see: hallucina-
4 tions, delusions). The process of evacuation could represent a
5 mechanism to free the person from bad objects, as was originally
6 explained by Klein. In this sense, satisfaction of a need could be
7 equivalent to evacuation of that need. For Bion, these objects capa-
8 ble of being evacuated correspond to -elements (1962, p. 59). See:
911 Projective identification, Maternal reverie, Beta-elements.
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E 101

111 Evolution: Bion distinguishes between evolution and memory. He

2 defines the former as those experiences where some kind of idea or
3 pictorial impression, based on experiences that do not have a sense
4 impression but could be expressed in terms derived from sense
5 impressions, can suddenly and unexpectedly take place or “float”
6 in the mind; for instance to say: “I see”, meaning that I intuit
711 through a visual image. Memory, on the other hand, implies a “con-
8 scious attempt to remember something”. What Bion attempts to say
9 is that while listening to the patient’s discourse, instead of remem-
10 bering or wishing something, the analyst should wait with the
1 mind open like a white sheet of paper, completely unsaturated until
2 something “evolves” by itself and suddenly and unexpectedly
3 floats. See: memory, desire, psychoanalytic listening, O, Act of
4 faith, K.
5
6 Excessive projective identification: Expanding Klein’s statement
7 on “excessive projective identification”, Bion in 1962 added: “I
8 think that the term ‘excessive’ should be understood to apply not
9 to the frequency only with which projective identification is
211 employed but to excess of belief in omnipotence” (1967, p. 114).
1 Meaning that “excessive” should be defined not only in relation to
2 the quantitative but also to the qualitative aspects of the concept,
3 to the power of omnipotence carried by the process and experi-
4 enced by the receptor. Two years previously, in a note dated August
5 1960, Bion said that “excessive projective identification” could also
6 refer to the ‘exclusion’ of other methods (function?) such as
7 “dream-work-”, a term he later changed to -elements. It could
8 be questioned, however, why he did not consider the exclusive use
9 of -elements in projective identification, as “excessive” too?
30 Although he had defined these elements previously he did not
1 mention them again at this time. See: dream-work-, evacuation,
2 beta-elements.
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 102

111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 103

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 F
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Factor: Word of Latin origin meaning “the one who makes”, “the
1 author”. In arithmetic it signifies each of the numbers gathered to
2 obtain a product. From a wider conception, it represents each of the
3 elements that contribute to an end result or function of those
4 elements. The analysis of these factors, known as “factor analysis”,
5 represents a method of assessment of the interaction between vari-
6 ables in a table of correlations. From this point of view, Bion’s Grid
7 stands for a factor analysis of a correlation between thought evolu-
8 tion, represented by the “genetic” or vertical axis on one hand, and
9 those functions of the mind that make use of that evolution, also
30 referred to as “uses” or the horizontal axis, on the other. Bion pre-
1 supposes the existence of factors in the personality able to combine
2 to produce stable entities that he refers to as “functions of the
3 personality” (1962, pp. 1–2) He states:
4
“Function” is the name for the mental activity proper to a number
5 of factors operating in consort. “Factor” is the name for a mental
6 activity operating in consort with other mental activities to consti-
7 tute a function. Factors are deducible from observation of the func-
8 tions of which they, in consort with each other, are a part . . . Factors
911 are deduced not directly but by observation of functions (ibid.)

103
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104 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 For instance, in Bion’s “psychoanalytic theory of functions”, repre-

2 sented by  (),  represents a factor, or unsaturated element, or
3 preconception, in search of a realization to build a concept.
4
5 Facts: External things about which we can do nothing and in con-
6 sequence are not material for analysis, such as physical appearance,
7 financial situation, etc. (1987, p. 143).
8
9 Facts not digested or dreamt: Name initially used by Bion to call
10 -elements. The initial development of these ideas as well as the
1 concept of function and -elements (the latter identified as “dream-
2 work ), can be read in Cogitations pp. 6–8, in a note dated August
3 10th, 1959. See: Beta-elements, Evacuation, process of, Projec-
4 tive identification, Psychotic and non psychotic part of the
5 personality.
6
711 Falsehood: Different from the truth, falseness requires a thinker or
8 a thought inside a content (1970, p. 117). A genuine example of O
9 based on falsehood and lies could never exist, because O repre-
20 sents the absolute truth of any object (ibid., pp. 30, 117) See: lie, O,
1 Truth, Wild thoughts.
2
3 Fascination: Although Bion does not elaborate further, he relates
4 fascination to “repetition compulsion”, referring to the masochistic
511 need of a patient to search compulsively for punishment as a way
6 out from guilt. He said: “the more profitable the more guilty and
7 the more likely to be “fascinated”—being fascinated meaning what
8 we would call repetition compulsion” (1974a, p. 98).
9
311 Fba: see: Fight–flight (group) basic assumption
1
2 “Felt need”: A concept Bion once described in relation to “resis-
3 tance”. It represents a countertransference resistance experienced
4 as a need or wish to act something out. Bion illustrated its meaning
5 in relation to dream interpretation, stating that resistance in dream-
6 work is a compound of two elements:
7
8 resistance, as described by Freud; and a felt need to convert the
911 conscious rational experience into dream, rather than a felt need to
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F 105

111 convert the dream into conscious rational experience. The “felt
2 need” is very important; if it is not given due significance and
3 weight, the true dis-ease of the patient is being neglected; it is
4 obscured by the analyst’s insistence on interpretation of the dream.
[1992, p. 184]
5
6
See: Resistance
711
8 Fetishism: Bion introduces the idea that fetishism might depend on
9 the form that guilt, resulting from the feeling of attacking and
10 destroying some objects, can be expiated by attempting unsuccess-
1 fully to revive these objects with magic. He explains it in the
2 following manner: the baby dominated by the pleasure principle,
3 would be surrounded by gratifying and alive proto-objects, while
4 those objects that frustrate would be “non-existent”. If intolerance to
5 frustration increases, either because the level of tolerance decreases
6 or aggression from the surrounding objects increases, or both, the
7 need to be free from displeasure forces the baby to attack the men-
8 tal apparatus responsible for the transformation of sensuous
9 impressions into material suitable for dream thoughts, a condition
211 that will have as a consequence that thoughts, not having an appa-
1 ratus to process them (think them), would change into “things” (or
2 -elements). An excess of these “dead proto-objects”, plus the need
3 to placate them, induces idealization and future transformation into
4 objects of adoration, providing them with super-human attributes
5 precisely because they are dead.
6
7 Contrary to common observation, the essential feature of the
8 adored or worshipped object is that it should be dead so that crime
may be expiated by the patient’s dutiful adherence to animation of
9
what is known to be inanimate and impossible to animate. This
30
attitude contributes to the complex of feelings associated with
1 fetishism. [1992, p. 134]
2
3 In other words, crime will be paid for by the useless dependency on
4 those objects that by being inanimate (dead) are believed (invent
5 them) to be animate, but because of this, they are not capable of pro-
6 viding anything, for instance believing that a simple statue is capa-
7 ble of making miracles. Fetishism as well as all religious beliefs can
8 be explained in this manner. See: Animate–inanimate, difference
911 between, Magic, Thinking apparatus for, Proto-real objects.
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106 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Flight and fight basic assumption: The basic assumption of this
2 group culture stands for the need either to fight or fly from some-
3 thing, regardless of what might be involved; for instance the army.
4 The group requires and searches for a leader capable of fulfilling
5 the need either to fight or fly; usually individuals with paranoid
6 traits who defend themselves from internal persecution by project-
7 ing the “enemy” outside (1948b, p. 73).
8 Feelings of anger and fear predominate (ibid., p. 166), although
9 Bion states that in this ba, panic, as well as the uncontainable need
10 to escape, is in reality the same. “Panic” said Bion, “does not arise
1 in any situation unless it is one that might as easily have given rise
2 to rage” (ibid., p. 179), that together with fear does not offer a
3 readily available outlet:
4
5 . . . frustration, which is thus inescapable, cannot be tolerated
because frustration requires awareness of the passage of time, and
6
time is not a dimension of basic-assumption phenomena. Flight
711
offers an immediately available opportunity for expression of the
8
emotion in the fight–flight group and therefore meets the demand
9 for instantaneous satisfaction—therefore the group will fly. Alter-
20 natively, attack offers a similarly immediate outlet—then the group
1 will fight. [ibid., pp. 179–180]
2
3 The group will then follow any leader capable of facilitating either
4 immediate flight or fight. See: Basic assumptions, Dependent basic
511 assumption, Pairing basic assumption, Groups, Valence.
6
7 Forms, theory of; or Platonic forms: The word “form” (
) has
8 been used to translate Plato’s concept of “Idea” ( ), a Greek
9 word akin to concepts such as “look at”, and extended to words like
311 “sort”, “kind” or “type”, similar to the Latin word species, but
1 different from the English notion of idea. What is called Plato’s
2 “theories of Forms” refers to the existence of a type or sort of
3 “something” that exists independently whether or not something
4 of that kind exists. For instance, the idea of a book does not have a
5 sensory form, however it is a possibility present in any book, but
6 only one book in particular, for example book X could change
7 into a “phenomenon” and become recognizable by the senses
8 as book X, that will represent a realization. Bion uses this notion to
911 explain the transformation of O into K, or from noumenon to
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F 107

111 phenomenon, by means of a realization. In a similar way, O could

2 be conjured up by the senses as a possibility within an individual,
3 but could only be formulated once it is touched by a special event,
4 a realization.
5 Bion states:
6
711 As I understand the term, various phenomena, such as the appear-
8 ance of a beautiful object, are significant not because they are
9 beautiful or good but because they serve to “remind” the beholder
of the beauty or the good which was once, but no longer is, known.
10
This object, of which the phenomenon serves as a reminder, is a
1
form. [1965, p. 138]
2
3 Bion declares that Plato presaged the pre-conception as well as
4 Klein’s notions of the “internal object” and his own concept of
5 “inborn anticipations.”
6 Platonic Ideas and Forms are “noumena”, and phenomena are
7 things that present themselves to the senses. Kant refers to “pheno-
8
mena” as everything that appears in our perception and has two
9
aspects: (a) what belongs to the external object that he refers to as
211
“sensation”; (b) what belongs to our apparatus of perception and is
1
capable of ordering what is perceived, something he refers to as the
2
“form”. Noumena, on the other hand, are objects of which we have
3
no sensible intuition and hence no knowledge at all, they are
4
things-in-themselves, and in a positive sense, could be conceived
5
of as objects of intellectual intuition, a mode of knowledge that
6
man does not possess. The form, says Bion, could also be presented
7
in mystical terms like God in the Godhead, considered as a “spiri-
8
tual substance, so elemental that we can say nothing about it” (1965,
9
p. 139). “In this view”, continues Bion, “God is regarded as a Person
30
independent of the human mind . . . The phenomenon does not
1
‘remind’ the individual of the Form but enables the person to
2
achieve union with an incarnation of the Godhead, or the thing-in-
3
itself.” Forms and Incarnation give the
4
5 . . . suggestion that there is an ultimate reality with which it is pos-
6 sible to have direct contact although in both it appears that each
7 direct contact is possible only after submission to an exacting disci-
8 pline of relationships with phenomena, in one configuration, and
911 incarnate Godhead in the other. [ibid.]
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108 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Bion presents a similar mechanism in relation to the concept of O.

2 See: Godhead, Phenomenon, O, Meister Eckhart, Noumenon,
3 thing-in-itself.
4
5 Fraunhofer, lines of: Joseph von Fraunhofer was a German physi-
6 cist who, in the nineteenth century, classified dark lines of absorp-
7 tion in the solar spectrum, a condition previously discovered
8 by William Wollaston. The absorption bands represent different
9 wavelengths of elements present in the atmosphere of any planet
10 capable of reflecting light.
1 Bion uses the Fraunhofer lines as a “rudimentary” metaphor,
2 where the dark bands represent interferences or turbulences in the
3 mind, contrasting with transparent bands indicating areas of com-
4 munication or at-one-ment with the other. Memory, desire and
5 understanding can be equated with opaque bands interfering with
6 the analyst’s intuition (1992, pp. 315–316).
711
8 Frustration, tolerance or intolerance of: When any wish conceived
9 as a pre-conception, meets with the realization of an absent breast,
20 depending on either genetic or acquired potentials, there are three
1 possibilities: (a) Frustration is tolerated and the “absence” is
2 changed into thoughts that modify frustration making it more
3 tolerable. At the same time, the conception mating with a realiza-
4 tion, be it negative (no-breast), or positive (good-breast), will make
511 it possible to learn from experience. (b) If frustration imposed by
6 reality is not tolerated, the mind attempts to evade as well as to dis-
7 pose of the bad experiences represented by bad internal objects, by
8 means of massive projective identifications. Frustration intoler-
9 ance could block the development of thoughts and the capacity to
311 think. (c) An intermediary position related to omnipotence and
1 omniscience. Bion said:
2
If intolerance of frustration is not so great as to activate the mecha-
3
nisms of evasion and yet is too great to bear dominance of the real-
4
ity principle, the personality develops omnipotence as a substitute
5 for the mating of the pre-conception, or conception, with the nega-
6 tive realization. [1967, p. 114]
7
8 Such omnipotence involves omniscience as a substitute for learning
911 from experience, making discrimination between true and false a
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F 109

111 rather dictatorial and arbitrary decision based on what is believed

2 to be morally right or wrong; as can often be seen in many fanati-
3 cal individuals. Omniscience can also be responsible for a lack of
4 preoccupation for life, for it makes individuals incapable of dis-
5 criminating between animate and inanimate objects, humans and
6 machines, in relation to others and to themselves, in relation to
711 murderous or suicidal impulses (1992, p. 248).
8
9 Functions, theory of: From Latin functio meaning “to perform”.
10 “Theory of function” is employed in several fields such as biology,
1 psychology or mathematics, with different connotations. In psy-
2 choanalytic practice, the use of functions allows the construction of
3 transitory models, similar to Bion’s invention of the concept of “-
4 function”, useful for describing some clinical observations without
5 having to create new theories to the detriment of those already exis-
6 tent. Function and factor are mathematical terms used by Bion in
7 his attempt to make psychoanalysis an empirical verifiable theory.
8 Bion presupposes the existence of factors in the personality able to
9 combine to produce stable entities he refers to as “functions of the
211 personality” (1962, pp. 1–2); although a function could be consid-
1 ered a factor of another function of higher hierarchy or greater
2 degree of sophistication. Bion’s “psychoanalytic theory of func-
3 tions” or simply “function”, is represented as a “psychoanalytic
4 theory of personality” symbolized by the Greek letter  (Psi) (1962,
5
p. 89). “Thought” and “-function” are factors of . Factors could
6
be represented by unsaturated elements symbolized by Greek letter
7
 in (), representing a pre-conception in search of a realization
8
to build a concept.
9
He states:
30
1 “Function” is the name for the mental activity proper to a number of
2 factors operating in consort. “Factor” is the name for a mental activ-
3 ity operating in consort with other mental activities to constitute a
4 function. Factors are deducible from observation of the functions of
5 which they, in consort with each other, are a part . . . Factors are
6 deduced not directly but by observation of functions. [ibid., pp. 1–2]
7
8 Functor: Bion uses the concept succinctly as representing elements
911 that could be considered both variables and constants: “They are
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110 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 variables or unknown in that they are replaceable. They are

2 constants in that they are only replaceable by constants” (1962,
3 p. 90): for instance, elements present in the container–contained
4 interaction.
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 111

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 G
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Generalization: Similar to abstraction, it represents a process
1 according to which, saturation of an unsaturated element is bound
2 with something in order to consolidate the gain and avoid losing the
3 experience by dispersion or destruction of its components (1963,
4 p. 85), similar to the mating of a pre-conception with a realization to
5 create a conception. For instance, the notion of an idea is consoli-
6 dated when it is bound with a word or some other sign, as observed
7 in Hume’s concept of constant conjunction, or in Freud (1911) when
8 he said that thoughts acquire new qualities perceptible to con-
9 sciousness, once they are bound with the rest of words (p. 226)
30
1 Genetic axis: see: Grid, vertical axis of the.
2
3 Genius: see: Mystic.
4
5 Geocentric theory: see: Heliocentric theory.
6
7 Geometric space: Stands for a space where a psychoanalytic empir-
8 ical observation of an emotional event could find a representation
911 when replaced by constant geometric values, for instance the point

111
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112 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 or the line, illustrating an “empty space, where the object was”, or
2 element - signifying the existence of a “greedy non-existing
3 object”. This is extremely important in most of Bion’s contributions:
4 he often argued that if geometry, as Euclid postulated, was origi-
5 nally used to represent realizations in geometric space of feeling and
6 human aspirations, it should not be odd for him to try the opposite:
7
8 . . . if it is accepted that geometric space affords a link between
9 unsophisticated emotional problems, their unsophisticated solu-
10 tions and the possibility of their restatement in sophisticated terms
admitting of sophisticated solutions, then it may be that musical
1
and other artistic methods afford a similar link. [1965, p. 125]
2
3
See: conscious awareness, space.
4
5
“Ghosts of departed quantities”: Expression used by Bishop
6
George Berkeley (1685–1753), in his ironical criticism of Newton’s
711
presentation of the differential calculus, published in 1734 under
8
the suggestive name of: “The Analyst, A Discourse addressed To An
9
Infidel Mathematician”. He said:
20
1 And what are these fluxions? The velocities of evanescent incre-
2 ments. And what are these same evanescent increments? They are
3 neither finite quantities, nor quantities infinitely small, nor yet
4 nothing. May we not call them the ghosts of departed quantities
511 . . .? (Quoted by Bion, 1965, p. 156.)
6
7 Newton’s differential calculus represents a definitory hypothesis,
8 while Berkeley’s ironical criticism can be considered as the negative
9 side of that definitory hypothesis, which might be conceived as a
311 “ghost of a departed quantity”. Bion states also, that Newton’s
1 scientific contribution represents a transformation of K corre-
2 sponding to column 1 of the Grid, while the Bishop’s criticism was
3 expression of fear about a psychological turbulence, and would
4 correspond to column 2 of the Grid: “transformations in K are
5 feared when they threaten the emergence of transformations in O.
6 This can be restated as fear when T  T = K O.” (1965,
7 pp. 157–158). See: Definitory hypothesis, Horizontal axis,
8 Transformation of K, Transformation in O, Psychological turbu-
911 lence, O.
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G 113

111 Gnomon: Early Pythagoreans used the so-called gnomones

2 () meaning “carpenter’s squares”, to designate odd or even
3 numbers represented by dots (perhaps pebbles) in the shape of a
4 square. When Bion (1965, pp. 93–94) states that he will “add a ‘gno-
5 mon’ to the previous figure”, he means that by adding dots in the
6 shape of a square (right and upper sides), he will increase the quan-
711 tities in a form seen in the figure on p. 93: from 1 to 4, to 9, to 16, and
8 to 25. It was also a graphic way of representing square numbers with
9 pebbles, because all of these numbers are squares: 22, 32, 42 and 52.
10
1 . . . . .
2 . . . . . . . . .
3 . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6 1 22 32 42 52
7
8 Bion uses this notion as a symbolic representation of growth, of
9 accumulation, or adding something “to something or someone not
211 specificied” (ibid., p. 94).
1 Gnomon is also the name given to the pointer in a sundial, per-
2 haps because of its square shape. See: Growth.
3
4 Godhead: As a proof of his theory of O, Bion used several hypothe-
5 ses: (a) Kant’s concept of noumenon or the unknown (or the pre-
6 conception, the thing-in-itself, the ineffable, etc.) which could only
7 be intuited, and the phenomenon (conception, object, breast, etc.),
8 as the end result of a mating or realization between the noumenon
9 and a particular object; (b) Aristotle’s theory of form, which could
30 be considered as the opposite, because now the phenomenon acts
1 as a reminder of an abstract and idealized concept considered as the
2 Form. Bion also presented some strophes from Milton’s Paradise
3 Lost as a paradigm of Aristotle’s theory; (c) the Godhead, as it could
4 be inferred from descriptions made by Meister Eckhart, Blessed
5 John Ruysbroeck, as well as St. John of the Cross’s description of his
6 union with God in “The Ascent of Mount Carmel”.
7 From a religious vertex the Godhead represents the “three-in-
8 one” or Trinity and can be defined as the essence or divine nature
911 of a person or a thing, which has been considered as reason for
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114 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 adoration. Bion borrows this concept as stated by Meister Eckhart,

2 or St. John of the Cross, to explain the meaning of the ineffable, the
3 unknown, the aprioristic notion of the object (the breast), the thing-
4 in-itself, the pre-conception or O. According to Eckhart, the distinc-
5 tion between God sensed as “spiritual substance, so elemental that
6 we can say nothing about it” and the Godhead where God
7 “Incarnates” as the Trinity, is a phenomenon men can witness. In
8 this sense, God would be the ineffable, the unknown, equivalent
9 to O, that when incarnated (realization) produces the Godhead,
10 trinity, phenomenon, pre-conception or K, analogous to the relation
1 between the baby’s need to suck and the breast. God and Godhead
2 are different from each other like Paradise and the earth, the former
3 is action but not the latter; equal to K and O, where the former is a
4 form of knowledge that implies action, but O is a form of know-
5 ledge that emanates existence (1970, p. 88)
6 “Form” and incarnation—like O and K—suggest the existence
711 of an ultimate reality that could be known only by submitting it to
8 the rigour of a special discipline, such as phenomenology, religion
9 or psychoanalysis. Bion quotes St. John of the Cross in “The Ascent
20 of Mount Carmel”:
1
2 The first (night of the soul) has to do with the point from which the
soul goes forth, for it has gradually to deprive itself of desire for all
3
the worldly things which it possessed, by denying them to itself; the
4
which denial and deprivation are, as it were, night to all the senses
511
of man. The second reason has to do with the mean, or the road
6 along which the soul must travel to this union—that is, faith, which
7 is likewise as dark as night to the understanding. The third has to do
8 with the point to which it travels—namely, God, Who, equally, is
9 dark night to the soul in this life. [quoted by Bion, 1965 pp. 158–159]
311
1 In relation to psychoanalysis Bion emphasizes the importance of
2 discipline that demands a particular way of listening to the patient
3 without memory, desire or understanding in order, like Saint John
4 of the Cross, “gradually to deprive itself of desire for all the worldly
5 things”, to become in O, “which is as dark as night to the under-
6 standing” (ibid., 139).
7 See: O, Form, Phenomenon, Noumenon, Thing-in-itself,
8 Realization, Meister Eckhart, K, Ultimate reality, Psychological
911 turbulence, Memory, Desire.
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G 115

111 Grid, the:

2
Definitory 21 Notation Attention Inquiry22 Action . . . n
3
Hypothesis
4
1 2 3 4 5 6
5
A A1 A2 A6
6
-elements
711
B B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 . . . Bn
8
-elements
9
C C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 . . . Cn
10 Dream
1 Thoughts
2 Dreams,
3 Myth
4 D D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 . . . Dn
5 Pre-
6 conception
7 E E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 . . . En
8 Conception
9 F F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 . . . Fn
211 Concept
1 G23 G2
2 Scientific
3 Deductive
System
4
5 H
6 Algebraic
Calculus
7
8
9
30 21
Perhaps Bion borrowed the sign  from the expression proton pseudos:
1 “πρϖτον” (proton) = first; and “ψευδος” (pseudos) = false, to lie; possibly taken
2 from Aristotle’s Prior Analytics (Book II, Chapter 18, 66a) which deals with false
premises and false conclusions, asserting that a false statement is the result of a
3 proceeding falsity (“proton pseudos”). It was used by Freud (1886) in the “Project
4 for a Scientific Psychology”, to describe the importance of lying in hysterical
5 patients. Strachey added that a Viennese physician, Max Herz, used the same
6 term in a similar context, in a paper previously read at a congress where Freud
was the secretary. (p. 352n)
7 22
In the first Grids this column was named “Oedipus” instead of “Inquiry”
8 (Bion, 1997p. 7).
911 23
In the original Grid, files G and H were not present.
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116 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Grid, amalgamation of the: Represents the intention to unite both,

2 the “genetic” or “vertical axis” and the “horizontal axis” or “axis
3 of uses”, by providing double attributes to some categories, for
4 instance the pre-conception, which could represent both the use
5 that can be given to a certain statement, as well as the genetic
6 stage to that same statement. It would be appropriate, says Bion, to
7 ask whether research would gain and the Grid be enhanced, if
8 the uses and genetic stages were to be put together. In this way,
9 for instance, columns 4 and 5 could amalgamate and be represented
10 by the term pre-conception. At the end, Bion (1965) questions such
1 a procedure because it would create confusion by making unneces-
2 sary a series of concepts, such as -elements, dreams, concepts, etc.
3 [p. 43].
4
5 Grid, as a psychoanalytic game: Bion presents the possibility of
6 using the grid to play a psychoanalytic game, to use it in a kind of
711 analytic make-believe in which the experiential aspect would be
8 less determinant. He associates this “imaginative exercise” with the
9 “activity of the musician who practises scales and exercises, not
20 directly related to any piece of music but to the elements of which
1 any piece of music is composed” (1963, p. 101).
2
3 Grid, functioning of the: The construction of the Grid, perhaps
4 based on Mendeleev’s Periodic Table, represents Bion’s attempt
511 to cross the genetic evolution of thinking, on the one hand, with the
6 mind that contains and uses such evolution or transformation, on
7 the other. He refers to it as “an instrument for classifying and ulti-
8 mately understanding [psychoanalytical] statements” (1997, p. 13),
9 or as a “convention for construing psycho-analytical phenomena.
311 But if an analyst uses this convention he entertains a pre-conception
1 of which the Grid, as printed or written, is a representation” (1963,
2 p. 98).
3 The Grid usually moves from left to right and from top to
4 bottom as thinking progresses in degrees of sophistication both in
5 the use as well as in the level of abstraction and organization. In
6 this way it could be said that, on a structuring level, the vertical axis
7 follows the progressive movements of Klein’s positions: PS D,
8 while the uses, or horizontal axis, follows the mechanisms of the
911 container–contained ( ), in the sense of a mind that contains.
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G 117

111 The Grid is described as a manifestation of the development of

2 K, which is consonant with the purpose of the psychoanalytical
3 process. “The analyst must decide whether the idea that is
4 expressed” said Bion, “is intended to be an instrument whereby
5 feelings are communicated or whether the feelings are secondary to
6 the idea” (ibid., p. 96). At the beginning he refers to I (idea) and later
711 on, after he starts to use the theory of transformation, he changes
8 to K. Emotions might disrupt the cognitive purpose of the analysis,
9 just as the wind would disrupt the surface of a lake creating turbu-
10 lence; the only difference would be that in the Grid both emotional
1 and cognitive aspects are mutually affected by each other (1965,
2 pp. 70–71).
3 In Elements of Psycho-Analysis (1963), Bion gives the impression
4 of sometimes solving, and other times not, the “mysteries” of the
5 Grid. He does it by bits, inducing great expectation in the reader.
6 Some of these difficulties can be observed, for instance, when he
7 attempts, unsuccessfully, to evaluate the Oedipus myth using the
8 horizontal axis of the Grid. There he admits the possibility of
9 having forced things by inventing pre–conceptions, and he apolo-
211 gizes:
1
2 It is not my object to establish an exact correspondence . . .
3 Therefore to make the correspondence between the horizontal axis
4 and the elements of the myth appear to be exact would be a falsifi-
5 cation that obscured the nature of the myth. [1963, pp. 65–66]
6
7 The Grid’s level of abstraction makes it elusive and mysterious,
8 like something that cannot be grasped.24 Understanding the Grid is
9 only possible through practice, using it for what Bion has created
30 it for; such as trying to introduce into it the content of a session, or
1 when an analyst wishes to do some “home-work” by extra analytic
2 meditation about a session, or wishes to enhance his intuitive
3 deductive capacity, or simply because he is doubtful about the
4 preciseness of the work he is doing and wishes to refer it to the
5 Grid. The use of the Grid during the analytical session is obviously
6 not recommended (1963, p. 73; 1977a, p. 3). On the other hand—and
7
8
24
911 See for instance, Chapter Seventeen of Elements of Psycho-Analysis.
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118 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 this is very important—the fact that the Grid’s categories can be
2 used in order to classify the content of a session implies that in some
3 way we are dealing with psychoanalytic elements or “molecules”.
4 Francesca Bion (Bion, 1997) summarizes the possible uses of the
5 Grid in the following way:
6
7 1. to keep the analyst’s intuition in training;
8 2. to help in impressing the work of the sessions on the memory;
9 3. to increase the accuracy of observations;
10 4. to make it easier to bridge the gap between events of an
1 analysis and their interpretation;
2 5. as a “game” for psycho-analysts to set themselves exercises
3 as a method of developing their capacity for intuition;
4 6. to help in developing a method of written recording analo-
5 gous to mathematical communication, even in the absence
6 of the object;
711 7. as a prelude to psycho-analysis, not as a substitute for it;
8 8. to provide a mental climbing-frame on which psycho-
9 analysts could exercise their mental muscles;
20 9. as an instrument for classifying and ultimately understand-
1 ing statements. [p. 5]
2
3 The Grid combines two main axes that cross each other: the
4 Horizontal axis, marked 1 to . . .n columns, which represents
511 the “mind” that “uses” thoughts and the elements in the Vertical
6 axis. The Vertical axis consists of eight levels of evolution (A to H)
7 showing the genetic development of thinking, from the most prim-
8 itive aspects to the more complex ones. According to Bion, in the
9 horizontal axis the terms are the same, but they can be used differ-
311 ently, while in the Vertical one the terms vary, but have the same
1 use (1963, p. 87). The Grid contains elements that represent ideas
2 (I ) and feelings that can be placed inside its categories and, in turn,
3 be capable of forming psychoanalytic objects.
4 Throughout different expositions Bion shows an ambivalent
5 attitude towards the use of the Grid. At the beginning he frequently
6 seems optimistic and stands up for its value. Nevertheless, at some
7 other points, especially towards the end of his life, he seems
8 pessimistic about its significance. In 1974, at the Rio de Janeiro
911 conference, Bion said:
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G 119

111 The Grid is a feeble attempt to produce an instrument. An instru-

2 ment is not a theory. It is made up out of theories, just in the same
3 way as a ruler, which is marked in inches and centimetres, has been
4 made in conformity with a number of theories. But the ruler can be
used by different people for all sorts of purposes. When I was a boy
5
at school the teacher would say, “hold out your hand” and then use
6
the ruler to strike the palm . . . That is about all I can claim for the
711
Grid. Some people may be able to use it for different purposes . . .
8 I think it is good enough to know how bad it is, how unsuitable for
9 the task for which I have made it. But even if it inflicts a certain
10 amount of mental pain I hope you can turn it to good account and
1 make a better one. [1974a, p. 53]
2
3 Later on, by 1977 he says: “Nevertheless, its use [of the Grid] has
4 made it easier for me to preserve a critical and yet informative, illu-
5 minating, attitude to my work” (1977a, p. 6). In the same year, in
6 New York, he stated: “As soon as I had got the Grid out of my
7 system I could see how inadequate it is . . . the satisfaction does not
8 last for long” (1980, p. 56). When asked if it was difficult, he
9 answered: “Not for me, only a waste of time because it doesn’t
211 really correspond with the facts I am likely to meet” (ibid.).
1
2 Grid, horizontal axis: Bion refers to it also as the “uses” or
3 “schematic” axis. It represents the “mind” that “contains” thoughts,
4 that allows them to evolve (Vertical axis) and uses them according
5 to the circumstances. “The columns in this axis” says Bion, “repre-
6 sent the functions that a statement is being made to perform. The
7 statement may be an oracular pronouncement, an announcement
8 of the theme of the session . . .” (1963, p. 71). This axis is considered
9 to be incomplete (1 – . . .n), which means it can eventually be
30 extended. The formulations on this axis are always the same, the
1 only thing that varies is the use that they are given. For instance,
2 statement X could be a formulation considered to be a “defini-
3 tory hypothesis” (column 1) used as defence, as a lie (column 2),
4 recognized as a repetitive behaviour (column 3), that eventually
5 might determine a certain kind of acting-out (column 6). The mean-
6 ing varies according to the use that has been given to it, which in
7 turn depends on the category, or column, where the formulation
8 has been placed. The mechanism by which transition from one use
911 of this axis (1 to . . . n) is transformed into another seems to depend
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120 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 on container–contained mechanisms, while its dynamics are based

2 on pleasure and pain (ibid., p. 34).
3 Column 1 represents a series of definitions of various uses, such
4 as a myth, or the content of a session that could represent a “defin-
5 itory hypothesis”, denoting that facts in it are bound by a constant
6 conjunction, that they are meaningful, but have no meaning, and
7 very important, that they are limiting because the present constant
8 conjunction excludes all the other previously recorded. If I say “cat”
9 for instance, such a term will represent a preposition or a constant
10 conjunction that joins hair, colour, eyes, lives, etc.; it will be so
1 restrictive that it will exclude all other animal characteristics,25 it
2 would be unique because it will exclude any other previous con-
3 stant conjunction that, even if it might have represented something,
4 will have no meaning. The content of a session constitutes a defin-
5 itory hypothesis and at the same time it also represents the trans-
6 formation of an emotional experience O, into a final product (Tp),
711 which once presented in a session and understood by the analyst
8 will help to construct the interpretation. This also represents a
9 definitory hypothesis that excludes any other previously given
20 interpretation and will correspond to the analyst’s final transfor-
1 mation product (Ta) up to that particular moment. Ferreira (2000),
2 introduces the possibility of subdividing this column into three
3 parts: (a) the definitory hypothesis as such; (b) the negative aspects
4 of the definition; (c) the annihilation of the hypothesis.
511 Column 2, as well as row C, could have its own grid. It is
6 used as a false statement with the purpose of providing the
7 patient with a theory that will act as a defensive barrier or a resis-
8 tance against feared feelings or ideas, and thus oppose the appear-
9 ance of a catastrophic change (1977a, pp. 5–6). In classical theory,
311 column 2 would correspond to “resistance” in the patient and
1 countertransference resistance in the analyst. According to Bion, in
2 a rather abstract way, there could also be some sort of meta-defence
3 by which, for instance, an idea, a myth or a dream corresponding
4 to C2, would act as a defence against another idea that in turn was
5 acting as a defence against yet another one. Or in other words, C2
6
7 25
“Carried to extremes”, says Bion (1963), “the term ‘cat’ is merely a sign
8 analogous to the point as the ‘place where the breast used to be’ and should
911 mean the ‘no-cat’ “.
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G 121

111 would be used to inhibit a G2 (1963, p. 80). Bléandonu (1994,

2 p. 166), suggests that this column, designated by Bion with the
3 Greek letter , could be related to the proton pseudos (πρϖτον ευδος),
4 a concept used by Freud parodying Aristotle to refer to the “first
5 lie” present in a hysterical patient.26 Bion distinguishes between
6 falsities and lies:
711
8 The false statement being related more to the inadequacy of the
human being, analyst or analysand alike, who cannot feel confident
9
in his ability to be aware of the ‘truth’, and the liar who has to be
10
certain of his knowledge of the truth in order to be sure that he will
1 not blunder into it by accident. [1977a, p. 5]
2
3 Columns 3, 4 and 5 represent statements that are less defensive
4 and of a more co-operative level during the performance of the ana-
5 lytical work. Column 3, for instance, uses aspects related to
6 memory, or notation of statements that might unite or relate a
7 given constant conjunction with other constant conjunctions previ-
8 ously bound and registered, and in this sense, provide relatedness
9 and coherence that could yield meaning until then unrecorded
211 (1965, p. 98).
1 Column 4 refers to what Freud defined as attention, especially
2 to the way in which the analyst’s listening takes place, to free float-
3 ing attention or to the search and discovery of meaning (ibid., p. 79).
4 It also refers to the attention given to repetition of previous propo-
5 sitions or constant conjunctions.
6 Column 5 is related to inquiry, curiosity, exploration or dis-
7 crimination of facts related specially with search for moral meaning
8 (ibid., p. 79). In the first Grids Bion referred to this column as
9 Oedipus, mainly because of the tenacity with which Oedipus,
30 according to the myth, had “inquired” about the truth (1997, p. 10)
1 (see: Arrogance, curiosity and stupidity).
2 Column 6 is related to acting-out, in the patient as well as the
3 analyst. According to Bion, the analysis itself could sometimes also
4 be used as a form of acting-out. Muscular movements or any other
5 form of motor discharges are important because they can be
6 intended to disburden the mind from accumulations of stimuli
7
8
911 26
See fn 21
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122 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 (1963, pp. 71–72) (see: Projective identification). Functions related

2 to the interpretation also fall into this category. For example, a
3 phobic patient says she “repeats the interpretations in her mind
4 with the purpose of not forgetting them”; such an asseveration
5 could represent an E6 category, but if it happens that the patient
6 repeats the interpretation to make sure she controls and “encapsu-
7 lates” them as strange elements in order to evacuate them, it would
8 then be an A6 instead. However, it could also belong to row C if
9 it was later found that what the patient stated was a lie, if she were
10 to say, for instance, that she has dreamed it. Bion states:
1
2 All Grid categories may “be regarded as having the quality of
3 Column 1 categories in that they are significant but cannot be held
to have meaning until experience invests them with it. [1997a, p. 10]
4
5
Bion proposes the use of arrows in the horizontal as well as in the
6
vertical axis, to indicate
711

8
movements along the axes. For instance, 3 would mean a notation
9
that represents growth
20

1
while 3 would mean notation that is growth-inhibiting (1965, p. 94).
2
3
Grid, negative: see: Negative Grid.
4
511
Grid, origins of the: “This is an instrument” says Bion (1977a) of the
6
Grid, “for the use of practising psycho-analysts”, but it is not
7
intended to be used during the working session (p. 3), it is “intended
8
to aid the analyst in the categorization of statements. It is not a
9
theory, though psycho-analytical theories have been used to con-
311
struct it, but has the status of an instrument” (Bion 1997, p. 8).
1
Several aspects must be considered regarding the evolution of
2
Bion’s thinking with respect to the Grid.
3
4 (A) The first ideas about the Grid can be read in Bion’s 1957 article
5 on the “Differentiation of the Psychotic from the Non-psychotic
6 personalities” (pp. 45–46), where he discusses Freud’s sayings
7 (1911, p. 220) about the relationship that exists between the sense-
8 organs that are directed towards the external world, and of the
911 consciousness attached to them. Freud identifies “attention” which
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G 123

111 searches the external world comparing what is new to what is

2 already familiar in case an urgent internal need should arise; “nota-
3 tion” which lays down the result of this periodical activity of con-
4 sciousness and contributes to memory formation; “judgement”
5 which has to decide what is true and what is false; “action”, a func-
6 tion directed towards motor discharge under the dominance of
711 the pleasure principle and serving as a mean of unburdening the
8 mental apparatus of accretions of stimuli; finally, “thinking”, as a
9 measure to tolerate frustration inasmuch as it represents a way of
10 experimental action. Along with these theories the Grid’s system-
1 atic, horizontal or “axis of the uses” will later be established. We can
2 conclude that this axis represents the “mind” which “contains”
3 thinking as well as its progressive complexity, this last one repre-
4 sented by the vertical axis.
5 In Cogitations (1992), dated October 11th, 1959, at the end of a
6 brief note in which he speaks of aggressive fantasies against a col-
7 league, Bion suddenly says: “But what of mathematics and music?
8 Geometry is a kind of visual image; music can evoke visual images”
9 (p. 90). In the same note he suggests in a cryptic manner that his
211 reluctance to get into [to use] music and mathematics could be
1 caused by lack of courage27; that is, to take the risk of facing the reac-
2 tion that the creation of a “geometric instrument” such as the Grid
3 would produce (ibid., pp. 91, 201–202). Another important argument
4 results from the problem faced by the analyst in finding a method,
5
6 —If there is one—by which he can be aware that he is falling into
7 error, and even (if possible) of what kind or error he has become
8 the victim. The search for this method constitutes for the psycho-
analyst the search for a scientific method. [ibid., p. 123]
9
30
(B) Later on Bion investigates a theory about thinking and deter-
1
mines the genetic evolution of thought that goes from -elements,
2
3
4 27
Attempts to find answers through Euclidian geometry could be inferred
5 from Bion’s use, in this passage, of the sphinx’s riddle: the animal that goes
6 on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon and three by night. He free-
associates the notion of three with a triangle and the angles where lines
7 articulate, with the notion of genitals as Greeks had previously speculated.
8 Was this passage an obscure way of Bion stating that to “mathematize”
911 psychoanalysis, courage (testicles) was needed?
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124 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 which constitute entities that cannot be permeated or mutated,

2 neutral materials that can be useful only for discharge, or the thing-
3 in-itself, using Kantian language, up to the complexities of mathe-
4 matical thinking (see: Psychic mathematics). Along this line he
5 elaborates the vertical or genetic axis of the Grid.
6
(C) In Chapter Thirteen of Learning from Experience (1962, pp. 38–41),
7
Bion argues about the need to use precise formulations that at the
8
same time enable one to maintain flexibility of facts. Such flexibility
9
“derives from the use of variables as factors that can be replaced . . .
10
by theories and concepts of fixed value” (ibid., p. 38). This would
1
be the case throughout the use of “Function Theory” (as could be
2
gathered from the notion of -function) inasmuch as its principles
3
can remain unaltered even if its factors change. He believes in the
4
necessity of establishing a solid structure, a referential theory of
5 psychoanalysis that is flexible in action. This concept is not at all
6 unfamiliar, after all the plasticity of O results from the rigidity of the
711 analytical setting. Bion states:
8
9 A record of sessions that showed succinctly the progress of the
20 analysis by representing the theories employed would thus serve a
1 purpose that was more than an aid to the analyst’s memory . . . but
2 the central problem concerns the need for a system of notation that
3 is valuable both for recording analytic problems and working on
4 them . . . and that can be communicated to others without serious
loss of meaning. [ibid., p. 40]
511
6
However, Bion adds that this would not be enough because devel-
7
opments in psychoanalysis require finding a formula that stores
8
information, as mathematical notation records facts, and provides a
9
means for calculation. Even though Bion does not specify in these
311
arguments that he is referring to the Grid, it is obvious that he was;
1
something supported by Francesca Bion when she said in the intro-
2
duction of his posthumous work Taming Wild Thoughts that, “It was
3
written after the publication of Learning from Experience in which the
4
Grid is not mentioned, although Bion had been working on the idea
5
for some time before that” (1997, p. 3).
6
7 (D) The next step is to concretize the abstract, which Bion tries out
8 by equating concrete and tangible functions, such as the digestive
911 system or the baby’s food ingestion, to abstract functions like
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G 125

111 thought formation and the apparatus needed to think them.

2 According to Bion, the digestive apparatus and the apparatus of
3 thinking have a common origin because both have to deal with
4 sense impressions relating to the alimentary canal: the nourishment
5 provided, or not, by the presence or absence of milk, as well as the
6 loving or painful sensations given by the presence or absence of the
711 “good breast”, arrive at the same time.
8
9 The infant is aware of a very bad breast inside it, a breast that is
10 “not there” and by not being there gives it painful feelings. This
object is felt to be “evacuated” by the respiratory system [also by the
1
skin and the digestive system] or by the process of “swallowing” a
2
satisfying breast. This breast that is swallowed is indistinguishable
3
from a “thought” but the “thought” is dependent on the existence of
4
an object that is actually put into the mouth. [1962, p. 57]
5
6 In this way, the breast, or the thing-in-itself, is equivalent to an idea
7 in the mind, and reciprocally, indistinguishable from the thing-in-
8 itself in the mouth. “It is clear that we have arrived at an object very
9 closely resembling a beta-element” (ibid., p. 58).
211 The difference between the concrete and the abstract (see:
1
abstraction) can be seen as follows: (a) Concrete statement: there
2
exists a breast on which to depend in order to satisfy hunger for
3
food; (b) Abstract statement: there exists something capable of pro-
4
viding—and which provides—whatever and whenever is needed.
5
Bion concludes:
6
7 There is reason to believe that the emotional experiences associated
8 with alimentation are those from which individuals have abstracted
9 and then integrated elements to form theoretical deductive systems
30 that are used as representations of realizations of thought. There is
1 reason for using alimentary system as a model for demonstrating
2 and comprehending the processes involved in thought. [ibid., p. 62]
3
4 Grid, vertical axis: It is formed by non-saturated elements waiting
5 for a realization, except for row A corresponding to  elements. Each
6 stage of this axis is a record of a previous one and a pre-
7 conception of the subsequent stage. Successive growth from A to H
8 implies a difference in degrees of sophistication instead of a
911 difference in functioning (1963, p. 87; 1965, p. 43; 1997, p. 6), similar
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126 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 to mechanisms of integration and disintegration described in the

2 Kleinian Ps D positions, where the dynamic links, as well as in
3 the horizontal axis, are also L, H and K elements (1963, pp. 34–35)
4 Growth of this axis will depend on the following mechanisms:
5 (a) psycho-mechanics; (b) an alternation of particularization and
6 generalization (concretization and abstraction); (c) successive satur-
7 ation; and (d) emotional drives (ibid., p. 84).
8
(A) Psycho-mechanics is described as a condition that takes place
9
in the relationship that exists between projective identification and
10
the alternation of the paranoid–schizoid and the depressive posi-
1
tion, in relation to K. Bion considers that fragmented bits might be
2
capable of providing integration and solutions to problems, that
3
4 will facilitate the alternation present in PS D and also in  .
5 (B) Particularization and generalization processes are related to
6 abstraction; that is, to a process by which an element is particular-
711 ized following a realization or a saturation, from where, later on, a
8 generalization takes place. Naming the process and then remem-
9 bering it (notation), will prevent the loss of the experience by dis-
20 persion or disintegration of its components.
1
2 (C) Generalization or abstraction can be understood as a process by
3 which an unsaturated element becomes saturated. Further details
4 about this mechanism can be found in the corresponding entrance in
511 this dictionary under the heading Saturated–unsaturated elements.
6 (D) Bion relates emotional impulses to a premonitory state that
7 would represent more of an emotional condition than an ideational
8 content which is related more to a pre-conception, although similar
9 to a pre-conception, a pre-monition is also private and unconscious.
311
In other words, emotions are to pre-monitions what ideas are to
1
pre-conceptions.
2
3 I do not dissociate “pre-monition” from its association with a sense
4 of warning and anxiety. The feeling of anxiety is of value in guid-
5 ing the analyst to recognize the premotion28 in the material. The
6
7
8 28
My italics. Bion uses this word without giving any definition. A few lines
911 before this quotation he said: “. . . when a patient comes for a first consultation
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G 127

111 premonition can therefore be represented by (Anxiety ()) where ()

2 is an unsaturated element. [1963, p. 76]
3
4 Countertransference anxiety can become a premonition that guides
5 the analyst in his investigation and structuring of the interpretation.
6 Changes between A and H29 correspond to mechanisms of ,
711 where a pre-conception (row D), for instance, is contained in a con-
8 ception (row E), and this one contained in a concept (row F), and
9 so forth. Dynamic links between different categories in the axis are
10 reached by means of elements H, L and K. The benignity of the
1 operation   will depend on the nature of the dynamic link; that
2 is, the degree of persecutory anxiety will be related to the inter-
3 action between the envious attack (H) and the love relationship (L)
4 directed towards the breast (1963, p. 34).
5 Bion proposes for both, horizontal and vertical axes, the use of
6 arrows () to indicate either progression or regression from K. A
7 downward arrow ( ) represents a movement from A to H or a pro-
8 gression in the direction of K, whereas the opposite ( ) or a move-
9 ment from H to A, would indicate a road to , in the direction of
211 fragmentation and destruction of K (1965, pp.88, 99).  will rep-
1 resent movements contrary to the progressive movement of both
2 axes of the Grid, a kind of minus Grid. Bion also states that any
3 existing object corresponding to the direction of these arrows: ,
4 would represent an object considered to be violent, greedy, envious,
5
ruthless, murderous and predatory, without respect for the truth,
6
person or things. It is, as it were, what Pirandello30 might have
7
called a Character in Search of a Author . . . This force is dominated
8
9
30 his premotions give information about him that cannot be obtained from other
1 factors” (1963, p. 75). There are doubts whether this is a printing misspelling for
2 “premonition” or a neologism implying a condition previous to an emotional
state. Similar thoughts have been expressed by Dr Elizabeth Bianchedi (personal
3 communication).state. Similar thoughts have been expressed by Dr Elizabeth
4 Bianchedi (personal communication).
29
5 Successive growth in categories that form the vertical axis, could also be
6 understood with the use of Piagetian constructs of “Assimilation” and
“Accommodation”; although never mentioned by Bion, these are well known
7 within the ambit of genetic epistemology.
8 30
Pirandello (1996). Six Characters in Search of an Author. London: Penguin
911 Books.
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128 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 by an envious determination to possess everything that objects that

2 exist possess including existence itself. [ibid., p. 102]
3
4 The first row (A) of the vertical axis corresponds to -elements,
5 which cover a field of confusions31 in relation to thought and feeling.
6 In the domain of thoughts the confusion is between them and
7 things, similar to Segal’s concept of symbolical equation. In the
8 domain of feeling it might be equivalent to the confusion between
9 fact and phantasy (1963, p. 97); therefore, they could only be used in
10 columns 2 and 6 (1965, p. 44). Beta elements cannot discriminate the
1 animate from the inanimate, nor the subject from the object or what
2 is moral from what is scientific; they can be used as projective iden-
3 tifications and have a capacity for imprisonment. (See: Prisoner)
4 The passage from A to B, that is, from - to -elements, is similar
5 to a movement from a pre-conception to a conception and will
6 depend on  . Beta elements are dispersed but could acquire cohe-
711 sion by means of: (a) changes in terms of Ps D; (b) according to
8 an external organizer acting as a , such as the breast, that would
9 be a model, or some other factor that resembles a selected fact;
20 (c) other mechanisms Bion has described as “psycho-mechanics”.
1 Bion says:
2
The cohesion of -elements to form  is analogous to the integra-
3 tion characteristic of the depressive position; [while] the dispersal
4 of -elements is analogous to the splitting and fragmentation
511 characteristic of the paranoid–schizoid position. [1963, p. 40)
6
7 Bion also advises that any inquiry about - or -elements, should
8 always involve both of them:
9
311 -elements and -elements are intended to denote objects that are
unknown and therefore may not even exist. By speaking of -
1
elements, -elements and -function, I intend to make it possible to
2
discuss something, or to talk about it, or think about it before know-
3
ing what it is. At the risk of suggesting a meaning, when I wish the
4 sign to represent something of which the meaning is to be an open
5 question, to be answered by the analyst from his own experience, I
6
7
8 31
Although Bion refers to “confusion”, I wonder whether “lack of discrim-
911 ination” could have been a better term.
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G 129

111 must explain that the term “-element” is to cover phenomena that
2 may not reasonably be regarded as thoughts at all. [1997a, pp. 10–11]
3
4 And further on,
5
Ideally, any meaning that the term accumulates should derive from
6
analytic practice and from analytic practice alone. Much the same
711 is true of the -element, except that this term should cover phe-
8 nomena that are reasonably considered to be thoughts. I would
9 regard them as elements that make it possible for the individual to
10 have what Freud described as dream thoughts. [ibid., p. 11]
1
2 For Bion, -elements represent an early matrix from where
3 thoughts are supposed to arise. They share the quality of inanimate
4 and of psychic objects, but without any kind of distinction between
5 them. “Thoughts are things, things are thoughts; and they have per-
6 sonality” (1963, p. 22). He is referring to the qualities of omnipotent
7 magic thinking seen in psychotic patients, in the psychotic part of
8 the personality, in children and in all sorts of religious beliefs.
9 The second row (B) corresponds to -elements, the product of -
211 function. One can question whether the inference of this function
1 on the whole genetic evolution of this axis towards the evolution of
2 thinking, might not justify its location at the margin of the Grid.
3 Something of this sort could be read in Bion when he states:
4 By the same token [that of the reverie function exercised by indi-
5 viduals within themselves as they grow] -function may be
6 described as concerned with the change I have associated with the
7 conception and the concept (E and F) as I have described these enti-
8 ties in my exposition. [1963, p. 27]
9
30 And further on:
1
All the categories in the table, with the possible exception of the
2 row B sets, may be considered to play a part, sometimes more
3 important, sometimes less, in any psycho-analytic material. [ibid.,
4 pp. 29–30]
5
6 Row C corresponds to thought categories that could be
7 expressed in sensuous terms, usually visual images like those that
8 appear in dreams, myths, narratives, and hallucinations. Bion sug-
911 gests that this category should have a grid of its own (1977, p. 3).
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130 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Row D corresponds to pre-conceptions, which could be con-

2 ceived as similar to Kant’s concept of “empty thoughts” (1967,
3 p. 111). They represent a state of mental anticipation for some kind
4 of realization, like the baby’s expectation of the breast right after
5 birth, or the analyst’s expectation as he/she figures out the meaning
6 of the patient’s manifest content, that will in turn enable the eluci-
7 dation of the unconscious phantasy in order to structure the inter-
8 pretation. Bion represents the pre-conception with the following
9 formula:  (), where  represents an incognita, the unknown, and
10  signifies an unsaturated element, which once saturated by know-
1 ledge, becomes a conception and will hence correspond to row E.
2 Row E represents conceptions that result from the union of a
3 pre-conception with a realization:
4
5 When the pre-conception is brought into contact with a realization
6 that approximates to it, the mental outcome is a conception. [ibid.,
p. 111]
711
8
And also:
9
20 In this respect it may seem misleading to describe Row E as consist-
1 ing of pre-conceptions to the exclusion of the remaining rows, for
2 they are capable also of functioning as pre-conceptions. [1997, p. 11]
3
4 In summary, a conception might be considered as a variable that
511 has been replaced by a constant.
6 Row F corresponds to formulations of psychoanalytic and non-
7 psychoanalytic theory, which intend to show scientific observa-
8 tions. Conceptions change into concepts by a process “designed to
9 render it free of those elements that would unfit it to be a tool in the
311 elucidation or expression of truth” (1963, p. 24).
1 Row G is of little use and must wait until the psychoanalytic
2 scientific deductive system develops. Something similar could be
3 said about row H, which also may have to wait until algebraic
4 systems build up. This row could be important in relation to
5 research or publication.
6 Free floating attention and relaxed unsaturated listening to
7 the patient’s material, correspond to D4, that is, “attentive pre-
8 conceptions”. The comprehension of this material would imply a
911 movement from D4 (a pre-conception) to a conception or E4.
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G 131

111 Searching for a confirmation, comparing one material with the

2 other, would signify a movement towards E3 and E5. Structuring
3 the interpretation, verbalizing impressions, integrating and so on,
4 would correspond to F5. Lastly, when the interpretation is verbal-
5 ized with the intention of affecting the patient’s mind, it could be
6 placed on G6.
711 Meltzer (1978) has summarized how some aspects of the vertical
8 axis function:
9
10 . . . the “molecules” of psycho-analysis, are seen to be compounded
1 of elements from three rows of the grid, B, C and G, that is the
2 sensa, or alpha-elements which have been derived from the per-
ception of the emotional experience, the myth or dream thought in
3
which its elements are bound, and the passion of scientific deduc-
4
tive system into which it would grow if allowed. [p. 67]
5
6
Group: Bion has introduced substantial theoretical and clinical
7
changes in group therapy. His experience started with the British
8
army during the two World Wars in which he participated, but
9
more importantly during the second, when, at the beginning of the
211
forties, the need to treat soldiers suffering from war neurosis
1
2 induced him to investigate group techniques at the Northfield
3 Hospital in Birmingham, England. A very important innovation
4 was the creation of “self-interpretative” or “leaderless groups”,
5 where the “abstinence law” and “neutrality” of the therapist, simi-
6 lar to individual psychoanalysis, were maintained. Bléandonu
7 (1994) states that the experience at Northfield was a determinant in
8 the later development of the “therapeutic community”.
9 Bion attempted to solve the differences between individual and
30 group therapy when he said:
1
One disadvantage of the group situation is that seeing, say, six or
2
ten people at the same time leads one to suppose that there are six
3 or ten discrete personalities present. In other words, the distinct
4 physiology of the participants is so dominant that one is liable to
5 assume that the personality is similarly bounded by physical
6 appearance. The “dramatic” affect of having the personalities
7 present makes one suppose that the important thing is what any
8 individual participant is saying or doing—another caesura. [1987,
911 p. 298]
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132 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 In a similar fashion he affirms that, in a group, a spontaneous and

2 common emotional reaction can take place, that will join together
3 several individuals at a given moment, and provide the possibility
4 of making one interpretation. This is typical of a group interpreta-
5 tion, said Bion:
6
7 One would have to develop a sensitiveness to what seemed to be
8 the emotion common to the majority of the group; the group analy-
sis would have to depend on the assessment of the “gist” of an
9
obtruding emotion. It bears a similarity to psycho-analysis, but it
10
is not the same thing. [1974a, p. 190]
1
2 He defined “group mentality” according to basic assumptions,
3 as an unconscious consensus of several individuals in a group, that
4 will involuntarily neutralize all individual aspirations (1948b,
5 p. 59). He describes three basic assumptions (ba): dependent (baD),
6 pairing (baP) and fight–flight (baF). There is a polarization
711 between a group level he named “sophisticated” or “work group”
8 (W) that operates according to reality, an idea or a conscious pur-
9 pose, and another level where the prosecution of that purpose or
20 idea is emotionally undermined, corresponding to one of the three
1 basic assumptions previously mentioned. Depending on its own
2 dynamics, a group could change from one “ba” to another, but
3 onceone of them dominates and becomes manifest, the others
4 would remain latent (ibid. pp. 96; 146–152). See: ba Dependent, ba
511 Pairing, ba Fight–flight, Proto-mental system, and valence.
6
7 “Group coming together”: When a group during therapy behaves
8 as whole, it resembles a family organization (1948a, p. 69).
9
311 Group culture: In relation to group dynamics, Bion considered
1 three entities: (a) the individual; (b) the group mentality; and (c) the
2 group culture, represented by those aspects of behaviour resulting
3 from the conflict between the dominating group mentality and the
4 individual interest. There will be three different kind of cultures:
5 dependence, fight–flight and pairing (1948b, pp. 59–61). See: Basic
6 assumptions.
7
8 Group leader: It is established as a product of projective identifi-
911 cation mechanisms; responding to the group’s needs and never the
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G 133

111 other way around. It is, as Le Bon (1896) said, “an automaton who
2 has ceased to be guided by his will”, and it is precisely from this
3 capacity that according to Bion, the group leader derives his power
4 (1948a, p. 177). The possibility for a member to become the leader
5 of the group depends on his capacity to combine instantly and
6 involuntarily (“maybe voluntarily”) with every other member of
711 his group, as well as to fulfil the necessary requirements needed to
8 be the leader of such specific basic assumptions (ba). The main dif-
9 ference from the leader of a work group (W) relies on the access this
10 leader has to external reality, whereas the basic assumption leader
1 is confined to his specific assumption.
2
3 Group mentality: In group dynamics Bion considered three postu-
4 lates: (a) the individual; (b) the group mentality; and (c) the group
5 culture. Group mentality represents the “unanimous expression of
6 the will of the group, an expression of will to which individuals
7 contribute anonymously (1948a, p. 59) . . . unaware, influencing
8 him disagreeably whenever he thinks or behaves in a manner at
9 variance with the basic assumption” (ibid., p. 65).
211
1 Growth: At one point Bion represented it with the letter Y (1962,
2 p. 70). It can be positive or negative: Y, depending, in the case of
3 a pre-conception, on the sense provided by its realization. If the
4 direction is towards the outside, towards reality (social-ism),
5 towards the primary quality of the object, to the breast for instance,
6 it would be +Y; but if the direction is egocentric or narcissistic,
7 the growth would be Y (ibid.). A 38-year-old, single patient still
8 living with his mother, struggling with ambivalence towards an
9 internal object we had defined as the “eternal son” (Y), was trying
30 unconsciously to sublimate his dependency creating a system of
1 hydroponics that “was not using earth”, as a symbolism of his
2 mother (+Y).
3 Growth can be represented, within the tendencies of the vertical
4 axis of the Grid, according to a greater or lesser capacity for
5 abstraction. Something Bion relates to PsD,   , and to the
6 nature of some myths such as: Oedipus, the Tower of Babel, the
7 myths of Eden and the Sphinx, all related to the fear of human
8 knowledge (K), that will restrict growth (Y) (1963, p. 63). The
911 vertical axis of the Grid involves a premise of growth from A to H,
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134 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 which according to Bion, will depend on four aspects: (a) psycho-
2 mechanics; (b) alternation of particularization and generalization
3 (concretization and abstraction); (c) successive saturations; and
4 (d) emotional drives (ibid., pp. 84–86) (see: vertical axis). The move-
5 ment in the opposite direction of the Grid, from H to A and from
6 5 to 1, would represent a form of negative growth that Bion repre-
7 sents as:  . (See: Conscious awareness or Cs).
8 Criteria about growth can rest on a consensus of observation, or
9 common sense, about the patient’s mental development, that is,
10 that the capacity to capture reality has increased, while the obstruc-
1 tive forces that had induced illusion and delusion have diminished
2 (1963, p. 51). Growth is a difficult phenomenon to assess, for both
3 the growing object and the object that stimulates it lack growth cri-
4 teria and are influenced by the anxiety produced by the need to
5 obtain “results” from the analysis. Bion suggests the use of myths
6 (row C of the vertical axis of the Grid) such as Oedipus, the Tower
711 of Babel, the Tree of Wisdom and the Sphinx as well as the Grid, in
8 order to measure growth and be able to find interpretations that
9 might illuminate some of the patient’s conflicts related to mental
20 growth. “One of the advantages of reference to the grid is that grid
1 categorization of the patient’s response to interpretation should
2 reveal growth” (ibid., p. 63n). See: Gnomon.
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 135

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 H
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 H: Is a psychoanalytic element taken from the word “hate” that rep-
1 resents, together with L (love), one of the passions or emotions, and
2 with K (knowledge) a dynamic link that by means of container–
3 contained mechanisms ( ), bound the different categories of the
4 Grid (1963, pp. 34–35). Bion also considers the existence of H, K
5 and L, although H is not the same as love. In relation to classical
6 theory, H should be equivalent to the “death instinct”, while L
7 would correspond to “sexual instinct” and K to Klein’s “episte-
8 mophilic instinct”.
9
30 Hallucination: For Bion (1967) hallucinations represent a mecha-
1 nism for unburdening the psyche by the use of the sensuous appa-
2 ratus in reverse (see: perception in reverse), meaning from inside to
3 outside instead of the other way around, as perception normally
4 operates (p. 83). He distinguished between two forms of hallucina-
5 tions, both found in psychotic patients: “hysterical”, which contain
6 whole objects, and “psychotic” which contain elements analogous
7 to part-objects (ibid., p. 82). The difference between the two will
8 depend on the capacity to tolerate depression.
911

135
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136 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 A psychotic patient, for instance, wishes to express a desire as a

2 way to discharge his mental apparatus from accretion of stimuli,
3 but is obstructed by feelings of impotence, envy, and hatred that
4 hinder the discharge and fill him with frustration. Unable to toler-
5 ate this frustration and to unburden the psyche of destructive hate
6 and envy, the patient might try a motor discharge instead, because
7 during childhood and under the dominion of the pleasure princi-
8 ple, such discharges, like a gesture, for instance, were useful.
9 Gestures of this kind, like changes of mien or movements that can
10 be observed during the session, are useful for constructing the
1 interpretation. “Experience has shown the patient” said Bion,
2 “that action of that kind achieves its purpose far more swiftly than
3 action directed to alteration of the environment” (1967, p. 83).
4 However, because he is unable to use mechanisms of repression
5 (see: Projective identification), and therefore unable to free himself
6 from those unwanted feelings, he then makes use of massive
711 projective identifications by virtue of which his envy and murder-
8 ous hatred together with bits of his personality, are projected into
9 the real objects, creating what Bion refers to as bizarre objects.
20 These objects start to “behave” according to projections and this
1 behaviour, perceived by the sense organs as a perception in reverse,
2 gives place to hallucinations and delusions; or in other words,
3 hallucinations are the product of a change of vertex (1965, p. 91).
4 The anxiety elicited by such reversion of the system of perception,
511 leads to a destructive attack upon the perceptual apparatus, and
6 this in consequence increases the production of hallucinations
7 and delusions.
8 Hallucinations can be used as a self-providing mechanism,
9 because even a meal or anything needed could be hallucinated,
311 giving place to a feeling of self-sustenance and false indepen-
1 dence, which could be experienced by the patient as superior to
2 psychoanalysis. The patient, according to Bion, could feel that psy-
3 choanalysis is simply a method used to steal the “sustenance
4 provided” by the goodness of hallucinations. Failure of hallucina-
5 tions to provide, because they all obviously fail, is experienced by
6 the patient as a consequence of the analyst’s envy and rivalry
7 against the power of hallucinations.
8 Meltzer (1986) has summarized some of Bion’s contribution on
911 the subject:
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H 137

111 His idea [Bion’s] is that the evacuation of the stimulation is mainly
2 in one of two forms: either it is transformed into group behaviour
3 of the type described as the Basic Assumption Group mentality;
4 or it is transformed into somatic disturbance. This latter is the basis
of his theory of psycho-somatic disorders. But there is a third
5
method of evacuation which is through the sense organs them-
6
selves, by reversing their functions so that instead of taking sensa
711
in, they give out the data as beta-elements which form hallucina-
8 tions. [p. 105]
9
10 See: Transformation in hallucinosis, delusion.
1
2 Hallucination invisible–visual: see: Invisible–visual hallucina-
3 tion.
4
5 Hallucinosis: According to Bion (1970), this represents a state of
6 mind considered normal and useful (analyst) as well as pathologi-
7 cal (patient); and represents a condition, a background, where hal-
8 lucinations could be prompted in both, i.e. in the analyst and the
9 patients (usually psychotics). The analyst can achieve such a state
211 of hallucinosis by abandoning memory and desire and, with the use
1 of an “act of faith”, can also build interpretations. Some of these
2 concepts were already present in his paper “On arrogance” (1957a),
3 but Attention and Interpretation (1970) contains his main contribu-
4 tions on the subject. There he said:
5
6 This state [hallucinosis] I do not regard as an exaggeration of a
7 pathological or even natural condition: I consider it rather to be a
8 state always present, but overlaid by other phenomena, which
9 screen it. If these other elements can be moderated or suspended
30 hallucinosis becomes demonstrable; its full depth and richness are
accessible only to “acts of faith”. [p. 36]
1
2
And further on:
3
4 To appreciate hallucination the analyst must participate in the state
5 of hallucinosis . . . Before interpretations of hallucination can be
6 given, which are themselves transformations O  K, it is necessary
7 that the analyst undergoes in his own personality the transforma-
8 tion O  K. By eschewing memories, desires, and the operations
911 of memory he can approach the domain of hallucinosis and of the
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138 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 “acts of faith” by which alone he can become at one with his
2 patients’ hallucinations and so effect transformations O  K. [ibid.,
3 p. 36]
4
5 The analyst’s state of hallucinosis provides a meaning to the
6 patient’s hallucinations, because this condition allows a situation
7 where sensuous impressions rule over rational thinking. Bion
8 described a psychotic patient, who during the analysis felt that
9 the analyst’s words, during the interpretation, flew over his head
10 and could be detected by what Bion felt were the patterns on a
1 cushion, and then travelled through his eyes back to him. Bion
2 believed that what he experienced was exactly what happened
3 inside the patient’s mind, and was possible only because he as well
4 as the patient were in a state of hallucinosis, a situation where
5 hallucinations could take place.
6
711 Heliocentric theory: In ancient times Aristarchus of Samos intro-
8 duced the “heliocentric theory”, according to which, different from
9 what is observed by the naked eye, the earth moves around the
20 sun and not the opposite. This theory seemed to have disappeared
1 for two thousand years until Copernicus established it again, strug-
2 gling against the dominion of the “geocentric theory” that was
3 supported by the church and had dominated since the time of
4 Aristotle. Heliocentric and geocentric are two opposed theories,
511 the first one is true but not obvious, the second one is obvious but
6 not true. There are still remnants from the geocentric theory; when
7 we say for instance: “I’ll see you tomorrow at sunrise”. Obviously,
8 the sun does not rise, it is the earth that moves round (1992,
9 pp. 154–156). Similarly, in the analytic situation, a patient could be
311 a defender of the geocentric theory, meaning a scientific deductive
1 system he has used all his life, which is based on the obvious, but
2 is not true. The analyst, on the other hand, using another scientific
3 deductive system, for example the heliocentric theory, that is based
4 on the truth but is not obvious, attempts to convince the patient of
5 its effectiveness in reducing mental pain. This condition resembles
6 the situation observed in reversible perspective.
7 A patient with an important false self pathology said very
8 apologetically after lying down: “Yesterday when I was going to
911 sign the document to buy the new apartment I was very anxious.
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H 139

111 Imagine being afraid about such a foolish thing . . . I thought I was
2 doing better, but I can see that I am still failing”. According to her
3 “geocentric” position, she presupposes “in the transference” the
4 existence of an idealized model that demands from her a “not anx-
5 ious” behaviour as a measure of achievement—like passing a test—
6 or the contrary, suffering from anxiety would mean a failure. In
711 the transference this represents her thinking that the analyst is
8 also expecting her not to experience anxiety, and will view it as a
9 failure, if she does. Instead of the analyst going around her (helio-
10 centric), she goes around the analyst (geocentric). Bion believes that
1 attempting to introduce a different scientific deductive system with
2 the use of the interpretation, will induce turbulence.
3
4 Horizontal axis of the Grid: See: Grid, horizontal axis of the.
5
6 Hyperbole: A rhetorical figure used to exaggerate with the purpose
7 of convincing; for instance saying a “goddess” to describe a beauti-
8 ful woman. Bion uses it in a similar fashion to signify a constant
9 conjunction that involves an exaggeration in relation to feelings
211 such as rivalry, transference idealization, ambition, vigour that
1 could induce violence and projection of objects at exaggerated
2 distances (1965, p. 162). He categorized hyperbole as a “theory of
3 observation” (ibid., p. 160) and provides an example related to the
4 container–contained (  ) model. An emotion representing a
5 contained () could be exaggerated with the purpose of motivat-
6 ing a container () to contain it: “a child cries copiously to produce
7 a consoling mother”. The container—in this case the mother—has
8 two alternatives: (a) she could constitute into a good breast and
9 “detoxify” the feeling; (b) she might not be able to tolerate the
30 emotion and try to evacuate it, creating a condition that would
1 indefinitely increase: the greater the need of the contained for the
2 container, the greater the need of the container to evacuate the feel-
3 ing, in a rather exaggerated and indefinite hyperbole (ibid.,
4 pp. 141–142). In another example, a patient idealized the analyst
5 and compared him with a soothsayer who lived in Peru many years
6 ago, a condition that represents an exaggerated projection in time
7 (many years ago) and distance (Peru). In the Grid, hyperboles
8 could correspond to categories A (-elements) also C, D or E (ibid.,
911 pp. 160–162).
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140 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Hypothesis: If we can find theories, for instance quantum mechan-

2 ics, where “statistical hypotheses” have taken the place of “empiri-
3 cally verifiable hypotheses”, would it be possible for a theory—
4 questions Bion—in which verification by empirical observation was
5 replaced by “hypotheses based on idealization”, to be similar to
6 “statistical hypotheses?” He distinguishes three kinds of non-
7 empirically verifiable hypotheses: (1) “high-level, generalized and
8 not empirically verifiable”, corresponding to a strictly theoretical
9 statement, like a theory; (2) statistical hypotheses, deduced from
10 conceptions based on probabilities; and (3) ideal-type hypotheses
1 based on presumptions about situations that are supposed to exist.
2 For instance when someone says “this year in place X there will be
3 a day of the greatest humidity”, or following Bion’s example, to say
4 “excessive splitting and projective identification lead to a disinte-
5 gration of the personality” (1992, pp. 127–128). It is ideal in the
6 sense that such a condition represents the maximum or the ultimate
711 in possibilities either of “higher humidity” or “excessive projective
8 identification”. This exercise was written, according to the date of
9 the note, on February 12th, 1960, and shows Bion’s initial attempt
20 to provide the mind with that touch of precision that was so impor-
1 tant for him. In this sense, Bion questioned:
2
3 How does this [his previous formulations about hypotheses] com-
4 pare with the realizations of mathematical formulas? Before
511 attempting an answer to this, we must consider certain similarities
6 and contrasts that emerge by comparing mathematical formulas
7 with dreams. [ibid., p. 128]
8
9 Bion also states that one word can condense so many meanings
311 that it could, just by itself, represent a hypothesis, for instance
1 “breast” or “penis” that from a personal point of view, may involve
2 a constant conjunction (ibid., pp. 250–254).
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
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111
2
3
4
5
6
711 I
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Ice cream or I scream: see: “No-breast”
1
2 Idea (I): Is a rather ambiguous concept, sometimes considered as
3 representing a psychoanalytic object composed of -elements
4 product of -function; also related to reason (R) insofar as I repre-
5 sents a bridge between a drive and its satisfaction (1963, p. 4). A bit
6 further, it is considered as a function that contains thoughts as
7 factors (ibid., p. 30); or representing the horizontal axis of the Grid,
8 as well as the whole Grid: “When I use the sign I, I mean it to rep-
9 resent either the whole table or any one or more of the compart-
30 ments I have distinguished by co-ordinates” (ibid., p. 28); so
1 according to Bion, I could be put to many uses that could be cate-
2 gorized, representing the horizontal axis; but could also develop
3 into many stages, meaning the vertical axis (ibid. p. 25). In relation
4 to container-contained, I could be either ( or ) indifferently.
5 See: I (Idea), K, L, H.
6
7 Ideogram or ideograph: Word of Greek origin: gramma (γραµµ),
8 meaning “letter” or “a sign that expresses an idea”, similar to
911 Egyptian hieroglyphics where an image does not represent what

141
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142 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 has been illustrated but something else, like the figure of a bird
2 meaning “small” instead of “bird”. Bion uses this concept to explain
3 aspects not implicit in manifest communication; the ideogram con-
4 tains what is manifest and what is latent, “what is spoken but not
5 articulated” (1974, p. 26). Bion tries to represent the relation
6 between what is an unconscious latent content and the manifest
7 variable, according to the following formula: K(), where K is a con-
8 stant and  an unsaturated element. Bion described a psychotic
9 patient who reacted with silence to the analyst attending several
10 sessions wearing dark glasses. Bion interpreted that perhaps the
1 glasses, like an ideograph (K), contained several meanings (): they
2 resemble the breast, they were dark because they were frowning
3 and angry, or were dark to be able to spy on parents’ sexual inter-
4 course, or because they were dirty and smelly, and so on (1967,
5 pp. 57, 61).
6 In some patients ideograms can take the form of an “ideomotor
711 activity”, like trying with a movement or a series of movements to
8 say something without naming it (1967, p. 54), representing an
9 attempt to free the organism of an accretion of stimuli, or the need of
20 the psychotic part of the personality “for an immediate repair of an
1 ego damaged by the excessive projective identification” (ibid., p. 57).
2
3 Ideomotor activity: see: Ideogram.
4
511 Imaginary twin:32 Represents the first psychoanalytical work pre-
6 sented by Bion at the British Psychoanalytical Society on November
7 1st, 1950. There he concludes that clinical findings from three of his
8 patients were consistent with Klein’s theory about the existence of
9 an early and pregenital Oedipus complex. These three patients
311 coincide in three aspects: (a) The presence of a phantasy about a
1 twin, either completely imaginary or taken from reality, identified
2 with the analyst or with other internal objects, and used as an obsta-
3 cle to understanding mechanisms such as splitting or projective
4 identification. This mechanism would also represent an obsessive
5
6 32
The concept of the imaginary twin reminds us of Fairbairn’s (1952) con-
7
cept of the “internal saboteur”, of Freud’s (1919) work on the phenomenon of
8 the “double” based on Rank’s (1914) contributions, and more recently, of pub-
911 lications such as those of Aray and Bellagamba (1971), Lopez-Corvo (1980).
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111 defence that uses a “personification [as a twin] of the split–off

2 portions of his [of the patient’s] personality” (1967, p. 9). The main
3 purpose of this form of defence would be to deal with the fear that
4 the “alive object” that cannot be controlled, would eventually
5 threaten with separation and exclusion. (b) Existence of elements
6 related to the sense of sight and in one patient with hearing, used
711 with the purpose of exploring the environment to solve old conflicts
8 that were always there, but whose capacity to explore was impeded
9 due to lack of intellectual perception and the conflict with the
10 “imaginary twin”. Bion states:
1
2 I have wondered whether the psychological development was
3 bound up with the development of ocular control in the same way
4 that problems of development linked with oral aggression co-exist
with the eruption of teeth. [ibid., p. 22]
5
6
7 (c) Consequently a more precise oedipal material appeared together
8 with a greater disposition to work with it; for instance, in the first
9 case presented, Bion remarks that the change “from a perfunctory
211 and superficial treatment of the oedipus situation to a struggle to
1 come to terms with an emotionally charged oedipus complex was
2 extremely striking” (ibid., p. 21).
3 Meltzer (1978) suggested that perhaps at the time of this pre-
4 sentation “Bion . . . was experiencing a sort of psychoanalytical
5 latency period in which dutifulness was indeed dulling his creativ-
6 ity” (p. 17); and then adds “a preconceived theoretical framework
7 is imposed on rather recalcitrant material” (p. 18); or in other
8 words, that in the central issue of the imaginary twin, “sparkling
9 bits of material appear giving evidence of Bion’s restiveness under
30 the restraint of psycho-analytical theory” (ibid.). Bion’s attitude
1 about Klein’s work on “symbol formation”, “can easily be taken for,
2 apostolic behavior” (p. 19); only after Klein death in 1960, did Bion
3 manage to produce his major contributions (ibid.).
4
5 Inaccessible mental state: Bion refers very passingly to a mental
6 state different from conscious or unconscious states and related to
7 the ineffable, to the presence of the unknown, like primitive events
8 that have taken place during very early in life or in the intrauterine
911 stage. Other researchers, independently of Bion and some even

143
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144 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 previous to his work, had also referred to this subject as “fetal psy-
2 chic life” (Raskovsky, 1958; Aray, 1992); and also as the “schizoid
3 secret” (Lopez-Corvo, 1994). Bion states:
4
5 I am suggesting that besides the conscious and unconscious states
of mind, there can be another one. The nearest I can get to giving it
6
a provisional title is the inaccessible state of mind. It may become
7
inaccessible because the foetus gets rid of it as soon as it can.
8
Whether it is an awareness of its heartbeat, or an awareness of feel-
9 ings of terror, of sound, or of sight—the kind of sight experienced
10 through the pressure on the optic pits by changes of pressure in the
1 intra-uterine fluid—all that may never have been what we would
2 call either conscious or unconscious. [1997, p. 50]33
3
4 In Attention and Interpretation (1970), there is some allusion to the
5 subject, but in a rather implicit manner as compared with the pre-
6 vious statement, which, according to Francesca Bion, was written
711 previously (see: 1997, pp. vii–viii).
8
Material may be pre-verbal because the individual who seeks to ver-
9
balize it has not had sufficient experience of the material to observe
20
a constant conjunction. He is in a state analogous to that seen in a
1
number of similar configurations such as: having pain without
2 suffering it; not understanding planetary movement because the
3 differential calculus has not been invented; not being conscious of a
4 mental phenomenon because it has been repressed; not knowing an
511 event because the event has not occurred. [1970, p. 11]
6
7 Inanimate: see: Animate and inanimate, difference between.
8
9 Induction: From Latin inducere, meaning “to drive to”. From the
311 point of view of logic, it means to extract general conclusions from
1 particular facts. Bion introduces a more complex situation, where
2 induction might represent a way to answer questions, although
3 some times unsuccessfully, that has been introduced by reality
4 (1992, pp. 190–191). For instance, a patient might feel guilty about
5 the death of X, but he might deal with it by the following hypothesis
6
7 33
Although there is not a precise date when this was written, Francesca Bion
8 believed it could have been in 1963, at the time Elements of Psycho-Analysis was
911 published (see 1997, pp. vii–viii).
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I 145

111 “All men are mortal”, which helps him to establish a deductive sys-
2 tem that make him conclude that X died because of his mortality.
3 Bion described several steps in the process of induction, for
4 instance in the act of creating an interpretation: (a) awareness of the
5 existence of incoherent elements: (b) capacity in the observer to
6 tolerate such incoherence; (c) to formulate a correct question dic-
711 tated by common sense; (d) what follows could be an inspiration
8 on observation, or the creation of a selected fact, or the formulation
9 of a hypothesis, or rather a chain sequence that would help create
10 a scientific deductive system. Such an hypothesis would show that
1 certain elements are in constant conjunction and not the other way
2 around, that is, that elements in constant conjunction give place to
3 a hypothesis. There should be a movement from high-level to low-
4 level hypotheses, decreasing generalization until a particularization
5 is reached, one that is open to validation by empirical testing;
6 (e) the social aspect of the process, the public-ation (finally phras-
7 ing the interpretation) as something essential and not as an accident
8 (1992, p. 195) (see; psychoanalytic listening, interpretation).
9
211 Inner reproductive system: Bion refers to this concept as the
1 “mental counterpart” of: (a) “the reproductory system”, analogous
2 to an “inward eye”, “visualizing”, or “seeing in imagination”, etc.;
3 (b) representing also a counterpart of the “visual system” (1965,
4 p. 91). It should not be confused with “awareness of reproductory
5 activity” either; in much the same manner as visual images related
6 with the mental counterpart of vision, should not be mixed up with
7 visual objects. The mental counterpart of the reproductory system
8 is related to premonitions of pain and pleasure. Although Bion has
9 not mentioned it, it could be speculated that this concept might be
30 akin to what has been referred to as “feminine intuition” (ibid.).
1 See: Intuit, O, Act of faith.
2
3 Inquiry: Represents column 5 on the horizontal axis of the Grid,
4 and is a word that precisely describes its purpose, that is, the
5 increasing curiosity to understand the last “issue of the matter”, of
6 the unconscious; this perhaps explains why Bion originally decided
7 to use the name of “Oedipus” to designate it. Parthenope Bion, in
8 her introduction to Taming Wild Thoughts, a book posthumously
911 edited by Francesca Bion, discusses this change:
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146 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 . . . the Grid itself has a slight change in it: in the paper printed here,
2 Column 5 is indicated as Oedipus, whereas the Grid printed in
3 Elements of Psycho-Analysis and onwards has this column labelled as
4 Inquiry, as though the author had decided to opt for the more
general category, of which “Oedipus” is simply a special case, as
5
the discussion of this column in the book shows. [1997, pp. vii–viii]
6
7
Insanity, realization of: (see: “Notes on the theory of schizophre-
8
nia”, 1967, pp. 33–34). If psychoanalytic treatment has been suc-
9
cessful in helping a psychotic patient to solve processes of massive
10
splitting, to improve their ego and their object integration, as well
1
as to give them a greater awareness of reality and a proper articu-
2
lation of verbal thought, the analyst, alerts Bion, should be pre-
3
pared to face an even more difficult situation. He says:
4
5
What takes place, if the analyst has been reasonably successful, is a
6 realization by the patient of psychic reality; he realizes that he has
711 hallucinations and delusions, may feel unable to take food, and
8 have difficulty with sleep. [1967, pp. 33–34]
9
20 The patient feels hatred for the analyst, whom he blames for every-
1 thing bad that is happening to him. The analyst, on the other hand,
2 would have to reassure the family, now concerned about the
3 patient’s welfare, and to keep distant the surgeon and electroshock
4 therapist who would like to profit from the situation. But the most
511 important situation, according to Bion, would be to avoid the
6 patient’s rejection of the awareness he now has of being “crazy”
7 and of the transference hatred against someone he feels was coura-
8 geous enough finally to bring him to face all he had been trying to
9 avoid throughout his life.
311
1 Instincts: The most important difference between what Freud and
2 Klein said about instincts is based on the separation between drives
3 as independent forces and drives as object representations. Bion, on
4 the other hand, emphasizes as “a more fruitful division”, a polar-
5 ization between narcissism and what he refers to as “social-ism”:
6
7 By these two terms I wish to indicate the two poles of all instincts.
8 This bi-polarity of the instincts refers to their operation as elements
911 in the fulfilment of the individual’s life as an individual, and as
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I 147

111 elements in his life as a social or, as Aristotle would describe it, as
2 a “political” animal. [1992, p. 105]
3
4 The problem, he states, is not around the dichotomy between ego
5 and sexual instincts, but in relation to their tendencies, if love (L)
6 impulses are narcissistic, then hate (H) would be aimed at the
711 group and vice versa; if hate is directed against the individual, the
8 group would be loved socially (ibid., p. 122). The ego is involved in
9 this conflict, because it is the ego that establishes a link between
10 internal and external realities, between narcissism and social-ism.
1 It is possible that Bion’s experience during War World I might
2 have had some influence on the conception of this form of
3 polarization:
4
The exclusive mention of sexuality ignores the striking fact that the
5
individual has an even more dangerous problem to solve in the
6 operation of his aggressive impulses, which, thanks to this bi-polar-
7 ity, may impose on him the need to fight for his group with the
8 essential possibility of his death, while it also imposes on him the
9 need for action in the interests of his survival. [ibid., pp. 105–106]
211
1 Nebbiosi and Petrini (2000) suggest that what defines this polar-
2 ization between self and group is “common sense”, because exactly
3 what provides cohesion to the senses inside is also what provides a
4 sense to the relation with the group (pp. 174–177). If, by any chance,
5 the individual feels attacked by the group and is not able to reach
6 a consensus between both criteria, the interest towards the self
7 could create a rejection of the group (hate), turning his attention to
8 what he believes or does (love), because his common sense might
9 help him to see how unfair the reaction of the group is. An exam-
30 ple taken from Bion’s work, could be the relationship between the
1 mystic and the establishment.
2
3 Integrative reticulum: Described by Elliot Jaques (1960) as part of
4 a mental mechanism necessary, according to him, to conceive a total
5 object. He defines it as follows. The integrative reticulum is the
6 mental schema of the completed object and the means of creating
7 it, organized in such a manner that the gaps both in the mental pic-
8 ture of the object and in the methods of creating it are established.
911 Consciously, it is a combination of any or all of concepts, theories,
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148 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 hypotheses, and working notions or hunches. Unconsciously, it is a

2 constellation of ideas-in-feeling, memories-in-feeling, phantasies,
3 and internal objects—brought together and synthesized to the
4 extent necessary to direct behaviour, even if not sufficiently to
5 become conscious (p. 360).
6
7 Interference: When questioned about this concept, Bion said:
8
9 When you are talking to your patient you can sometimes see and
feel that he is not attending to you. At the same time you can feel
10
that he is attending to something; the conversation between the
1
patient and the analyst is being interfered with. That is what I mean
2
by interference. Are you going to pay attention to what he tells you,
3 or what your books have told you, or are you going to pay atten-
4 tion to the interference? . . . What you have to listen to then is psy-
5 cho-analytic ‘interference’, just as somebody had to listen to radio
6 interference. [1974a, pp. 72–73]
711
8 Interpretation: Psychoanalytic interpretations, says Bion, could be
9 understood as theories sustained by the analyst in relation to
20 models and theories the patient feels about the analyst, and if
1 correct in expression as well as in content, they might be able to
2 exercise a therapeutic effect (1963, p. 17). Also, from the point of
3 view of metatheory, that is, beyond theory, Bion synthesizes inter-
4 pretations as “those words, or collection of words, which indicate
511 a constant conjunction of elements” (1992, p. 257).
6 “An interpretation should not be given on a single association;
7 a single association is open to an enormous number of interpreta-
8 tions” (ibid., p. 210). Just as two different points might determine
9 the direction of a line in Euclidian geometry, two different associ-
311 ations (or more) might also provide the direction that the interpre-
1 tation would eventually trail. Usually, the choice about when and
2 how to interpret is determined by the analyst’s personality and his-
3 torical development (1965, p. 166). There are also other variables
4 capable of affecting the form in which an interpretation is made,
5 and they should be avoided: (a) to make it just because it is avail-
6 able, an attitude that would correspond to column 2 in the Grid;
7 (b) to avoid turbulences in the analyst; (c) recondite interpretations
8 related to distant “desires” in the analyst belonging to the area
911 of the hyperbole (ibid., p. 167). The interpretation represents the
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I 149

111 product of a relation based on K and not on L or H (1963, p. 70).

2 In relation to O, Bion said: “The interpretation is an actual event in
3 an evolution of O that is common to analyst and analysand” (1970,
4 p. 27).
5 Bion researches the interpretation from several perspectives:
6
(A) According to functions theory, -function changes sense impres-
711
sions related to emotional experiences into -elements that will
8
cohere as they proliferate, would be able to agglomerate, to order
9
sequentially and give the appearance of a narrative; something
10
Bion has referred to as the contact barrier. In this sense, -function
1
is indispensable for the transformation of emotions into something
2
meaningful like -elements, and this is precisely what the interpre-
3
tation attempts to achieve, to help patients provide a meaning to
4
their emotions in such a way that they could learn from them,
5
a process that necessarily requires the presence of -function (1962,
6
pp. 17–18).
7
8 (B) From the point of view of container–contained ( ) theory,
9 where contents () represent doubts, questions or variables bound
211 by emotional experiences that sequentially add to each other in a
1 series that could be represented as: n + n; a process that will
2 eventually guarantee the growth of the apparatus for thinking and
3 the possibility of learning from experience. Such learning would
4 depend on the capacity of n to integrate while at the same time
5 remaining open, free from rigidities and ready for successive and
6 future assimilations. An individual who uses this mechanism,
7 will show that he is capable of withholding experience, learning
8 from the interpretation, and also, associate it with past experiences.
9 The level of K will depend on the capacity to sustain container–-
30 contained relations of a “commensal” kind, where the three
1 elements involved: patient (+), analyst (+) and the interpreta-
2 tion (+K) would benefit from each other. However, if the interaction
3 is dominated by strong feelings of envy, the relationship might
4 become destructive, something Bion represents as () and the
5 link between them as K. In contrast with n + n, the relation
6 would be: n  n, where + is replaced by envy, and the con-
7 tained, subdued by the container, is stripped from its meaning
8 leaving only worthless remnants. This is exactly what happens to
911 any interpretation when it is contained by a mind dominated by
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150 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 envy that will convert it into , or something insignificant like a
2 simple noise; different from the relation +( ) dominated by K,
3 where the interpretation under a process of abstraction promotes
4 growth and learning (1962, pp. 96–99). Bion believes that a “sense
5 of achievement of a correct interpretation will be commonly found
6 to be followed almost immediately by a sense of depression” (1970,
7 p. 124).
8
(C) From the point of view of the theory of transformation, Bion
9
states that from the vertex of any specific psychoanalytical theory,
10
all interpretations are transformations of representations embody-
1
ing invariants, thus all interpretations can be meaningful depend-
2
ing on the invariants that they contain, for instance the Oedipus
3
situation.
4
5 Just as impressionism can be regarded as a method of transforming
6 landscape into a painting, so the grouped analytic techniques are
711 part of transformation of analytic experiences into interpretation. As
8 the painter’s transformations vary according to the understanding
9 his painting is to convey, so the analyst’s transformation will vary
20 according to the understanding he wishes to convey. [1965, p. 5]
1
2 When the patient and the analyst agree upon a certain interpreta-
3 tion, this can be symbolized by the signs Tp and Ta34, and since it
4 has been shared by two persons, it is not a private but a public com-
511 munication. In psychoses the interpretation should illuminate the
6 condition of the apparatus for thinking, the nature of its deficien-
7 cies and associated drives, for instance, that an impulse might
8 induce a defect in a particular form of thinking, or the opposite,
9 that frustration, induced by failure to solve a problem, brings about
311 a destructive attack on the analytic situation (ibid., p. 60).
1 The interpretation should also facilitate the transition from
2 knowing about O to becoming O. Bion describes a particular form
3 of perversion where the patient induces growth of K in order to
4 obstruct a growth to O. He said:
5
By agreeing with the interpretation it is hoped that the analyst will
6 be inveigled into a collusive relationship to preserve K without
7
8
911 34
See “abbreviations” at the beginning of this dictionary.
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I 151

111 being aware that he is doing so. If the manoeuvre is successful

2 transformations in K fulfil an F235 role preventing the inception of
3 T  T = K O. [ibid., p. 160]
4
Interpretations that imply becoming O can produce apprehension,
5
because they might be experienced as related to megalomania, or
6
what the psychiatrist calls delusions of grandeur (to be like God)
711
(ibid., p. 164).
8
9 (D) Referring to the scope of the interpretation, Bion suggested that
10 if he was correct in assuming that phenomenon is known but real-
1 ity becomes, the interpretation should be able to provide something
2 more than just increasing knowledge. It could be argued that this
3 “something” should not really be a concern of the analyst, for he
4 can only “increase knowledge”; the rest, the more advanced steps
5 to reduce the gap should come from the analysand, most of all from
6 his “Godhead”, or the capacity of O to “incarnate” in the person of
7 the analysand. Bion uses the Godhead, as a concept taken from
8 religion to signify the capacity of at-one-ment with God, something
9 Bion uses as a simile to explain the capacity to become O or the ulti-
211 mate truth. See: Godhead, Meister Eckhart, O, Psychoanalytic
1 listening, Pure and absolute interpretation, Transferential inter-
2 pretation.
3
4 Interpretation, pure and absolute: see: Pure and absolute interpre-
5 tation.
6
7 Intra-uterine life:36 In “Inhibition, symptoms and anxiety” Freud
8 (1926) said: “There is much more continuity between intra-uterine
9 life and earliest infancy than the impressive caesura of the act of
30 birth would have us believe” (p. 138). Based on this statement Bion
1 questioned:
2
3 After all, if anatomists can say that they detect a vestigial tail, if sur-
4 geons likewise can say that they detect tumours which derive from
5
6 35
See the Grid.
7 36
There is a wide Latin-American psychoanalytic literature about “foetus’
8 psychics” or intra-uterine life, such as the works of Aray (1992) and Raskovky
911 (1958).
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152 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 the branchial cleft, then why should there not be what we would
2 call mental vestiges, or archaic elements, which are operative in a
3 way that is alarming and disturbing because it breaks through the
4 beautiful, calm surface we ordinarily think of as rational, sane
behaviour? [1987, p. 308]
5
6
Bion presupposed that the foetus, at the end of gestation, could
7
be aware of unpleasant oscillations in the amniotic fluid as a con-
8
sequence to conflicts between the parents, or something similar, or
9
hear voices or loud noises coming from the mother’s digestive
10
system, etc. Bion thinks that at this level of nearly full-term, the per-
1
sonality might develop to experience feelings of hostility towards
2
these disturbing things: “proto-ideas” or “proto-feelings”, that
3
would split them up, fragment them and try to evacuate them. He
4
also suggested the existence of certain conditions that could appear
5
at a given moment to be so ephemeral, so imperceptible that we
6
might not even be aware of them, but that could later on become so
711
real that they might even destroy us without our being conscious
8
of them (ibid., p. 318). See: Caesura, Proto-thoughts, Ideogram.
9
20
Intuit: It means intuition by means of perception. Bion proposes
1
that this concept be used in the psychoanalytic domain in the same
2
way a physician will use “see”, “touch”, “smell”, and “hear”,
3
because anxiety, for instance, has no smell or taste.37 (1970, p. 7). He
4
argues about the existence of a psychoanalytic domain with its
511
particular “intuitable” realities:
6
7 I am supposing that there is a psychoanalytic domain with its own
8 reality—unquestionable, constant, subject to change only in accor-
9 dance with its own rules even if those rules are not known. These
311 realities are “intuitable” if the proper apparatus is available in the
1 condition proper to its functioning . . . The conditions in which the
2 intuition operates (intuits) are pellucid and opaque. [1992, p. 315]
3
The opacities that obstruct such aptitude to intuit psychoanalytic
4
reality, are revealed by Bion as “understanding, memory and
5
6
7 37
Communicating with patients presents similar limitations; how do we
8 know what patients are talking about if their anxiety has no physical qualities,
911 like odour or taste? The only reference we have in these cases, is our own.
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111 desire”; conditions that can be avoided only through permanent

2 and continuous discipline.
3
4 Invariants: Specific characteristics of an object that, by remaining
5 unaltered regardless of any transformation experienced by that
6 object, will allow the identity of that object. An interpretation, for
711 instance, carries invariants that belong to some particular psycho-
8 analytic theory, like the Oedipus situation (1965, p. 4).
9 The relationship between invariant and constant, on one hand,
10 and variable or non-saturated element, on the other, is represented
1 by Bion with the formula K(), representing an ideogram where
2 both, the latent content, the invariant or unconscious phantasy,
3 coexist with the manifest content and variable or non-saturated
4 element (1974, p. 25).
5
6 Invisible–visual hallucination: Bion describes this kind of halluci-
7 nation in relation to a patient who suddenly sat on the couch and
8 stared attentively into space. When interpreted that it seemed that
9 he was looking at something, he answered that he “could not see
211 what he saw”. Bion concludes that the patient is dealing with
1 an invisible object, a kind of hallucination related with dreams in
2 psychotic patients, which are usually mentioned but never
3 described because the images of which they are made of had suf-
4 fered a process of splitting that makes it impossible to recognize the
5 existence of real objects and to be able to refer to them. In these
6 patients dreams are used as a process of discharge of the mental
7 apparatus, a condition that reaches the extreme in the case of
8 invisible–visible hallucinations. Bion states:
9
30 . . . this evacuatory process may not reach the extremes that are rep-
resented by invisible visual hallucinations that are the outcome of
1
transformation into pictorial images, extremely minute fragmenta-
2
tion, and ejection by the eyes to a great distance. Some degree of
3
pictorialization and other transformations take place to form the
4 (from the analyst’s point of view) bizarre, hallucinatory objects.
5 [1992, p. 79]
6
7
8
911
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111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
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111
2
3
4
5
6
711 J
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Judgement: According to Freud (1911), one of the functions used by
1 the ego to achieve awareness of reality, together with attention,
2 notation, action and thought, is judgement; a condition that allows
3 the ego to discriminate between a true and a false idea, or to know
4 if it could develop to take the place of the repressed. In psychotic
5 patients, not capable of discriminating between reality and phan-
6 tasy—Bion states—judgement as a function of the mind has been
7 repressed and expelled inside some external object to become part
8 of a bizarre object that will then contain the patient’s “capacity to
9 judge” (1967, p. 81).
30
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111
2
3
4
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6
711 K
8
9
10
1
2
3
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5
6
7
8
9
211 K(): Represents a formula used by Bion, where K signifies a con-
1 stant, for example the repetitive aspects of the Oedipus myth:
2 triangulation, exclusion, envy, incest, etc.; and  is a sign that stands
3 for a non-saturated element that could be represented by those
4 particular or latent aspects of the myth, such as the specific courses
5 the tragedy might have pursued in each individual. It can also rep-
6 resent an “ideogram” containing “what is not spoken (constant) but
7 is articulated (variable)” (1974, pp. 23–25).
8
9 K: see: Minus K
30
1 Keats, John, see: Negative capability, Language of achievement. (See
2 references.)
3
4 K link: Bion uses the initial of the word “knowledge” to designate
5 the capacity to “know” something; not about what is already
6 known, but about the propensity to know or to contain:
7
8 “Knowledge” has no meaning unless it means that someone knows
911 something, and this . . . is an assertion of relationship, or of some

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111 part of a relationship. The term, “knowledge” I propose provision-

2 ally to employ to describe a state of mind indissolubly associated
3 with a relationship between communicable awareness on the one
4 hand, and the object of which the person feels thus aware, on the
other. [1992, p. 271]
5
6
K represents, together with L (love) and H (hate), a hypothesis that
7
expresses a constant conjunction. These links, L and H, remain sub-
8
ordinated to K in a fashion similar to the subordination that exists
9
between a basic assumption and a work group (W). L and H are
10
respectively related to the classical conceptions of sexual and aggres-
1
sive instincts made by Freud (1917), whereas K appears to follow
2
a line similar to Klein’s (1931) notion of the epistemophilic instinct
3
4 or drive to knowledge. However, Bion has provided knowledge
5 with such a level of relevance and independence, as was never
6 previously emphasized (see Green, 2000, p. 122).
711 From a container–contained ( ) theory perspective, the level
8 of K will depend on the capacity to sustain container–contained
9 relationships of a “commensal” type, where the three elements
20 involved, for instance: baby (+), mother (+) and mental growth
1 (+K), would benefit from each other (1962, p. 91); or the relationship
2 between a thinker who contains an idea or invention, and a purpose
3 that is beneficial for both the thinker and the invention. Contents
4 () represent doubts, questions or variables bound by emotional
511 experiences that sequentially add to each other in a series that can
6 be represented as: n + n; a process that will eventually guaran-
7 tee growth of the apparatus for thinking and of K, as well as the
8 possibility of learning from experience. Such learning would
9 depend on the capacity of n to integrate while at the same time
311 remaining open, free from rigidities and ready for successive and
1 future assimilations. An individual who contains this mechanism,
2 will show that he is capable of withholding experience, learning
3 from interpretation and, also, associating it with past experiences.
4 There is a successive increment in degrees of sophistication, for
5 instance, to create new hypotheses that will then form systems and
6 afterwards scientific deductive systems that can recombine again
7 and again (ibid., pp. 92–94).
8 However, when the interaction is dominated by strong feelings
911 of envy, the relationship might become destructive, something Bion
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K 159

111 represents as ( ) and the link between them as K. In contrast
2 with  n +  n, the relation would be:  n   n, where + is
3 replaced by envy, and the contained subdued by the container, is
4 stripped from its meaning leaving only worthless remnants. If
5 K represents growth and -function, K stands for absence of
6 -function and presence of thing-in-itself equal to -elements. K
711 should be represented as something open in continuous transfor-
8 mation, always unsaturated like a state of “being knowing”,
9 because the level of knowledge, as can be seen for instance when
10 comparing Freud with Bion, is always changing as it moves closer
1 to the truth.
2 From notes, written perhaps in 1960, Bion states that he has
3 reserved the term “knowledge” for the total sum of alpha and beta
4 elements:
5
6 It is a term that therefore covers everything the individual knows
7 and does not know. As I use it, the term must not be supposed to
imply the existence of a thing in itself called “knowledge”; it is a
8
name for a postulate that has no actuality. [1992 p. 182]
9
211 Later on Bion would discriminate between K and K.
1 Grinberg et al. (1972, p. 101) states that a process of abstraction
2 is essential to K link emotional experience, because those elements
3 that have been abstracted are useful for the understanding and
4 learning of that experience.
5
6 Knowledge: see: K.
7
8
9
30
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6
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8
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2
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711 L
8
9
10
1
2
3
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5
6
7
8
9 L: see: Minus L.
211
1 Language of achievement: An expression Bion has borrowed from
2 a letter written by John Keats38 to his brother, referring to a “Man
3 of Achievement”. It was used together with another expression:
4 “Negative capability” or the capacity to tolerate uncertainty. It is
5 equivalent to the expression: “action speaks louder than words”,
6 that is, language is a prelude to action but also its substitute.
7 Although “Language of Achievement” is present during the ana-
8 lytic session; it should not be a place for the analyst to react, instead
9 he should remain sensible to it. It is a concept related to the envy
30 produced by the consensus that decides who is the one who knows
1 or who is the one that chooses what is and what is not, etc. There is
2 a subtle difference between the exact significance of “Language of
3 Achievement”, on one hand, and the exact meaning of an envious
4 and destructive attack that would obstruct growth, on the other. It
5 would be a consequence of the incapacity to build a mental space
6
7 38
The fragment of this letter that inspired Bion to describe “Language of
8 Achievement” and “Negative Capability”, can be found in the description of
911 this last concept, in the last chapter of Bion’s book Attention and Interpretation.

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111 in which to contain uncertainty, ignorance or Negative Capability.

2 It is possible that the obscurity in the explanation of this concept,
3 considered in the last chapter of Attention and Interpretation, might
4 have been a consequence of Bion’s sentiments about the rejection
5 some of his ideas had produced within the British Psychoanalytical
6 Society:39
7
8 Who or what is to exercise the power and what voice is to utter the
9 Language of Achievement is a matter of consequence and has been
10 accepted as such whether the field in which the struggle is carried
on is the individual or agglomerations of individuals. [1970, p. 127]
1
2
3 Leaderless groups: The main philosophy in this technique was
4 introduced by Bion, and it consists in applying mechanisms of indi-
5 vidual psychoanalytic therapy to group dynamics as a whole, such
6 as maintaining the “abstinence law”, or the therapist’s intervention
711 remaining always on an interpretative level and directed to the
8 totality of the group’s unconscious phantasy, depending on the pre-
9 dominant basic assumption. Interpretations directed to one per-
20 son, as a form of individual therapy taking place in public, should
1 always be avoided. “The endeavour that I myself make”, says Bion,
2 “is to illuminate the obscurities of the situation in the group by clear
3 thinking clearly expressed” (1948b, p. 84).
4 One of Bion’s innovations in this form of treatment, in order to
511 follow a parallelism with individual analysis, was his capacity
6 to deal with the anxieties of the “dependent group”, always trying
7 to establish and to profit from the status quo of a relationship based
8 on a “doctor–patient” model. He tried, despite the difficulties that
9 such an attitude represented within the group culture, to remain
311 neutral, as another member and in the position of observer.
1
2 As I said, the doctor–patient foundation for a sophisticated struc-
3 ture soon shows its inadequacy, and one reason for this is that it is
4 only a thin disguise for the dependent group, so that emotional
5 reactions proper to this kind of basic group are immediately
6 evoked, and the structure of sophistication sags badly. [ibid., p. 79]
7
8 39
See, for instance, Donald Meltzer’s ambivalence in “The Kleinian
911 Development, Part III”, in The Clinical Significance of the Work of Bion (1978).
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111 The dependent group can have the following disadvantages: (a) it
2 promotes rivalry for the leader’s attention; (b) the benefit experi-
3 enced does not come from the group but from the leader and is only
4 possible when he speaks, something that induces the belief that
5 the treatment is something simple that requires little effort; (c) the
6 “dependency game” generates feelings of deceit and hunger for
711 affection, because members always feel that they are not receiving
8 enough from the leader; (d) the belief that the therapist looks after
9 everyone equally is never possible and never convincing.
10
1 Learning from Experience: Bion used this expression as a title for
2 one of his books, which summarizes some of the clinical experience
3 he had acquired during his previous psychoanalytical research. He
4 emphasizes the danger of failing to communicate accurately what
5 he wishes to say, or not being truthfully understood by others.
6 He discriminates between a form of “learning from experience”,
7 that changes the learner, and “learning something” that might
8 increase information, but does not change the individual. He refers
9
to the hatred of “learning from the experience”, which represents
211
the feeling that “experience” is not necessary for learning, because
1
it can be achieved suddenly, as it were by magic. Such an attitude
2
is often observed when patients in analysis ask about the length of
3
treatment, as if knowledge was only the analyst’s privilege. In rela-
4
tion to groups, Bion states that this difficulty to learn can be a con-
5
sequence of feeling that the “Dependence Basic Assumption”
6
(Dba) is insufficient and thus searching for other basic assumptions
7
will be needed.
8
9
30 Lie: The difficulty to research lies, said Bion, hinges, among other
1 things, on the issue that the same language required to search for
2 the truth is also used to fabricate lies. Lies are thoughts that require
3 a “thinker” to formulate them; truth, however, does not require any.
4 To say for instance, “the sky is blue”, does not need anyone to think
5 or formulate it, it is a truth that stands by itself. When a “thinker”
6 feels he is indispensable to some thought, he might feel very envi-
7 ous of someone else who might also feel indispensable to the same
8 thought. What Descartes implicitly felt, that thoughts presupposed
911 a thinker, is valid only for the lies (1970, pp. 102–103).

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111 Can a liar be psychoanalysed? Although Klein, according to

2 Bion, felt at a given moment that it was not possible, he thought
3 that, usually, the analyst as well as the patient suddenly stumbles
4 into lies without expecting them and frequently after the treatment
5 has began. Also, the possibilities that lies could put themselves
6 forth as unsaturated elements associated with L and K, might
7 leave them open to a possible saturation or realization. For
8 instance, dealing with a patient who is always late and repeats the
9 same excuses, the analyst has several possibilities: (1) to accept the
10 excuses as if truth was of no importance to him and become its host;
1 (2) to turn into the patient’s conscience, representing an unthought
2 thought; (3) or to wait for a proper moment to appear, when he can
3 provide the precise interpretation that might saturate the lie with
4 truth (1970, p. 98). On the other hand, lies can represent a reaction
5 against change, similar to what happens in “catastrophic change”
6 (ibid., p. 99).
711 Lies can correspond to category 2 of the Grid; however, when
8 they became evocative or provocative of accusations and defences,
9 they can then correspond to category 6, because they might be capa-
20 ble of inducing emotional disturbances related to action. If they
1 change into fabrication of idealizations, resembling a myth, they
2 could then be placed in C category. Many liars in history have
3 defended the world threatened by the truth of science: “It is not too
4 much to say that the human race owes its salvation to that small
511 band of gifted liars who were prepared even in the face of indu-
6 bitable facts to maintain the truth of their falsehoods” (ibid., 100).
7 The nature of a lie might be suggested by the use of L or K,
8 which enter into conflict, in theory, with the analyst’s interest for
9 the truth; furthermore, the intelligence and degree of sophistication
311 of some patients allow them continuously to make use of their
1 resources to convince themselves of the efficacy and superiority of
2 lies (ibid., p. 99).
3 Access to the truth might be equivalent to a step taken from the
4 paranoid–schizoid to the depressive position. The domination of
5 O can change into a paranoid system and a threat for the liar, or in
6 other words, the impact of becoming O within the territory of a
7 “thinker” who “thinks” the lie, is marked by persecutory feelings
8 like those present in the paranoid–schizoid position: O and lies are
911 incompatible by definition.
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L 165

111 Meltzer (1973), using the concept of “idealization of the bad

2 object”, as well as Rosenfeld (1971) with his notion of the “narcis-
3 sistic gang”, have emphasized the idealization of lies and the
4 systematic attack of truth represented by the “object’s goodness”.
5 In this case, following Bion, the relationship between thinker and
6 lie is equivalent to a parasitic form of container–contained inter-
711 action where both destroy each other (ibid., p. 103). In this sense,
8 Bion has suggested the creation of a “negative Grid”, some kind of
9 a mirror image of the regular Grid capable of representing concepts
10 such as lies, equivalent to category 2 as well as L, H and K.
1 Bianchedi et al. (2000) discriminate between: (a) the lie as a kind
2 of defence; and (b) another form representing a projective identifi-
3 cation destined to denude the receptor of any contact with the truth
4 (pp. 220–235). For Bléandonu (1994) lies represent an attack on free
5 association making analysis an impossible task. Grotstein (1996)
6 states that psychotic patients, because of their closeness with O,
7 will confuse O with K, while neurotics and normal persons will do
8 the opposite, confuse K with O.
9
211 Line, the ( ___ ): Could be conceptualized in a manner similar to the
1 point (.) and the circle (O), corresponding to visual images that
2 remain invariable in the face of many situations, and are used by
3 Bion as geometric representations of symbols. Different from the
4 point that has been used to represent the “place where the breast
5 was”, or the circle signifying the “no-inside-or-outside” (O), the line,
6 because of its shape, represents the absent penis or the place where
7 the penis was, or no-penis. It would correspond in the Grid to cate-
8 gory A1, the same as “no-breast” or -elements. The line can be
9 annihilated and changed into a series of points, or into a single
30 point, to the place where the point was. “The point” concludes Bion,
1 “is thus indestructible” (1965, p. 95). Bion also questions whether
2 line and point should not be considered together, like “different
3 manifestations of one entity” (ibid., p. 89). He considers the existence
4 of a minus line: ____ , similar to a minus point: ., capable of hold-
5 ing meaning similar to the “no-thing”, not only because they repre-
6 sent the footprint of something that once was but no longer is, but
7 mainly because while they are capable of retaining a notion of time,
8 while they keep their duration, they will not be empty of past and
911 future. See: point, circle, no-thing, no-breast, complex conjugates.
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166 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Link (linking): see: Emotional link, Attacks on linking.

2
3 Listening: see: Psychoanalytic listening.
4
5 L (love) link: Represents a psychoanalytic element taken from the
6 initial of the word Love, and used by Bion to denote, together with
7 H and K, one of the passions or feelings, as well as a dynamic link
8 that, following mechanisms of container–contained, bound differ-
9 ent elements in the Grid (1963, pp. 34–35). Bion also considers the
10 existence of H, L and K, although he says little about L and
1 H. In relation to love, Bion says so precisely:
2
3 A term like “love” cannot describe something even as well as the
term, “the love of God”—that at least makes an attempt to intro-
4
duce an element that shows that it is not a discussion about some-
5
thing that is so simple as physical love known to the human animal.
6
A lioness nuzzles and shows every sign of feelings of love and
711 affection—if interpreted in human terms—for prey it has des-
8 troyed; but it is murderous love, the love that destroys the loved
9 object. Such visual images may be used to talk about love, even
20 what we imagine to be mature love, but there is some other love
1 that is mature from an absolute standard. This other love, vaguely
2 adumbrated, vaguely foreshadowed in human speech, is of an
3 entirely different character; it is not simply a quantitative difference
4 in the kind of love one animal has for another or which the baby
511 has for the breast. It is the further extension to “absolute love”,
which cannot be described in the terms of sensuous reality or
6
experience. For that there has to be a language of infra-sensuous
7
and ultra-sensuous, something that lies outside the spectrum of
8
sensuous experience and articulate language. [1992, pp. 371–372]
9
311
1 Love: see: L.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
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111
2
3
4
5
6
711 M
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7 Magic: Bion defines magic as an attempt to control the physical
8 environment, and “ritual”, as a part of magic concerned with the
9 control of the spiritual world. There are two areas of importance
211 in magic that eventually developed into scientific research: one
1 is Astrology, that gave place to astronomy based on mathematical
2 calculation; the other is alchemy that produced experimental chem-
3 istry. This can make one think that the existence of a universal spirit
4 or principle animating the world could be “a psychoanalytic fact”.
5 Bion adds: “The gap between theories of psychoanalysis on one
6 side and invocation and prayer on the other is narrow. Sometimes
7 it becomes narrower; sometimes it widens” (1992, p. 298).
8
9 Marbles: see: Transformations.
30
1 Maternal reverie40 Concept based on Kleinian projective identifi-
2 cation theory (1962, p. 90) and mentioned by Bion in his “Theory
3 of thinking” (1967, p.116). It refers to the mother’s capacity to
4 develop a psychological receptor organ capable of metabolizing
5
6 40
According to the Symingtons (1966), reverie derives from Latin radix,
7 meaning root; “through rabere, to be furiously angry, presumably uprooted in the
8 mind, to the Old French reverie, rejoicing, wildness, thence to resverie, a state of
911 delight, violent or rude language, delirium, to rever, to dream” (p. 67n).

167
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111 the baby’s conscious sensuous information and transform it into

2 -elements, which are in turn necessary to develop -function
3 (See: factor and function) and a thinking apparatus. “Reverie”,
4 says Bion, “is a factor of the mother’s alpha-function” . . . her love
5 is expressed by reverie (1962, p. 36).
6 According to him, a normal development takes place if the rela-
7 tionship between the baby and the breast enables the baby to pro-
8 ject inside the mother a feeling such as, for instance, that he is
9 dying, and then re-introject it after its permanence in the breast has
10 made it more tolerable for the baby’s mind. If the projection is not
1 accepted by the mother the baby feels his death to be real and
2 instead of re-introjecting a more tolerable fear of dying, he will re-
3 introject a nameless terror. The baby benefits from the mother’s
4 daydreaming or capacity for reverie, just in the same way he bene-
5 fits from the milk he consumes that is digested in the digestive
6 canal. If the -function is the one that makes available to the baby
711 that which in other circumstances would be unavailable for any
8 purpose except for evacuation as -elements, “. . . what are the fac-
9 tors of this function that relate directly to the mother’s capacity for
20 reverie?” (ibid., p. 36). If the mother’s reverie is not associated with
1 love for the baby, this fact will be communicated to him although
2 in an incomprehensible way.41 Bion associates reverie only with
3 feelings of love and hate from the child, and believes it to be a fac-
4 tor of the mother’s -function, which permits a total disclosure
511 towards the reception of any projective identification coming from
6 the baby regardless of being felt as a good or bad object (1962, p. 36;
7 1974, pp. 83–85). See: Projective identification, Alpha-function,
8 Alpha element, Tropism, Nameless terror.
9
311 Mathematical objects: see: Psychoanalytic objects.
1
2 41
I have previously referred to these “incomprehensible feelings”, as the
3 “schizoid secret”, that is, patients who have suffered tragedies at such an early
4 age that later on such memories became inaccessible. I used as a paradigm the
5 situation that took place at the Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Greece, where
6 the initiates took LSD (Kykeon) without knowing it, during special offerings to
Persephone, and afterwards were incapable of communicating the experience,
7 because their delusions were so private, so schizoid, that they were never able
8 to reach a consensus, a “common sense” to share it, fabricating through history
911 a “secret” impossible to make public, to disclose (Lopez-Corvo, 1993, 1994).
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111 Mathematical symbols: Bion considers that symbols, such as addi-

2 tion, subtraction, multiplication and division (+, ,  and ), can
3 represent different forms of interaction:
4 This and this and this and this = a table (addition);
5
6 A table without legs or a top or hardness or softness = a hallucina-
tion (subtraction);
711
8 A table multiplied by today and tomorrow and the next day and the
9 next day = lots of tables;
10 But if it is the same table? And if two people have to share it, is the
1 table divided by two? [1992, p. 274]
2
3 Meaning: Represents the relationship between the opinion one
4 might have of oneself (narcissism)—or self-esteem or meaning—
5 and the opinion others have (social-ism). Bion states that the impor-
6 tance in psychoanalysis of the “narcissism-social-ism” extension
7 can be better understood, if the relationship between meaning and
8 narcissism is considered. The breast is an essential source from
9 where to gather meaning—or even more, it is meaning itself—or
211 narcissistic relevance, which later will be translated into love,
1 understanding, and meaning, as well as incrementing the capacity
2 to learn. This last skill is observed in the response towards the inter-
3 pretation, which can be considered either as a criticism or as a
4 source of knowledge and insight. The loss of the breast, regardless
5 of the reason, is translated into a fear of losing everything, as well
6 as a fear of losing all meaning, as if the person were “a material
7 thing” that had ceased to exist (1965, p. 81).
8 Meaning is a function of the kind of love (L), hate (H) and
9 knowledge (K) we might feel about ourselves. The criticism of a
30 universe without meaning, said Bion, regardless of how big
1 or small that might be, derives from the fear that such lack of sig-
2 nificance could be a sign that it has been completely destroyed,
3 something that might change into a threat to the person’s own nar-
4 cissism. When this happens, that is, when the universe cannot pro-
5 vide meaning, a belief that meaning could be obtained from some
6 powerful beings or objects might develop. Incapacity to experience
7 love of oneself can translate into intolerance towards meaning or its
8 absence (ibid., p. 73). It could be thought in this sense, that signifi-
911 cance is associated with hope, depending on whether the opinion

169
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111 given by someone else is positive or negative, like the patient who
2 demands the analyst’s interpretation regardless of what has been
3 said, just for the comforting sound of the voice, as an attempt to
4 deny an internal (narcissistic) lack of meaning (ibid., pp. 81, 101).
5 There is the danger in these cases that analysis could halt, because
6 the patient’s need to project “insignificance” could be acted out by
7 minimizing the interpretation, coming late, missing sessions,
8 reversing perspective or eventually discontinuing altogether. See:
9 Dreams, Dream-work, Dream thought.
10
1 Mechanical links: see: Dynamic links
2
3 Medical model, the: In relation to medicine, Bion said:
4
The parallel with medicine was, and still is, useful. But as psycho-
5
analysis has grown so it has been seen to differ from physical med-
6 icine until the gap between them has passed from the obvious to
711 the unbridgeable. [1970, p. 6]
8
9 An important difference between physical and mental categories is
20 based on the quality of realizations, while the former depends on
1 sensuous experiences, such as touch, vision, smell, etc., the latter
2 lacks these kind of realizations: anxiety for instance, has no taste or
3 smell. Bion recommends that psychoanalysts make use of the term
4 “intuit” in the same way smell, touch or test, etc., is used within
511 the medical domain. While the model of realizations is linked to
6 the presence of objects, the mind has to deal with absences, with
7 “no-things” or nothingness. Communicating with patients presents
8 similar limitations: how do we know what patients are talking
9 about if their anxiety has no physical qualities? The only reference
311 we depend on in these cases is our own, because there is no odour
1 or taste to compare.
2 Eigen, trying to explain Bion, said, “To treat the mind as a thing,
3 would mean to murder it” (1995). To avoid the difficulty of con-
4 taining the no-thing, not only do we fill no-thing with things, but
5 we also relate to no-things as if they were things. Intolerance to
6 mental pain induces the need to free the mind from such pain with
7 the use of -elements—since they are good only for evacuation—
8 by means of projective identifications and acting-out (correspond-
911 ing to category 2 of the Grid). The capacity to tolerate pain induced
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111 by the absence of the “thing” or the “no-thing”, on the other hand,
2 is a good protection for psychic life, to guard it from being changed
3 into a thing like the body, or from being reduced to the condition of
4 a thing.
5 Viewed from a different perspective, somatic language displaces
6 speech–unconscious scotomas that have been suppressed, filling
711 them with soma, while the symptoms, often conditioned by culture,
8 determine the profile of neurosis. Animism or magic is the product
9 of the incapacity to conceive a notion of totality, to conceive those
10 dimensions that form the architecture of total objects, instead magic
1 or animism creates the paradox of denuding life from live objects
2 and projects it into inanimate things, this in turn represents, as is
3 often observed, the culture of potential violence, for life becomes
4 worthless. It represents a flat or bi-dimensional perception of the
5 world, where there is no sense of selfness, of identity, and analysis
6 would not be different from a mechanical intervention as if the
7 patient perceived him/herself as a machine. The body can be expe-
8 rienced as alien, even as someone else’s affair, but the mind repre-
9 sents the place of “selfhood”, of at-one-ment with oneself and thus
211 the only path through which to achieve autonomy.
1
2 Medicine: see: Medical model.
3
4 Meister Eckhart or Eckehart: German Dominican monk and mys-
5 tic philosopher, born in Hochheim in 1260 and dying probably by
6 1328 in Avignon, France. His real name was Johannes (Johann)
7
Eckhart von Hochheim, but after obtaining a master’s degree in
8
theology in Paris, he became known as Meister Eckehart. Accused
9
of heresy, some of his sermons and writings were posthumously
30
condemned and were almost forgotten until more recently when
1
interest has revived, both inside and outside of religion, the latter
2
mostly from Zen Buddhism. A review of a number of his sermons
3
reveals some of this connection; for instance, when referring to
4
God, Eckhart said: “He is He because He is not He” or “Separate
5
yourself from all two-ness, Be one on one, one with one, one from
6
one”. The sense of universality sensed in this and many other
7
quotations, made some scholars consider him a Pantheist as well as
8
a follower of Plotinus’ Neoplatonism.
911
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172 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Bion has chosen Eckhart, as well as Saint John of the Cross,
2 because of their mystic experience and sense of inner illumin-
3 ation in what they have described as an union or at-one-ment
4 with God. Bion uses these experiences as a paradigm of what he
5 wished to portray in his description of the meaning of O. This is
6 why some have judged O to have a “metaphysical and religious
7 meaning” (Symington and Symington, 1966, p. 10). Bion described
8 O as:
9
10 that which is the ultimate reality represented by terms such as ulti-
mate reality, absolute truth, the godhead, the infinite, the thing-in-
1
itself . . . does not fall in the domain of knowledge or learning save
2
incidentally . . . It is darkness and formlessness but it enters the
3
domain K when it has evolved to a point where it can be known,
4 through knowledge gained by experience, and formulated in terms
5 derived from sensuous experience; its existence is conjectured
6 phenomenologically. [1970, p. 26]
711
8 Bion’s interest in Eckhart’s Godhead, is not so much on the
9 “contained” (), on what is contained as a proof of God’s existence
20 or any other religious concern; his interest is directed towards the
1 phenomenology of the experience itself, towards the “container”
2 ( ) that experiences such union with something unknown,
3 unthinkable, the ineffable, the truth itself or ultimate reality. For
4 Bion, the revelation of the mystic with his God, whatever this God
511 might be, is similar to the revelation experienced by the psycho-
6 analyst while listening with “floating attention”, without “memory
7 or desire”, with O, with the ineffable, the unknown, unthinkable,
8 the truth itself or ultimate reality, of what the patient might be
9 expressing in that particular moment.
311
1 A Memoir of the Future: Trilogy written by Bion in the seventies,
2 during the time he spent in California. He refers to this book as a
3 “science fiction” story, possibly modelled around the three songs
4 of Dante or Milton (Bléandonu, 1994), and perhaps inspired by the
5 literary style of Joyce and Ezra Pound, according to professor
6 Meotti (2000). It consists of three parts sequentially published:
7 The Dream (1975), The Past Presented (1977b) and The Dawn of
8 Oblivion (1979). In 1979 they were all published in one book with
911 the title A Memoir of the Future (1991).
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111 According to Bion Talamo (1997) in the first place, this book rep-
2 resents some kind of theatre script, and its reading was “intended
3 to be interactive . . . in the sense that the reader is supposed to react
4 emotionally: emotions first and reasoning afterward”. In the sec-
5 ond place, its reading also entails some kind of attention similar to
6 the one required by the analyst during psychoanalytic listening,
711 which could be validated by common sense obtained from him and
8 from the psychoanalytic community. In the third place, she feels
9 that Bion demands from his readers, patience in order to tolerate:
10
1 The paranoid–schizoid position, induced by the fragmentary, non-
linear, non-narrative presentation of the text, long enough for a
2
selected fact, -element, to emerge and convey the reader to a tem-
3
porary island of “security”. “Oh, so that’s what he’s getting at!” But
4 this is precisely what Bion thinks happens in an analytic session at
5 its best, so that the reading of A Memoir of the Future, on one level,
6 is an exercise in the PSD shifts and oscillations, a sort of prac-
7 tical demonstration of them—so it is hardly surprising that it is
8 tough going. [p. 238]
9
211 Francesca Bion (1995), on the other hand, referring to this
1 volume depicts it as a:
2
“magnum opus” (it is certainly a hefty tome of almost seven
3
hundred pages) is a fictionalized, dramatized presentation of a life-
4 time’s experiences, filled with a crowd of characters voicing the
5 many facets of his own personality and thought; at the same time
6 we recognize ourselves among the “dramatis personae.” Had he
7 remained in England he would certainly not have felt able to
8 express himself in this frank and revelatory way. [p. 12]
9
30 And Bion himself made the following warning in the epilogue:
1
2 “All my life I have been imprisoned, frustrated, dogged by common-
sense, reason, memories, desires and—greatest bug-bear of all—
3
understanding and being understood. This is an attempt to express
4
my rebellion, to say “Good-bye” to all that. It is my wish, I now
5 realize doomed to failure, to write a book unspoiled by any tincture
6 of common sense, reason, etc. So although I would write, “Abandon
7 Hope all ye who expect to find any facts, scientific, aesthetic or
8 religious—in this book” I cannot claim to have succeeded. All of
911 these will, I fear, be seen to have left their traces, vestiges, ghosts
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174 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 hidden within these words; even sanity, like “cheerfulness,” will
2 creep in.” [Bion, F., 1995, p. 13]
3
4 It is possible that this trilogy represents a sort of “Biography
5 of his unconscious life”, just as the The Long Week-end (1982) and
6 All my Sins Remembered (1985) represent a “Biography of his con-
7 scious life”.
8
9 Memory: For Bion memory is related to K, it relies on the senses
10 and it represents a container that contains the past—which might
1 try to evacuate by means of projective identification—but does not
2 contain the future because this does not exist, unless it has been
3 changed into a past. Memories are possessions, similar to desires,
4 although the latter can possess the memory and the mind, when
5 they change, under certain circumstances, into a container that
6 imprisons memory. The analyst who knows and remembers every-
711 thing is not able to learn, instead he would appear as a saturated
8 element unable to absorb anything else. It is important for the
9 analyst, while listening to his patient, to discriminate between
20 memories that saturate and the capacity to remember (1970, p. 107).
1 Memory cannot be trusted because its origins are either retentive or
2 evacuative, dominated by the pleasure principle and with a ten-
3 dency to remember what is pleasant and to forget what is not.
4 As a recompilation of past events, memory is usually distorted
511 due to the presence of unconscious forces, such as “desires” for
6 instance, which can act as a resistance to remembering, something
7 delineated by Freud in his description of ‘screen-memories’.
8 Memories deal with the past, while desires deal with the future, but
9 psychoanalysis depends on the present, on what is happening now:
311
Every session attended by the psychoanalyst must have no history
1
and no future. What is “known” about the patient is of no further
2 consequence: it is either false or irrelevant. . . . If it is “known” by
3 the one but not the other, a defence or grid category 2 element (1,2)
4 (see Grid, p. 295) is operating. . . . Nothing must be allowed to dis-
5 tract from intuiting that. [1992, p. 381]
6
7 Bion distinguished between evolution and memory. He defines the
8 first as the “experience where some idea or pictorial impression
911 floats into the mind . . .” and is regarded as “based on experience
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111 that has no sensuous background but is expressed in terms that are
2 derived from the language of sensuous experience” (ibid., p. 383);
3 for instance, to say “I see”, meaning a form of intuiting through a
4 visual impression. Memory, on the other hand, implies the con-
5 scious and deliberate attempt to recall something (ibid.). See: Desire,
6 Evolution, Act of faith, Psychoanalytic listening.
711
8 Mental counterpart: Bion uses this expression to describe the inner
9 representation of a given situation, for instance to visualize an inter-
10 nal figure without any outside representation: it is similar to the use
1 of “the inward eye”, “seen in imagination”, etc. “I consider this
2 activity”, says Bion, “to depend on a ‘mental counterpart of the
3 sense of sight’. Similarly the ‘bitterness’ of a memory is dependent
4 on a mental counterpart of the alimentary system similarly with
5 others including the reproductory system” (1965, p. 91). See: vertex,
6 internal reproductory system.
7
8 Mental development: see: Growth.
9
211 Mental disaster: see: Psychological disaster.
1
2 Mental pain: Considered by Bion as a “psychoanalytical element”
3 and an essential part of the whole analysis, not because it is indis-
4 pensable as a sort of achievement, but because if there is no pain
5 it means the analysis is leaving out a “central reason for the
6 patient’s presence” (1963, p. 62). Many patients feel analysis should
7 implicitly carry a decrease of pain, however, it is not necessarily so;
8 what analysis does accomplish is an increase in the capacity to tol-
9 erate suffering. The analogy with physical medicine is noteworthy,
30 in the sense that to destroy the capacity to feel pain can be very
1 dangerous, unless you are dealing with death. For instance, posture
2 can be a form of avoiding physical pain; in a similar way, patients
3 can resort to reversible perspective as a means of avoiding pain,
4 by changing something dynamic into something static (ibid.,
5 pp. 60–63).
6 Using these contributions from Bion, Joseph (1981) has pre-
7 sented an article: “Toward the experiencing of psychic pain”, where
8 she compares tolerance of mental suffering with Keats’ expression
911 “negative capability”, used by Bion.
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176 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Mental space: Described by Bion as a synonym of O, as a thing-in-

2 itself, or the unknowable, although capable of thought representa-
3 tion (1963, p. 22). “In thought”, said Bion, “I include all that is
4 primitive, including alpha-elements . . . I exclude, arbitrarily by
5 definition, beta-elements” (1970, p. 11). Psychotic patients or the
6 psychotic part of the personality, on the other hand, lack the
7 equipment, such as -function, that would help them map the real-
8 ization of a mental space. Their position would be “analogous to
9 that of the geometer who had to await the invention of Cartesian
10 co-ordinates before he could elaborate algebraic geometry (ibid.,
1 p. 12). They lack the conception of a container into which the pro-
2 jective identification can take place, something equivalent to the
3 absence of a coordinate system such as -function capable of pro-
4 ducing -elements and thought representations. In psychotic
5 patients the mental realization of space is “felt as an immensity so
6 great that it cannot be represented even by astronomical space
711 because it cannot be represented at all” (ibid.). Therefore, capacity
8 to experience emotions, use verbal thoughts or to be aware of time
9 and space, are all destroyed, leaving only debris that float and get
20 dispersed in the immensity. It is accompanied by feelings of panic,
1 or “psychotic panic”42 that the patient often expresses “by sudden
2 and complete silence”, equivalent to moving to “an extreme as far
3 from a devastating explosion as possible” (ibid.). Bion makes com-
4 parisons with the condition seen in some patients during a “post-
511 surgical shock”, where the dilatation of the capillaries throughout
6 the body increases so much that the blood escapes inside them
7 creating a situation similar to bleeding to death inside their own
8 body (ibid.).
9 Bion associates the theory of the “expansion of the universe”
311 with the tendency of the individual to escape from the Oedipal
1 situation, something he refers to as “a kind of expansive mental
2 universe from primary scene to the nebulae.” Later on he writes:
3
4 The attempt to escape will tend to betray the corresponding
5 attempt to discover that from which escape is sought in the expand-
6 ing concepts of space as the individual travels from infancy to
7
8 42
Bion has previously refer to this kind of panic as “nameless terror” (see
911 1967, p. 116).
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111 adulthood. The psychotic shows a desire to occupy a very small

2 space. [1992, p. 204]
3
4 He also tries to differentiate between “physical limits” and “mental
5 realities”, where the former is considered to be limited and con-
6 crete, whereas the latter is conceived as infinite and unknown,
711 “because we do not know where the boundaries of the mind are,
8 or where the impulses commence” (ibid., pp. 372–373). See: beta-
9 space, no-breast, nameless terror.
10
1 Mental suffering: see: Mental pain.
2
3 Messiah: see: Mystic.
4
5 Messianic idea: In group dynamics it represents the “idea” pro-
6 duced by the couple in the ‘pairing group’ (baP), although also
7 considered by Bion as the counterpart of the mystic or genius. When
8 idea and mystic are fused, the former can consider himself as mes-
9 siah, or in other words, the mystic may contain the idea, or the idea
211 may contain the mystic and thus become an “idol”, as observed in
1 psychotic delusions of grandeur (1970, p. 110). “The messianic idea
2 may be supposed to have a counterpart, the absolute truth, O, for
3 which a thinker is not necessary” (ibid., p. 117). The messianic idea
4 represents the point where the evolution of O and that of a thinker
5 intersect, like the analyst at the moment of grasping the unconscious
6 phantasy during psychoanalytic listening, or when the religious
7 man feels in communion with God as in the Godhead. The messianic
8 idea appears also to be similar to an idealized phantasy, for instance
9 the “wish to cure” or the idealization of transference (ibid., p. 119).
30 The messianic idea could be unknown and would then be hated
1 or feared. People deal with it by projection or materialization in a
2 thing or a person, which will make it less persecutory because it can
3 be controlled either by idealization, and thus proved to be real, or
4 by realization and in turn proved not to be ideal (1992, p. 318).
5 Scientific curiosity (representing the conscious) characterizes a
6 threat for the messianic idea within magic or religious beliefs (rep-
7 resenting the unconscious), although an important break could still
8 remain between the two preventing the correlation, as it can be
911 observed in psychoanalysis (ibid., pp. 319–320).
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178 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Minus ( ): Represents a relationship where the container–

2 contained interaction is linked to K. This situation is dominated
3 by the presence of powerful feelings of envy, which Bion has
4 referred to as “without-ness”, which would prevent the possibility
5 for a commensal kind of relationship to take place. Commensal rep-
6 resents a kind of relationship where the three elements involved:
7 +, + and K (like baby, breast and thinking; or scientist, idea and
8 invention) benefit from each other. In contrast, when the condition
9 is represented as: , , it means that a content, subdued by a
10 container will be denuded of every meaning, until useless remains
1 are the only thing left, a situation that would take place when the
2 mind is dominated by envy (). In relation to the interpretation,
3 for instance, it would be transformed into an insignificant noise; a
4 condition very different from the interaction based on a +()
5 dominated by K, where the interpretation under a process of
6 abstraction, will promote growth (1962, pp. 96–99). “Successful
711 operation of ()” would be translated into an increment of 
8 power that will convert  into  elements. “In other words
9 alpha-elements, however obtained, are acquired for conversion to
20 beta-elements”, which means that the patient feels surrounded not
1 by real objects, but by things-in themselves, bizarre objects, rep-
2 resenting residues of thoughts “and conceptions that have been
3 stripped of their meaning and ejected” (ibid., pp. 98–99).
4
511 Minus H (H): see: Minus L (L)
6
7 Minus K (K): Normal growth can be achieved when a mother–
8 child relationship is established as a container–contained inter-
9 action dominated by a commensal link. In this condition the baby
311 projects his feelings inside the mother, for instance, that he is dying,
1 and then re-introjects it after the mother has changed it into some-
2 thing more bearable to the baby’s mind. This condition represents
3 a basic model where the apparatus for thinking thoughts can be
4 structured as well as the growth of K. But if the situation were
5 dominated by envy, the baby would split and project his feelings
6 inside the breast together with envy and hatred, which will hinder
7 the possibility of establishing a +relation of a commensal type.
8 Under these circumstances, the breast is felt enviously to denude all
911 good and valuable elements capable of metabolizing the baby’s
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111 fear of death, and in its place it will force back denigrated residues
2 that will determine the manifestation of a nameless terror, or a
3 container–contained interaction between the baby and the breast,
4 represented by Bion as K. Such a condition is serious indeed
5 because the breast not only does not mitigate the fear of death, but
6 also takes away the desire to live (1962, pp. 97–99). Bion represents
711 this state as () and qualifies it as a “without-ness”, which he
8 describes as:
9
10 . . . an internal object without an exterior. It is an alimentary canal
1 without a body. It is a super-ego that has hardly any of the charac-
2 teristics of the super-ego as understood in psycho-analysis: it is
“super” ego. It is an envious assertion of moral superiority without
3
any morals . . .The process of denudation continues till  
4
represent hardly more than an empty superiority–inferiority that in
5 turn degenerates to nullity. [ibid., p. 97]
6
7 If we draw two straight lines crossing each other, O will be the
8 point where they cross and whatever is on the left we name K,
9 and K what is on the right. O can be replaced by a word like
211 “breast” or “penis” or any other sign representing a constant con-
1 junction, it would be equivalent to the knowledge of the “breast”
2 or the “penis” or K, and should be placed on the right. For the left
3 side it could be used a point (.) or a line ( ___ ), representing the
4 absent breast and the absent penis respectively equivalent to K
5 (1965, p 77). They could also, according to Bion, be equivalent to an
6 absence of space or the place where a space once was, occupied by
7 no-things or objects that have been violently filled with envious
8 greed towards any object showing existence. For instance, referring
9 to the abstract painter, Bion said:
30
1 . . . that K “space”, is the material in which, with which, on which
2 (etc.) the “artist” in projective transformation works. As an anal-
3 ogy with space may easily distort I propose to drop the term and
4 speak of transformation in K. [ibid., p. 115]
5
6 Bion describes the dynamics seen in reversible perspective, as
7 a clinical example of the interaction between K and K. Other
8 examples could be used, like the case of a patient, the last of three
911 brothers, who remembered being sent away when very small to a
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180 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 summer camp. Although he remembers little about the event,

2 feelings appearing in the transference showed that it was a very
3 traumatic experience. He only remembered two situations: that he
4 was always carrying a camera with him, to the point that he was
5 nicknamed “little camera”, and that he had a dream in which he saw
6 a car with someone inside, that was pushed away by the powerful
7 stream of a nearby river, which in reality was a dry water bed.
8 Motivated by the memory of the camera he searched family albums
9 for pictures and felt rather bewildered after finding nothing. It was
10 then interpreted that the camera he carried had just that purpose, to
1 make sure he would remember nothing, it was a “minus camera”,
2 to photograph absences and forgetfulness (K) as the only means to
3 make sure something was completely forgotten in order to avoid
4 a terrible mental pain. He wished not to photograph the absent
5 breast, or what Bion would refer to as a “minus point”: (.) It was
6 the presence of an absence. He pursued his investigation further and
711 decided to go back to the summer campsite he had not visited since.
8 He found the place very different, invaded by “delinquents” and
9 when he called at the door two “murderous dogs” appeared. He
20 was then told that perhaps the picture he did not wish to take was
1 the invasion of his memories with “murderous violence” because of
2 the impotence he then experienced when sent away; the only picture
3 taken that remained, was the car with someone inside (his parents?
4 brothers who stayed at home?), which was being carried away, but
511 not ever to be carried away.
6
7 Minus L (L): Together with H and K, it represents a negative
8 form of link, not equivalent to H, as H is not equivalent to L
9 either. Bion provided little illustration of the meaning of L and
311 H, as he did with K. They are related to the “absence of some-
1 thing” but it is not clear what exactly was that something for Bion.
2 “The first problem”, he says, “is to see what can be done to increase
3 scientific rigour by establishing the nature of K, L and H.”
4 Later he questions:
5
6 Is it possible to glean from the mechanisms involved in this behav-
7 iour any material that will throw light on minus phenomena . . . and
8 incidentally on the problem of establishing the elements of psycho-
911 analysis? [1963, pp. 51, 53, my italics]
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111 Perhaps L could be represented by emotions observed in the

2 transference, as in “ transference love”, or the difference between
3 “need” and “unconditional love”. H, on the other hand, might be
4 equivalent to emotions present in autistic patients, where repudia-
5 tion of the object is achieved by means of mechanisms different
6 from splitting and direct aggression, which Meltzer has described
711 as dismantling.
8
9 Minus Ps D (Ps D): Different from the positive form of
10 PsD, that could represent “interaction involving dispersal
1 of particle with feelings of persecution [related to the paranoid–
2 schizoid position] and integration with feelings of depression”
3 [related to depressive position] we have according to Bion, in
4 (minus) PsD, the following clinical characteristics: “disinte-
5 gration, total loss and depressive stupor; or intense impaction and
6 degenerate stuporose violence.” He adds: “Although these descrip-
7 tions . . . are incomplete they may serve until further experience is
8 forthcoming” (1963, p. 52).
9
211 Model, the: A “model” represents for Bion a construction that
1 conjugates observations related to each other, following a non-
2 fortuitous logic of cause–effect produced by the experience, where
3 the links that bound them are secondary and are expressed in the
4 form of a narrative. A model can be made of any observation or
5 series of observations that would acquire coherence or would be
6 precipitated by a selected fact. Bion makes a difference between
7 models made to provide understanding of some kind of observa-
8 tion, and the person who creates the model. An interpretation is a
9 model used to provide an illumination of the latent content from
30 a given manifest discourse. It is precipitated by a “selected fact”, it
1 is ephemeral and it differs from theory in this respect: it will also
2 require the analyst’s -function to produce -elements in order to
3 abstract the necessary elements to construct the interpretation. “The
4 model”, says Bion, “may be regarded as an abstraction from an
5 emotional experience or as a concretization of an abstraction . . .
6 The model was made to illuminate the experience I had with a par-
7 ticular patient and is used for comparison with the realization”
8 (1962, p. 79). The interpretation has to be matched against its realiz-
911 ation to prove its degree of success or failure.
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182 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 I have no compunction in discarding a model as soon as it has

2 served or failed to serve my purpose. If a model proves useful on a
3 number of different occasions the time has come to consider its
4 transformation into a theory. . . . A psychoanalyst may make as
many models as he chooses out of any material available to him.
5
[ibid., p. 80]
6
7
It is important not to confuse a model with a realization, because
8
the latter is a consequence of the model, it is its main purpose, but
9
it is different from the model. Abstraction might follow a realization
10
and from there proceed to make a model and then to elaborate a
1
scientific deductive system. The model, however, advises Bion,
2
should not be confused with the realization, because then the model
3
would lose its purpose: “I ignore the contingency that arises when
4
5 the realization is mistakenly matched with the model; that failure is
6 dealt with by the creation of a new model” (ibid., p. 80). The trans-
711 formation that a model has to suffer in order to allow generaliza-
8 tion is similar to the process by which sense data is transformed
9 into -elements.
20 Bion discriminates between models made with inanimate
1 objects and models related to living organisms, for instance the
2 characteristics of growth, as is the case with psychoanalysis: “The
3 term mechanism implies the model of a machine which is precisely
4 what the realization is not” (ibid., p. 81). See: Medical model,
511 Psychoanalytic elements.
6
7 Money: Following contributions made by Eizing (1949), Bion
8 attempts to use group dynamics to connect money with basic
9 assumptions. For instance, if originally money appeared as a need
311 to provide the bride with a dowry—a ‘bride-price’—it would then
1 be related with the pairing group (baP); but if linked with the
2 payment made to the kindred of someone murdered or wergild,
3 it could then be considered as expression of a flight–fight basic
4 assumption (baF). The dominant “ba” in a given group, for
5 instance the political situation of a country, will psychologically
6 determine the value of money (1948a, pp. 109–112).
7 In a note made some years later, Bion explains how money
8 can be used to measure the position of an individual, such as the
911 dowry, the papal bull, etc. It could represent the thing-in-itself,
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111 determining someone’s value, like the fee paid to the analyst, which
2 can be used either to exalt or debase, like hiding his/her devalua-
3 tion behind a high fee (1992, p. 307).
4
5 Moral System: Bion refers very briefly and defines this system as
6 similar to the sense of morality induced by a myth, or as its narra-
711 tive cause; that is, the way elements in the myth associate with each
8 other. For instance, the myth of the sphinx in Oedipus, showing
9 how men’s curiosity turns against themselves, or the tower of
10 Babel, trying to reach heaven; they represent different ways in
1 which curiosity towards knowledge changes into a sin (1963, p. 46).
2 See: Myth, Narrative, Oedipus, Tower of Babel, myth of.
3
4 Mystic (Genius or Messiah): They could be creative or destructive
5 and might establish themselves in religion as well as in science. The
6 creative one fulfils the demands of his group, whereas the destruc-
7 tive or the “mystic nihilistic” destroys his own creations: “I mean
8 the terms to be used only when there is outstanding creativeness or
9 destructiveness, and the terms ‘mystic’, ‘genius’, ‘messiah’ could
211 be interchangeable” (1970, p. 74). It is also the person who contains
1 or is contained by the messianic idea, in a similar form as a con-
2 tainer contains a content, or a meaning contains the word that
3 expresses it (ibid., pp. 87, 110). The mystic could be a thinker who
4 confesses having a direct access to the truth, to God if he is reli-
5 gious, or to O if he is a psychoanalyst. On the contrary, if it were
6 the idea that contained the mystic, then he would be transformed
7 into an idol. The degree of falsehood between the mystic and O
8 varies depending on whether the container–contained relationship
9 between them is commensal, symbiotic or parasitic. The mystic
30 appears in the analyst when he is capable of grasping the patient’s
1 unconscious, or becoming O, corresponding from the vertex of reli-
2 gion to the messianic idea.
3
4 Myth: Corresponds to a primitive form of pre-conception, as well
5 as a stage in the publication or communication of individual
6 private knowledge to the group (1963, p. 92). “Myths”, says Bion,
7 “must be defined; they must be communicable and have some of
8 the qualities of common sense—one might call them ‘common non-
911 sense’” (1992, p. 186). They could be represented by the formula
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184 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 K(), where K represents the constant in a myth, what is always

2 repeated, whereas  means what is variable, what is individual and
3 unsaturated (1974, p. 23).
4 Myths correspond to category C of the Grid. Bion refers mostly
5 to the myth of the Garden of Eden, the Tower of Babel and the
6 Sphinx in Oedipus, as concepts representing evolutions of O (1970,
7 pp. 84–85) The common fact in all of these myths is the attitude of
8 the deity that punishes men for their wish to satisfy their curiosity
9 towards knowledge (ibid., p. 92). See: Ur, Xi, also Abbreviations.
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 185

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 N
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Name: (For instance the name of a person.) Stands for something
1 invented with the purpose of binding together in constant con-
2 junction, a series of phenomena of unknown meaning is unknown.
3 The binding performed by the “name” not only provides cohesion
4 to a pre-conception and prevent its components from getting dis-
5 persed and lost, but it also allows the possibility of finding a
6 meaning for it. When we say, for instance, “dog”, we presume we
7 know what we are speaking about, because the penumbra of asso-
8 ciations related to the constant conjunction bound by the “name”
9 dog, represent the pre-conception. We will require the presence of a
30 true dog, as a realization, to reach its real meaning or concept.
1 (1963, pp. 88–90). The name, says Bion, is capable of accumulating
2 meaning with the use of operations of container-contained ().
3
4 Nameless terror:43 Mentioned for the first time in 1962, in Bion’s
5 “theory of thinking” (1967, p. 116), when he refers to feelings
6 experimented with by the baby when the mother is unable to
7
8 43
Grotstein (1993) suggests that concepts such as “nameless terror”,
911 “catastrophic change”, “thalamic terror”, etc., are closely related to Bion’s life

185
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186 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 metabolize the sensory information of anxiety she has received

2 from her baby; or in other words, when the mother’s capacity for
3 reverie does not exist. A normal development between the baby
4 and the breast is established when such a relation allows the baby
5 to project feelings inside his mother, for example that he is dying,
6 and then re-introject it after its permanence in the breast has
7 changed it into a more bearable feeling for his mind. If such pro-
8 jection is not accepted by the mother, the baby might feel that his
9 fear of death is real, and its re-introjection would be, not just a more
10 tolerable fear of death, but a “nameless terror”. The baby’s rudi-
1 mentary conscious cannot deal with the demand placed on it (1967,
2 p. 117). Another way to say it, would be that if reverie prevails the
3 container–contained relationship would be of a commensal kind,
4 because all the elements involved will benefit from this relationship
5 and the end result will be an apparatus for thinking and K. But
6 if envy dominates the relationship, the product would be K and a
711 nameless terror (1962, pp. 96–99), a container–contained condition
8 represented by Bion as ( ). This condition is really serious
9 because the breast not only does not obstruct the wish to die, but
20 subtracts the wish to live (ibid., pp. 97–99).
1
2 Narcissism: see: Social-ism.
3
4 Narrative: Represents a form of public and well known kind of
511 cause–effect interaction, for instance the narration of a renowned
6 story. It would be different from what happens in the selected fact,
7 the constant conjunction or the move from paranoid–schizoid to
8 the depressive position, where the realization or association of ele-
9 ments is absolutely private, it begins by chance but repeats itself by
311 compulsion, tied by a constant conjunction. The Oedipus myth rep-
1 resents a public narrative related to the theory of causality, equiv-
2 alent to the maxim: “who live by the sword die by the sword”.
3 However, at the same time there is a personal side to the Oedipus
4 complex, the product of a constant conjunction, of how everyone
5 has carried out their own history, their own private travelling
6 to build their own myth. Narrative and causality represent the
7
8 experience during World War I, when he became the only survivor of his company
911 on the 8th August 1918 (Bion 1985, see also the Introduction to this dictionary).
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N 187

111 memory, of how facts once did relate—or in relation to the Oedipus
2 myth—as Bion stated: “where the penis once was”—and its relation
3 to the future-”where the penis will be”. It could be placed in cate-
4 gory 3, or notation, of the Grid. What happened at the crossroads
5 in Thebes, says Bion, is something public or well known to every-
6 one and would correspond to column 3.
711 On the other hand, a word like “cat”, for example, where obvi-
8 ously there is not narrative, could reunite a series of private events
9 to a certain individual, provide a sort of personal meaning repre-
10 senting a constant conjunction, or a definitory hypothesis belong-
1 ing to category C1 (1965, pp. 96–97).
2
3 Negative Capability: Represents a mental state capable of tolerat-
4 ing “ignorance”, uncertainty, mystery and doubt, a condition that,
5 according to Bion, psychoanalysts must promote. He associates it
6 with the depressive position and the concept of “security”. The
7 concept is based on an expression invented by poet John Keats in a
8 letter written to his brother, to describe his concept of creative
9 receptivity:
211
I had not a dispute but a disquisition with Dilke on various sub-
1 jects; several things dove-tailed in my mind, and at once it struck
2 me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in
3 Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously—I
4 mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being
5 in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching
6 after fact and reason. [1970, p. 125]
7
8 The incapacity to build a mental space that tolerates ignorance or
9 uncertainty, induces the creation of a language of action or Langu-
30 age Achievement, from where power can be exercised arbitrarily.
1 In a note written in 1969, Bion said:
2
The capacity of the mind depends on the capacity of the
3 unconscious–negative capability. Inability to tolerate empty space
4 limits the amount of space available. Curiosity should be part of the
5 dependent group, but it can share fight–flight qualities when
6 the wish is to avoid impending discovery (category 2). [1992, p. 304]
7
8 Reading between the lines, it could be conjectured that Bion was
911 also referring to the reactions he was observing in many colleagues

187
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188 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 towards his innovative ideas; such as his emphasis on listening

2 without memory, desire or understanding. In other words, the
3 “negative incapability” to tolerate spaces of ignorance and allow
4 new discoveries to take place: instead of a dependent group, a
5 fight–flight basic assumption was induced.
6
7 Negative Grid: Bion has introduced the idea of the possibility of
8 a “negative grid”, a sort of mirror image of the Grid, a table to rep-
9 resent lies corresponding to column 2. He considers the possibility
10 of adding a “negative” extension to the standard table by expanding
1 the horizontal axis fromn and continuing it with 5, 4, 3, 2
2 and 1. He concludes that in this way the negative use could serve
3 as a barrier against the unknown or against what is known but dis-
4 liked. According to the theory of transformation, the “negative
5 Grid” represents the possibility of a movement contrary to the
6 movement ordinarily followed by the Grid’s axes: from H to A in the
711 genetic axis, and . . .n to 1 in the axis of uses. Bion represents this
8 negative movement geometrically with arrows: . If they were to
9 represent an object, this object would have the following character-
20 istics: “violent, greedy and envious, ruthless, murderous and preda-
1 tory, without respect for the truth, persons or thing” (1965, p. 102).
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911 Figure 1. Negative grid.
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N 189

111 But if presented like this: . it would then mean geometri-
2 cally, a “no-breast”; or in this way:  __
, a “no-penis”, carrying
3 the characteristics described above. Such representation implies a
4 contradiction, because “a thing can never be unless it both is and is
5 not” (1965, pp. 102–103).
6 Meltzer (1973), through his concept of the “idealization of the
711 bad object”, and Rosenfeld (1971) with his notion of the “narcissis-
8 tic gang”, have emphasized the “idealization of lying” and the
9 systematic attack on the truth and represented the latter as
10 the “goodness” of the object. In a similar way, Bion refers to the
1 relationship between the thinker and the lie, corresponding to a
2 container–contained parasitic relationship, where they destroy each
3 other.
4
5 Negative growth: see: Growth.
6
7 Negro, dream of the: see: Significant dreams.
8
9 Newton, Sir Isaac: see: “Ghosts of departed quantities”.
211
1 No-breast: For Klein this represents a kind of presence–absence,
2 that is, a negative realization, in the sense that the absence of the
3 breast is translated into a series of emotions that would later con-
4 solidate as the presence of a “bad breast”, as a psychic entity
5 opposed to the presence of the breast or “good breast.” According
6 to Freud, thinking, originating from ideation, acquired special
7 qualities of action; something that allows the mental apparatus, if
8 motor discharge is obstructed, to free itself from accretion of stim-
9 uli. When satisfaction is not possible (no-breast) the future will
30 depend on how the ego would or would not tolerate frustration.
1 Following Bion, the ego could: (a) use evacuative forms of thoughts
2 or -elements, which are projected into internal or external objects;
3 (b) modify the situation; (c) establish a splitting between physical
4 (materialistic) and mental aspects; or (d) create a thought by
5 mating a pre-conception with a conception or negative realization
6 of the absent object. See projective identification, thought.
7 The no-breast differs from the breast and can be represented
8 using geometric similes such as the point (.), a mark or a stigma
911 (τιγµη), an ephemeral spot analogous to a staccato mark in a
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190 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 musical score. It would correspond to a breast that has been

2 reduced to a simple position, to the place where the breast was, but
3 disappeared consumed by greed or because splitting has destroyed
4 it leaving only its position, its τιγµη (1965, p. 54). Regarding the
5 relationship between the psychological concept and the geometric
6 representation, Bion wonders: “Why then, to revert to the point and
7 line, do these visual images lead in one case to the efflorescence of
8 mathematics [when absence of the breast is translated into mathe-
9 matical thoughts] and in the other to mental sterility [psychosis]?”
10 (ibid., pp. 56–57).
1 Bion describes the case of a psychotic patient who continuously
2 repeated for almost three years that he had not been able to find ice-
3 cream: “no ice-cream”, something Bion interpreted as representing
4 the expression “no I-scream”; he explains:
5
6 I now know that a violent attack had been delivered on a relation-
711 ship in which the link between the two personalities had been “I
scream”. This had been destroyed and the place of the link
8
“I scream” had been taken by a “no—I scream”. The “I scream” link
9
had itself previously been food, “ice-cream”, a “breast”, until envy
20
and destructiveness had turned the good breast into an “I scream”.
1 In narrative form: he had been linked to his object by a good breast
2 (he liked ice-cream). This he had attacked, possibly bitten it in actu-
3 ality. The place of the breast as link was then taken by an
4 “I scream”. Further attacks made it a “no—I scream”. [ibid., p. 13]
511
6 The patient’s complaint recurred over many years, something Bion
7 did not realize until the end, representing the immensity of time
8 and space within the psychotic’s mind:
9
311 Mental space is so vast compared with any realization of three-
1 dimensional space that the patient’s capacity for emotion is felt to
be lost because emotion itself is felt to drain away and be lost in the
2
immensity. [ibid. p. 12]
3
4
Non-existence: Bion states:
5
6 The patient feels the pain of an absence of fulfilment of his desires.
7 The absent fulfilment is experienced as a “no-thing”. The emotion
8 aroused by the “no-thing” is felt as indistinguishable from the “no-
911 thing”. The emotion is replaced by a “no-emotion”. In practice this
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N 191

111 can mean no feeling at all, or an emotion, such as rage, which is a

2 column 2 emotion, that is, an emotion of which the fundamental
3 function is denial of another emotion. . . . As a column 2 element
4 [see: definitory hypothesis and Grid] all felt emotion is a “no-
emotion”. In this respect it is analogous to “past” or “future” as
5
representing the “place where the present used to be” before all
6
time was annihilated . . . “Non-existence” immediately becomes an
711
object that is immensely hostile and filled with murderous envy
8 towards the quality or function of “existence” wherever it is to be
9 found. [1970, pp. 19–20]
10
1 Bion uses the signs  to symbolize the movements opposite
2 to the direction followed by the Grid’s axes, that normally move
3 from left to right and from top to bottom. Such opposite movements
4 represent what Bion calls a state of “awareness”, alertness or Cs,
5 different from the concept of consciousness used by Freud. It is
6 similar to the awareness of an insect, that driven by phototropism,
7 searches for the light:
8
9 This “consciousness”, is an awareness of a lack of existence that
211 demands an existence, a thought in search of a meaning, a defini-
tory hypothesis in search of a realization approximating to it,
1
a psyche seeking for a physical habitation to give it existence, 
2
seeking . [1965, p. 109]
3
4 But if preceded by a minus sign: , it would then imply a C3
5 category in the Grid, and may be personified by a non-existent
6 “person”:
7
8 whose hatred and envy is such that “it” is determined to remove
9 and destroy every scrap of “existence” from any object which might
30 be considered to “have” any existence to remove. Such a non-
1 existent object can be so terrifying that its “existence” is denied,
2 leaving only the “place where it was”. [ibid., p. 111]
3
X is the third of four brothers who consulted because of intense
4 anxiety attacks, insomnia and all sorts of hypochondriacal com-
5 plaints. He is the son of a very successful Italian immigrant, “a
6 rather ruthless businessman”, and a very dependent, phobic and
7 hypochondriacal mother. Together with his three brothers he
8 worked for his father until three years ago when, with the help of
911 his wife, he started his own business, a courier company that lately
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192 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 has been performing very well. Leaving his father was not easy
2 because the father demanded absolute commitment, was very
3 demeaning with everybody, including his mother and disapproved
4 of his departure assuring him that he was going to fail. X states that
5 he had always tried to please his father; he went to university to
6 study architecture because it suited him for his construction busi-
ness, but he has never practised it, even now when he is working
7
on his own. He had suffered from panic attacks in the past and
8
sporadically looked for professional help with rather poor results;
9 however, lately there has been an increment of his symptoms
10 apparently related to “stress” because of the success of his own
1 business, something that could be understood according to the
2 crossroads or Oedipus murder mechanisms. In the sessions, X con-
3 tinuously repeats the same complaints about his anxiety attacks,
4 body ailments, bad luck, poor achievement, etc., giving the impres-
5 sion of a “negative therapeutic reaction” and bringing to mind the
6 countertransference image of a child threatened by a castrating
711 father, and hopelessly screaming in distress for help to an unmind-
8 ful mother. He complains in order to make others—like his wife
and the analyst—feel useless, a total failure; because of very intense
9
envious feelings against sentiments of well being that he feels
20
others are experiencing but he is not. Nullified by his father’s
1
envious castrating need and rather abandoned by his dependent
2 mother, he feels as “non-existent” and attacks others whom he
3 experiences as comfortable with their own life. First of all he des-
4 troys his -function, memory and capacity to learn from experi-
511 ence; his mind then fills up with -elements in the form of
6 narcissistic rage, hopelessness, body ailments (language) he projects
7 as projective identifications inside others endlessly. Every session
8 is a carbon copy of the previous one and all interpretations
9 attempting to clarify the reason of his permanent suffering are also
311 continuously forgotten. As Bion has described it, he “is determined
1 to remove and destroy every scrap of ‘existence’ from any object
which might be considered to ‘have’ any existence to remove”,
2
regardless that by doing so, he pays such a high price. He attempts
3
to induce feelings of non-existence in other persons, as a way of
4 freeing himself from feelings of non-existence, but in so doing he
5 creates more feelings of non-existence. It is precisely this feeling of
6 non-existence which is the main reason for his terror, which he
7 paradoxically continuously induces in himself, while trying ineffi-
8 ciently to free himself from them.
911 See: Cs, no-breast, no-thing, K.
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N 193

111 Non-saturated: see: Saturated–non saturated, elements.

2
3 Noösphere: From Greek noos (νουσ) = “mind” and sfaira (φαιρα)
4 = “sphere”. A word used by Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
5 (1959) in 1925 to explain the notion of a “sphere of reflection, of
6 conscious invention, of conscious souls” or “collective mind or con-
711 scious”, some kind of global trade network, communication, accu-
8 mulation, and exchange of knowledge, related to fields such as
9 economy, “psychic affiliations” and so on, which knits itself
10 at increasing speed, penetrating and engulfing each of the individ-
1 uals within the media who, as time evolves, find it much more
2 difficult to think or act in any other non–collective way. For many,
3 Chardin had predicted what we know today as Cyberspace or the
4 Internet.
5 Bion uses the concept of “noösphere” to explain what he refers
6 to as -space. He explains that the concept of “noos” is more use-
7 ful than that of “sphere”, because the latter carries a penumbra of
8 associations that could complicate instead of facilitating under-
9 standing, therefore he prefers the use of Greek letter  (S), sigma,
211 something he explains: “I shall employ a sign that is as devoid of
1 meaning as I can make it”, capable of carrying the communication
2 expected, identified as sigma (1992, p. 313).
3 Later on he contrasts sphere with “amorph”, because the former
4 entails a limit, a contention, different from the latter that has no
5 form. However, there should be no conflict between the two, simi-
6 lar to the situation portrayed by quantum theory of light which
7 sometimes behaves as a wave (amorph) and other times as a
8 corpuscle (sphere) (1992, p. 319). Bion also creates the neologism
9 “psycho-sphere”, similar to the Cartesian definitory hypothesis
30 of “a thought without a thinker”, equivalent to “a psycho-sphere
1 without a noösphere” (ibid., p. 326).
2
3 No-penis: see no-breast.
4
5 Notation: Bion takes the concept from Freud (1911) together with
6 attention, judgement, action and thought, as functions used by the
7 ego to reach awareness of reality. Its purpose would be, as an ingre-
8 dient of memory, to secure results from the continuous search for
911 attention. Afterwards Bion uses notation as one of the elements of
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194 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 the horizontal axis of the Grid, together with the other functions
2 already enumerated above.
3
4 “No-thing”: A concept Bion relates to space in the same manner
5 that “no-present” would be related to time. “Words”, for instance,
6 symbolize “no-things” or representation of absent things, different
7 from nothing or, as Bion states, “a thing can never be unless it both
8 is and is not”. He also presents this rule in a different way: “a thing
9 cannot exist in the mind alone: nor can a thing exist unless at the
10 same time there is a corresponding no-thing” (1965, p. 103), mean-
1 ing that . (minus point) and +. (plus point) coincide, like Shakes-
2 peare’s Falstaff, if there is no-thing the thing must exist. The
3 “no-thing” has taken the vacant space of the thing, or of that space
4 that should have been occupied by it, it is a saturated() space with
5 “no-thing”.
6 The “no-thing” represents a space linked to mental suffering
711 due to absence of the object and it could be, depending on the
8 condition of the mind, either contained and suffered, or if there
9 is intolerance to pain, changed into a thing-in-itself or -element
20 and evacuated by means of projective identifications. The no-thing
1 also represents the breast, or the place where the breast was or
2 no-breast: (.), or no-penis (  ___ ). The no-thing is indispensable
3 to symbolize or represent the absent thing, something that does not
4 exist in psychotic patients, where things and no-things are the
511 same, following mechanisms of symbolic equation, that is, the no-
6 thing will always exist in a state of no-thing, because there is no
7 difference between one state and the other.
8 From a geometric point of view, Bion represents three different
9 positions of the no-thing in relation to the mind: (i) Conscious, real
311 and coincident: symbolized by a straight line between two points
1 and tangential to a circle (representing the mind), meaning that
2 there is no distinction between a thing and a no-thing or that they
3 both coincide, representing a thought disturbance as observed in
4 psychotic patients. (ii) Conscious of an external reality, real and sepa-
5 rated: represented by a straight line inside the circle, meaning some-
6 thing real and external represented internally; (iii) conjugate
7 complex or straight line completely outside the circle: representing
8 the narcissistic relationship of something staying in a mirror like
911 fashion, inside and outside (1965, p. 83).
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N 195

111 Bion also distinguishes three other possibilities between the pres-
2 ence of the no-thing and the realization that is felt to approximate
3 to it: (a) the no-thing and no corresponding realization, like hunger
4 without a breast; (b) the realization but no corresponding no-thing,
5 like the presence of the breast without hunger; (c) the co-incidence of
6 the no-thing and the thing, when they are both present (ibid., p. 107).
711
8 Noumena: Concept used by Kant to describe what is intuited, what
9 cannot be conceived and is beyond phenomena. Represents the
10 thing-in-itself, the absolute reality for which we have no empirical
1 or sensible knowledge, and can be grasped by intuition only. Bion
2 uses it to explain the notion of instinct, what we are born with but
3 have no knowledge of; for instance the need to suck the breast,
4 sexual intercourse, curiosity, epistemophilia, etc., whatever guides
5 the initial relationship with the object or realization, that later on
6 acquires structure as we learn from experience.
7
8 Number: All numbers but one represent signs denoting a constant
9 conjunction that keeps a group together and provides them with a
211 meaning. Number 1 would symbolize the negation of the group.
1 The numbers constitute an element in category 1 of the Grid, or a
2 definitory hypothesis, that is, an object that contains the potential-
3 ities of all undeveloped distinctions in a group: the attempt to bind
4 and then to understand or find a meaning for the group; or as Bion
5 states: “to bind the ‘groupishness’ of the group by a name, a column
6 1 element” (1965, p. 150).
7
8
9
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 196

111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
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111
2
3
4
5
6
711 O
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 O, ultimate reality: Letter taken from the word “Origin”, probably
1 related to the same term used to designate the centre of the
2 Cartesian coordinates that correspond to the point where the X and
3 Y axes intercept; however it could have also been taken from
4 the concept of “Origin” in Zen Buddhism. Bion defines O as the
5 thing-in-itself, or that which is immeasurable, the “absolute fact”
6 taking place in a session (1965, p. 17, 40), in an artistic creation or
7 in a state of “illumination”, and because of its own nature, it can-
8 not be known (K) (ibid., p. 17). There is a possibility for O to become
9 known only if the transformation of O is capable of combining the
30 invariants present, in such a way that its communication to others
1 becomes feasible. In order for this to happen two things must take
2 place: memory and desire must be abandoned, and a state of union
3 with O which—Bion calls it a state of at-one-ment—must be
4 allowed to take place (ibid., p. 102). O is continuously becoming, O
5 from this moment—just like the present time—would not be the
6 O of later on, this is why it cannot be known because if you know
7 it, it is not O any longer, or in other words, just when it is, it is no
8 longer, it can only be when it is not. It is not a “position” or a
911 condition, O is just a possibility that could be or could not be. In

197
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198 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 classical theory O would be equivalent—although different—to

2 the concept of “insight” as a sudden revelation of the truth, either
3 in the analyst, the patient or—ideally—both.
4 He also refers to the existence of some kind of a function that
5 permits the precipitation of a “constant conjunction”, which is
6 identified as a constellation that would act as some sort of catalyst
7 to enhance fusion or at-one-ment with O (1970, p. 33). This fusion
8 can become public in several circumstances; by means of interpre-
9 tation during the analytic session, or through the feeling experi-
10 enced by some artists, when faced with their own O, who are able
1 to transmit their work to the audience that listens to (music) or
2 watches (painting) their piece of work (1965, p. 97). It is as if O will
3 become visible through the invariant that results from the thing’s
4 transformation, something that can be observed in Descartes’ (1641)
5 communication about the transformation of a piece of wax from the
6 honeycomb.44 In religion, for instance, Meister Eckhart expresses
711 that the Godhead evolves to a point where it becomes apprehensi-
8 ble by man as the Trinity. O could be interpreted as the unconscious
9 continuous becoming; for instance, no matter how dense our expe-
20 rience might be, we will always face unknown dilemmas about
1 some of our dreams.
2 There cannot be a genuine becoming of O based on falsehood,
3 O is the absolute truth of any object. The analyst cannot identify
4 himself with O, instead he must be it (at-one-ment) and in this way
511 he will be able to know the events from the evolution of O (1970,
6 p. 30). Perhaps O could be better understood if one thinks that it
7 represents the ultimate reality, be it good or bad. Bion makes a dis-
8 tinction between the patient’s O (Op) and the analyst’s O (Oa). To
9 ask in a session, for instance, “what is Op?”, implies asking what
311
1
44
2 A piece of wax taken fresh from the honeycomb has not yet lost its taste
of honey, the smell of flowers, its colour, shape, malleability, it is hard and cold,
3 and when struck with a finger emits a sound. But if you put it near a fire, all
4 these qualities disappear, the taste goes away, the aroma evaporates, the colour
5 changes, the shape is destroyed, the size increases, becomes liquid and it is
6 impossible to manipulate it and if struck no sound is produced. Is that the same
wax after all of those changes? We shall confess that it remains, and nobody
7
could judge differently . . . Certainly, we could have known absolutely nothing
8 about it, about what my senses make me notice [because all the things contained
911 in them had changed] . . . however, the wax remains (Descartes, R., 1641).
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O 199

111 the patient is talking about (1965, p. 17). “I therefore postulate,”

2 says Bion, “that O in any analytic situation is available for trans-
3 formation by analyst and analysand equally” and hence, concludes,
4 in psychoanalysis any O that is not at the same time common
5 to both patient and analyst, and therefore is not available for the
6 transformation of both of them, must be ignored and considered
711 irrelevant, for it would not be feasible to investigate it in any way
8 (ibid., p. 48).
9 The reaction of some patients to O can be primitive, with material
10 belonging at the same time to rows A and B of the Grid: for example,
1 a patient who comes to analysis with the unconscious purpose of
2 denying the existence of the analyst, trying in this way to deal with
3 the dread of the analyst’s absence (TpO). The patient’s presence in
4 the session is evidence that the patient knows that the analyst is pre-
5 sent (sensuous level or -elements, row A of the Grid: A2); but at the
6 same time, the patient acts as if the analyst is not there, correspond-
7 ing to row B, column 2: B2 (ibid., p. 53). Bion has considered O as
8 different from the patient’s reaction, conceiving it as a definitory
9 hypothesis, belonging to column 1, that could be defined as contain-
211 ing the following negative characteristics: its existence as a dweller
1 or inhabitant within a person is irrelevant, regardless of the individ-
2 ual being God or the Devil, because O is neither good or bad, it
3 cannot be known, loved or hated, can be represented by terms such
4 as “ultimate reality” or truth. The most or the least one could be is
5 to be it, but to identify with it is a way of getting away from it and
6 is often an expression of psychopathology in the form of delusions
7 of grandeur. In classical psychoanalysis inaccessibility to O is an
8 expression of resistance. There is, as Bion states, a penumbra
9 of associations related to O: Truth, form, and those phenomena
30 distinguished as 45, distance, Godhead, etc. (ibid., p. 162).
1 He also points out the existence of a bipolar condition in O,
2 especially within the analyst, for there could be a conjunction of:
3 (a) an aspect of O dependent on the analytic experience; together with
4 (b) another intuitive aspect of O (ibid., p. 49). He refers to the first
5 one as Ta of O1 and to the second as Ta O2 (ibid., p. 50) (See trans-
6 formations).
7
8
911 45
See “Abbreviations” at the beginning of this dictionary.

199
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200 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 The space into which psychotic patients project can have infin-
2 ite dimensions, where the total analysis can be seen as a transfor-
3 mation in which a catastrophic intense emotional explosion of O
4 has taken place: “elements of personality, link, and second person-
5 ality having been instantaneously expelled to vast distances from
6 their point of origin and from each other” (1970, p. 14), a mecha-
7 nism Bion described as “hyperbole”. Such an explosive event in O
8 is then transformed, by virtue of the -elements, into some sort of
9 action or acting-out (contortions, changes of mien, grimaces, etc.)
10 in the patient, which corresponds to Tp (1970, p. 14), and may be
1 registered in column 6 of the Grid.
2 Even though Bion does not state it this way, I believe that cap-
3 turing O at a given moment, or the transformation of O into K, can
4 somehow be equivalent to the concept of unconscious phantasy
5 described by Klein, but going even further and touching an intu-
6 itive deepness and generalization, something Bion compares with
711 what mystics have described as an act of illumination. On the other
8 hand, I believe O has been mistakenly described as “zero” (Grin-
9 berg et al. 1972, Bion, 1974, p. 107). Transformation of O into K
20 (O K) represents the act of structuring the interpretation, but this
1 act will require from the analyst a special stance in order previously
2 to allow transformation of K into O, a condition already present in
3 Freud’s “free floating attention”, although observing in Bion’s
4 notion a greater density that perhaps indicates a connection with
511 Zen Buddhism. In order to apprehend O one must accept and
6 believe whatever comes up intuitively during analytic listening,
7 something Bion describes as an Act of Faith.
8 Bion has referred to Eckhart as well as Saint John of the Cross,
9 because of their mystic experience and sense of inner illumination
311 in what they have described as a union or at-one-ment with God.
1 Bion used these experiences as a paradigm of what he wished to
2 portray in his description of the meaning of O. This is why some
3 have judged O to have a “metaphysical and religious meaning”
4 (Symington and Symington, 1966, p. 10). However, Bion’s interest
5 with Eckhart’s Godhead, is not so much with the “contained” ()
6 or with what is contained as a proof of God’s existence or any other
7 religious concern; instead his interest is directed to the phenome-
8 nology of the experience itself, with the “container” () that expe-
911 riences such union with something unknown, unthinkable, the
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O 201

111 ineffable, the truth itself or ultimate reality. For Bion, the revelation
2 of the mystic with his God, whatever this God might be, is similar
3 to the revelation experienced by the psychoanalyst while listening
4 with “floating attention” and without “memory or desire”, to O, to
5 the ineffable, the unknown, unthinkable, the truth itself or ultimate
6 reality, to what the patient might be expressing in that particular
711 moment.
8 In summary, it could be said that as a proof for his theory about
9 O, Bion used several hypotheses: (a) Kant’s concept of noumenon
10 or the unknown (or the pre-conception, the thing-in-itself, the
1 ineffable, etc.) that can only be intuited, and the phenomenon (con-
2 ception, object, breast, etc.), as the end result of a mating or realiza-
3 tion between the noumenon and a particular object; (b) Aristotle’s
4 theory of form, which can be considered as the opposite, because
5 now the phenomenon acts as a reminder of an abstract concept con-
6 sidered as the “form”. Bion also presents some strophes from
7 Milton’s Paradise Lost as a paradigm of Aristotle’s theory; (c) the
8 Godhead, as can be inferred from descriptions made by Meister
9 Eckhart, Blessed John Ruysbroeck, as well as the description of
211 St. John of the Cross of his union with God in “The Ascent of Mount
1 Carmel”.
2 See: Godhead, Transformations of O, Transformation in O, K,
3 Transformation of K, Act of faith, At-one-ment, Thing-in-itself,
4 Noumenon, Phenomenon, Form, Meister Eckhart, Zen Buddhism,
5 Memory, Desire, Truth, Lie.
6
7 Oedipus complex: There are two sides to the Oedipus myth: one is
8 private, the other public. The first one represents the person’s own
9 reading of the tragedy, what each individual has experienced in
30 private; the other side represents the account communicable to the
1 public. The private version corresponds to an -element or pre-
2 conception, used by the baby to establish a contact with his parents
3 just as they exist in the external world. The mating of this -element
4 or pre-conception with a realization of the real parents provides
5 a conception of them. At the same time, the envious attack towards
6 the parental couple carries destruction of -elements or pre-
7 conceptions, in such a way that not being able to conceive his
8 parents it is impossible for the baby to “resolve” the complex
911 because, paradoxically, he has never been able to structure it. Bion
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202 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 believes that behind this myth, just like in the Tower of Babel, the
2 Garden of Eden and the Sphinx myths, there is a hostile attitude
3 from God to humans acquiring knowledge (K), because this is felt
4 as a threat to supremacy. It represents the myth’s moral character-
5 istics.
6 Bion discriminates between an “Oedipus theory” (psychoana-
7 lytical understanding) corresponding to categories F4, G4, F5 and
8 G5 of the Grid, and an “Oedipus myth” (narrative of the story) per-
9 taining to C area (1963, p. 58). He describes three parameters in the
10 theory: (1) the realization of the relation between Father, Mother,
1 and child; (2) an emotional pre-conception that mates with aware-
2 ness of a realization to produce a conception; (3) a psychological
3 reaction stimulated in an individual by the members of the triad.
4 From the point of view of the myth and by virtue of its narra-
5 tive, its elements would combine with each other in a fashion
6 similar to the way in which letters come together to create words,
711 or the way different hypotheses combine within a scientific deduc-
8 tive system. All elements in the myth, such as sex for instance,
9 acquire meaning due to the manner in which they are arranged in
20 the narrative of the myth. Bion emphasizes two aspects: (a) the
1 insistence of Oedipus to know the truth even after Tiresias had
2 alerted him to the danger (ibid., p. 45), something Bion has referred
3 to as Oedipus’ arrogance, curiosity, and stupidity; (b) the enigma,
4 traditionally credited to the Sphinx, could represent an expression
511 of men’s curiosity.
6 Bion attempts an exercise to evaluate the myth—although
7 incomplete—using the horizontal axis of the Grid. He admits the
8 possibility of trying to force the facts by making up pre-conceptions
9 (1963, p. 49), and apologizes: “It is not my object to establish an
311 exact correspondence . . . Therefore to make the correspondence
1 between the horizontal axis and the elements of the myth appear to
2 be exact would be a falsification that obscured the nature of the
3 myth” (ibid., pp. 65–66). Bion considers, in relation to the horizon-
4 tal axis, the following elements:
5
6 (1) (Category 1) The Oracle’s account of the story of the myth
7 cn be considered as a definitory hypothesis, similar to a
8 pre-conception or an unsaturated element, that progres-
911 sively saturates as the story unfolds.
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O 203

111 (2) (Category 2) The warning given by Tiresias, who was

2 blinded because of his attack on the snakes he had seen mat-
3 ing, can represent a false hypothesis as a defence against the
4 anxiety generated by incidents in the myth.
5 (3) (Category 3) The Sphinx’s riddle can signify at the same
6 time, a menace and a stimulation to curiosity; representing
711 the Freudian concept of attention.
8 (4) (Category 5) Because Oedipus pursues the investigation
9 with arrogance, he can be guilty of hubris or exaggerated
10 pride, a behaviour that could be considered as a symbol of
1 scientific integrity or instrument of investigation or inquiry.
2 (5) (Category 6) The unfolding of the myth itself might stand
3 for action of column 6, represented either by Oedipus’ exile
4 or the dispersion of the characters, or both. To these ele-
5 ments could be added a series of disasters: the plague that
6 attacked Thebes, the suicides of the Sphinx and Jocasta,
7 Oedipus’ blindness, the slaying of king Laius, the original
8 riddle introduced by the monster, or an object made by a
9 number of characteristics that are incongruent with each
211 other (ibid., pp. 46–47).
1
2 Following Plutarch, Bion attempts an association between the
3 triangulation of the complex and the triangle rectangle as presented
4 by Euclid’s theorem of the “Bride’s chair”. He also uses the theo-
5 rem of “Pons Ansinorum” about the isosceles triangle, and an
6 ancient description of this triangle as “the three-kneed thing with
7 equal legs”. Plutarch had stated that the triangle rectangle can be
8 equated to the triangulation made by both parents represented by
9 the sides of the right angle and the child by the hypotenuse. Onians
30 (1951) also stated that the Greeks considered the term “knee”
1 equally to represent the angles of the triangle as well as the genitals.
2
3 Omniscience: Incapacity to tolerate frustration can obstruct the
4 foundation of an apparatus to think thoughts. But if frustration
5 is tolerated the mating between a conception and its realization is
6 feasible, making it possible to learn from experience. Between
7 these two extremes there can be an intermediary stage, in which
8 frustration intolerance is not so great as to activate mechanisms of
911 evasion, but important enough to determine a control of reality. In
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204 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 this case, omnipotence is stimulated as a substitute for mating the

2 preconception with the conception. Bion states that omniscience
3 will take the place of both the capacity to learn from experience
4 with the use of thinking, as well as the mental ability that enables
5 discrimination between true and false. In this sense, omniscience
6 will represent a dictatorial and capricious intention, outside of
7 every scientific logic, to discriminate between true and false, as can
8 be observed in magic or religion (1967, pp. 114–118).
9
10 Opacity: A concept that contrasts with transparence, representing a
1 saturated mental state due to opacities such as memory, desire and
2 understanding, capable of generating states of turbulence, that may
3 interfere with the capacity to intuit O during analytic listening.
4
5 Organs of perception: see: Perception, organs of.
6
711 Origin: see O.
8
9 Oscillations of Dependent basic assumption: Emotional oscilla-
20 tions present in a group dominated by a dependent basic assump-
1 tion (Dba), between the therapist leader of a working group
2 (W) and the accidental leader chosen in a given Dba, the latter
3 usually being represented by a disturbed individual. Emotional
4 oscillations produced between both situations can generate high
511 levels of anxiety that if not properly contained by the therapist, get
6 extended to other larger groups. For example, the need of a small
7 therapeutic group (or any other kind), to write to hospital authori-
8 ties, the press, the Congress or even the President. See: basic
9 assumptions, Dba, Fba, Pba, group, valence, schism.
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 205

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 P
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Pairing basic assumption (Pba): It is based on the creation of a
1 couple, whose union would produce an idea or a messianic leader,
2 who will finally put an end, in a future not too far off, to all suffer-
3 ing produced by feelings of hopelessness, hate, and destruction.
4 However, in order for this to be feasible, there is the ineluctable
5 paradox that the leader would never be born, that is, the hope must
6 stay in suspense, and it should always remain as such: “pure hope”.
7 At the very moment when it is felt that the idea or leader can
8 become a reality, feelings of anger and destruction will again pre-
9 dominate (1948b, pp. 151–152). Under the dominance of this kind
30 of ba, feelings of messianic hope will prevail. These feelings can
1 also be observed outside the therapeutic group, for example in
2 religious beliefs or in the aristocracy, and in some sense, assures
3 Bion, in the analytic couple (ibid., p. 176). A good example is given
4 by Bion in presentation No. 4 of his Brazilian seminars (1987,
5 pp. 19–24). See: Basic assumptions, Work group (W), Dependent
6 ba, Fight–flight ba, Group, Valence.
7
8 Palinurus, death of: Bion uses the death of Palinurus narrated by
911 Virgil at the end of the Aeneid’s 5th book, as a metaphor to explain

205
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206 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 the danger faced by the analyst when he is not ready to give up
2 memory, desire, and understanding during analytical listening.
3
4 After the storm, Aeneas had ordered all the sails to be raised and
Palinurus to steer the pilot vessel ahead of the fleet. The sailors
5
exhausted lay on the benches to rest. As Palinurus sat watching the
6
stars, Somnus (Hypnos or Dream) sent by Neptune approached in
7 the guise of Phorbas and said: “Palinurus, the breeze is fair, the
8 water smooth and the ship sails steadily on her course. Lie down
9 awhile and take needful rest. I will stand at the helm in your place.”
10 Palinurus replied: “Tell me not of smooth seas or favouring winds,
1 I who have seen so much of their treachery”. And continues hold-
2 ing tied the helm and watching the stars. But Somnus waves over
3 him a branch moistened with Lethaean dew, and his eyes closed in
4 spite of all his efforts. Then Somnus pushed him overboard and he
fell. When Aeneas discovered his loss he weeps with sorrow for the
5
fate of his loved steersman.46
6
711 The metaphor is used to explain the danger of remaining stub-
8 bornly harnessed to memory and desire as Palinurus did with the
9 helm. Perhaps, argues Bion, this attitude might be contrary to the
20
1 . . . conventions of ordinary medical practice to be unaware of
2 so many and such apparently important items in the family and
3 individual history, and it would leave the psychoanalyst open to
4 attack on the grounds of negligence should something go wrong.
[1977a, p. 15]
511
6 At another moment he stated:
7
8 I do not make notes in a session or afterwards so that it is open to
9 anyone to object that the account cannot be true. [ibid., p. 14]
311
1 He argues, however, that it would be even:
2
. . . less true if mechanisms had been devised which seemed to
3 record and repeat whatever was to be thus preserved (ibid. p. 14)
4 . . . Naturally psychoanalytic colleagues would like to have evi-
5 dence; naturally I would like to give evidence. But with the passage
6 of time I am convinced that there is no substitute for psychoanaly-
7 sis. [ibid., p. 22]
8
911 46
Publius Vergilius Maro, The Aeneid, Book V, pp. 826–871.
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P 207

111 More important than to provide evidence is to psychoanalyse

2 without memory or desire, an exercise that will leave no more evi-
3 dence than what privately takes place between the analyst and the
4 patient. It is obvious that Bion is also referring to the mechanism of
5 at-one-ment with O, transformation of O into K and act of faith.
6
711 Paranoid–schizoid and depressive position: Bion refers to both of
8 Klein’s positions very similarly to the way she has described them.
9 D is regarded as an integrated object or “agglomeration produced
10 by the convergence of elementary particles” (1963, pp. 42–43), on
1 -elements, “or as a special instance of integrated objects” (ibid.,
2 p. 42) like either  or . In this form Bion connects PS D with
3 the theory of thinking, meaning a transformation from an “uncer-
4 tainty cloud”47 of primary particles representing the paranoid–
5 schizoid position, to -elements, and then into  or . The move-
6 ment is also reversible and the object thus formed could “become
7 fragmented and disperse” (ibid.). PSD could assume a form of
8 operation similar to  and vice versa; while the former provides a
9 “delineation” of the whole object, the latter provides meaning
211 (1963, p.90):
1
2 . . . I have tried to show that PSD and  are not to be
regarded as representing a realization of two separate activities but
3
as mechanisms each of which can at need assume the characteris-
4
tics of the other. [ibid., p. 44]
5
6 Such a correlation is easy to follow in relation to D, but if applied
7 to PS, it would then present a certain difficulty, because it would
8 be hard to conceive PS as conforming either with or , some-
9 thing Bion attempts to convey by the use of an imaginary clinical
30 description. An incoherent discourse from a patient (= PS = ),
1 states Bion, will induce a countertransference response from the
2 analyst as a container ( ); however, what is important in this
3 communication is not the patient’s incoherence, but the capacity
4 of the analyst to be exposed to such incoherence, meaning to
5 take the place of the . The movement from PS to D is negotiated
6
7
8 47
It is quite possible that with the expression of “uncertainty cloud”, Bion
911 is borrowing from quantum theory, from Heisenberg’s “uncertainty principle”.
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208 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 during dreams48 (1992, p. 37) and will depend on the existence
2 of a selected fact that may lead the process of integration from one
3 position to the other (ibid., p. 213).
4 Meltzer (1978) criticizes Bion for restricting the concept of posi-
5 tions PSD to the status of a mechanical condition related only
6 to “disintegration–integration” interactions, rather than providing
7 them with an economic sense—as Klein did—related to value
8 attitudes (p. 75). See: Progression and regression, thoughts; verbal
9 thoughts; thinking, apparatus for.
10
1 Parasitic relationship: A kind of interaction between “container”
2 () and “contained” (), where one element depends on the other
3 to produce a third one that will destroy the three of them (1970,
4 pp. 95–96). A man, for instance, wishes to communicate his anger,
5 but ends up feeling so overtaken by the emotion, that he begins stut-
6 tering and becomes incoherent. In this case, the language will be the
711 container, the anger the contained and the “incoherence”—which
8 destroys communication—the third (ibid., p. 104). The language, not
9 being able to contain the emotion he intended to express only with
20 words, ends up dispersing and abandoning the attempt to express
1 what he originally wished to say. Or expressed in a different way, his
2 attempt to use his tongue to express himself verbally, fails to contain
3 his wish and he ends up stammering as an expression of masturbat-
4 ing inside his mouth (ibid., pp. 93–94). Envy, jealousy and induced
511 possession would be the mental equivalents of the toxic elements
6 found in physical parasitism. Within this kind of parasitic relation-
7 ship, thoughts contained by a thinker would be false by defini-
8 tion—for truth does not require a thinker—and would be used as a
9 barrier against truth, which in turn is experienced as dangerous and
311 destructive of the container.
1
2 Part objects: A kind of object relation that according to Klein (1946)
3 rules the paranoid–schizoid position, and represents the form in
4 which the mind arranges itself within this position, the way
5 it relates to the outside world and with itself. Following Bion, this
6 form of relation or link is established not so much on the corporeal
7
8
911 48
See: López-Corvo, 1987.
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P 209

111 aspect of things, but also in relation to the functions, not so much on
2 the anatomy of the breast, but on the physiology of nutrition, loving,
3 hating, poisoning, etc. (1967, p. 102). For a child, a word, for instance
4 “dirty”, can mean everything that he dislikes, or that bothers or
5 threatens him. This helps us to understand what takes place when a
6 patient says, for instance: “it seems” instead of saying “I think” or “I
711 believe”. “It seems” corresponds to a feeling, “an ‘it seems’ feeling”
8 and not to the quality of “thinking” or “believing” as the expression
9 of a “total object” capable of thinking or believing (ibid., pp. 101–102).
10 At this level of communication, to ask “why” makes no sense, for
1 because of to guilt, it has been split off and expelled. For instance,
2 patients seldom question themselves, for they have a tendency to
3 believe that the analyst has created the problems they are dealing
4 with. They lack the conception of totality and therefore are not capa-
5 ble of thinking about problems, not to mention solving them, when
6 awareness of reality is needed. There is not, in other words, a con-
7 ception of totality and those problems depending on awareness of
8 causality, cannot be introduced and even less, resolved.
9 Another important aspect is related to the kind of link between
211 part objects. Bion states that relationship between part objects, such
1 as the baby (mouth) and the breast, is established by means of pro-
2 jective identifications and the capacity to introject them. A failure
3 in this latter capacity could induce in the baby the feeling that the
4 object is hostile to curiosity and might interfere with any disposi-
5 tion towards learning and growth (ibid., p. 108). “The result is an
6 object which, when installed in the patient, exercises the function
7 of a severe and ego-destructive superego” (ibid., p. 107). Bion states
8 that this object is experienced as a total object that will obstruct the
9 movement from paranoid–schizoid or part object relationships to
30 depressive or total object relationships.
1
2 Passion: By passion or its absence, Bion describes an emotion expe-
3 rienced with intensity and warmth though without any insinuation
4 of violence, unless it is associated with greed. He includes L, H and
5 K as well as dimensions emanating from them. Although passion
6 always links two minds, it must be differentiated from counter-
7 transference, because in this last case it would mean repression of
8 a latent content. Passion cannot be evidenced by the senses, because
911 often an emotion can really hide some other affect, as apparent hate
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210 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 can mask love or vice versa, or elation might conceal depression
2 (1963, pp. 12–13).
3 Meltzer (1986) states that passion can induce turbulence or a
4 catastrophic change because of the impact that novel emotions
5 might have on already existing affects, such as the passionate love
6 observed in adolescents (pp. 187–190)
7
8 Patience: Term used by Bion to describe a state analogous to Klein’s
9 notion of the paranoid–schizoid position, although free from its
10 pathological components but retaining “its association with suffer-
1 ing and tolerance of frustration.” He immediately quotes Keats:49
2 “Patience should be retained without ‘irritable reaching after fact
3 and reason’ until a pattern evolves” (1970, p. 124). The “pattern”
4 will evolve towards the depressive position, and for this state, says
5 Bion, “I use the term security. This I mean to leave with its associ-
6 ations of safety and diminished anxiety.” (ibid.) The move between
711 patience and security should be very brief, as in the final stages of
8 analysis, although it could also be very long. Bion does not believe
9 it is possible for an analyst to believe that he or she has done the
20 necessary work to provide an interpretation, unless he has passed
1 through both phases. I think Bion is referring to the patience and
2 capacity to tolerate frustration, for an analyst must deal with uncer-
3 tainties induced in analysis by object relations of the kind experi-
4 enced in the paranoid–schizoid position, in contrast with the feeling
511 of certitude, stimulated by the security provided by object relations
6 that takes place during the depressive position. See: Paranoid–
7 schizoid position, Security.
8
9 Pba: see: Pairing (group) basic assumption.
311
1 Pellucidity: Represents an unsaturated mental state, which allows
2 perception or intuition of reality, for instance, during analytic
3 listening. It is opposite to states of “opacity” that are induced by
4 memory, desire or understanding and are capable of inducing
5 turbulence (1992, pp. 315–316).
6
7 49
The fragment of Keats’ letter from which Bion has quoted, can be found
8 in the description of “Negative Capability”, in the last chapter of Bion’s book,
911 Attention and Interpretation (1970).
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P 211

111 When the noumena, the things themselves, push forward so far
2 that they meet an object [a realization] which we can call a human
3 mind [for instance] . . . The religious man would say, “There is, in
4 reality, God”. What Freud and psychoanalysts have investigated is
phenomena. [1974, p. 41]
5
6
711 Through realization we meet the unknown, the thing-in-itself,
8 representing what Bion, on the other hand has referred to as turbu-
9 lence, that is, the capacity to produce opacity in order to make
10 visible what has been so far invisible. See: Turbulence, Opacity,
1 Memory, Desire, Thing-in-itself, Noumena, Phenomena, Fraun-
2 hofer lines.
3
4 Perception, apparatus of: Originally Bion identifies “apparatus of
5 perception” with “conscious awareness”. In 1956 he stated:
6
. . . attacks are directed against the apparatus of perception from the
7
beginning of life. This part of his personality is cut up, split into
8
minute fragments, and then, using the projective identification,
9 expelled from the personality. Having thus rid himself of the
211 apparatus of conscious awareness of internal and external reality,
1 the patient achieves a state which is felt to be neither alive nor
2 dead. [1967, p. 38]
3
4 Freud had described the apparatus of perception as a set of
5 activities produced by demands from the reality principle. For
6 Bion this apparatus is connected with verbal thoughts and with
7 whatever it might have produced since the time of its inchoation
8 (1967, p. 38). In psychotic patients, or in the psychotic part of the
9 personality, there is an Id attack against sense organs and against
30 consciousness attached to them; there is also a great hatred towards
1 reality, something already pointed out by Freud (1924). In these
2 patients, the reality principle is never achieved, because all
3 attempts towards the integration of the conception of a total object
4 cannot be reached because consciousness of reality induces guilt
5 feelings and depression associated to the process of reparation pre-
6 sent in the depressive position (See: Verbal thoughts). Psychotic
7 patients directed their attacks against those ego aspects (apparatus
8 of perception) necessary to link internal and external realities. See:
911 Link, attack on, and Cs.
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212 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Perception in reverse: Mechanism that, according to Bion, is used

2 to perceive backwardly from outside objects, whatever had already
3 been projected into them that will come back by the same path, but
4 in the opposite direction. Bion has used this mechanism to explain
5 the dynamic present in hallucinations, delusions and the creation
6 of bizarre objects. See: projective identification in reverse.
7
8 Perception, organs of: Bion uses contributions from Adrian (1947),
9 who states that the first sensations perceived are from light rays and
10 sound vibrations, both considered perception from a distance and
1 linked to development of intelligence. They differ from touch
2 and other corporal sensations, which are considered close- and
3 middle-range receptors related to immediate transformation into
4 action. All of these perceptions operate automatically without any
5 intervention of consciousness. Receptors of distance, such as sight,
6 sound, smell, intuition, etc, are associated with the development of
711 intelligence and wisdom, while middle-range receptors, such as
8 bowel and bladder senses, or immediate-range like touch or sex, are
9 to do with action (1992, pp. 321–322). Bion also considered the suc-
20 cessive steps in which an original visual perception changes into a
1 sense of taste, for instance, or the way in which the vision of an
2 object is progressively transformed into a mental representation,
3 like the visual perception of a horse, which is primarily changed
4 into an ideogram, then into a word, a thought or -element until it
511 reaches the ineffable, the thing-in-itself and O (ibid., p. 325).
6
7 Personification:50 Concept originally used by Klein (1929) to
8 describe a form of identification observed in children, who provided
9 objects of play with characteristics of real or imaginary persons.
311 “Personification, ubiquitous in all plays”, said Hinshelwood
1 (1989) “led Klein to the view that all mental activity is conceived
2 with relationships between personified objects” (p. 389). Bion used
3 the term in the “Imaginary twin” when he referred to “personifica-
4 tion” given by his patients to a split-off part of the personality con-
5 ceived as a phantasied twin. He explains that personification can
6 be considered as an expression of improvement in the capacity to
7
8 50
I am grateful to Dr Paolo Polito (2001) for his suggestions in relation to
911 the concept of “personification”.
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P 213

111 symbolize (ibid., p. 20) and as a consequence, it represents “hopeful-

2 ness about the outcome of the analysis” (1967, p. 16). See: Imaginary
3 twin, Splitting.
4
5 Phenomenon: Kant defines phenomenon as everything that pre-
6 sents itself to the senses; it contains two aspects: (a) what belongs
711 to the external object which he called “sensation”; and (b) what
8 belongs to our apparatus of perception capable of ordering what-
9 ever is perceived, which he called “form”. Noumena, on the other
10 hand, are objects of which we have no sensible intuition and hence
1 no knowledge at all, they are things-in-themselves, and in a posi-
2 tive sense, can be conceived as objects of intellectual intuition, a
3 mode of knowledge which man does not possess. Platonic Ideas
4 and Forms are “noumena”, while phenomena represent the result
5 of an aprioristic conception of the noumena, meaning the capacity to
6 know about the unknown. For Bion, the “phenomenon” is trans-
7 formed into a representation such as T, which could also be con-
8 ceived of as a representation of O in individual experience, or
9 transformation of O into K in psychoanalytic listening, or from
211 noumenon to phenomenon by means of a realization, or God into
1 Godhead in mystical terms. Bion states:
2
3 As I understand the term, various phenomena, such as the appear-
4 ance of a beautiful object, are significant not because they are beau-
tiful or good but because they serve to “remind” the beholder of the
5
beauty or the good which was once, but no longer is, known. This
6
object, of which the phenomenon serves as a reminder, is a Form.
7
[1965, p. 138]
8
9 The Form or the noumenon, says Bion, can also be presented in
30 mystical terms like God in the Godhead (or O in K), considered as
1 a “spiritual substance, so elemental that we can say nothing about
2 it” (1965, p. 139). “In this view”, continues Bion, “God is regarded
3 as a Person independent of the human mind . . . the phenomenon
4 does not ‘remind’ the individual of the Form but enables the per-
5 son to achieve union with an incarnation of the Godhead, or the
6 thing-in-it self.” Forms and Incarnation give the:
7
8 . . . suggestion that there is an ultimate reality with which it is pos-
911 sible to have direct contact although in both it appears that each
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214 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 direct contact is possible only after submission to an exacting disci-

2 pline of relationships with phenomena, in one configuration, and
3 incarnate Godhead in the other. (ibid.)
4
Bion presents a similar mechanism in relation to the concept of O.
5
See: O, Form, Godhead, Meister Eckhart, thing-in-itself.
6
7
Place where something was: see: Awareness; Space; Geometric
8
space; Euclid, geometry of; line, point, no-thing, no-breast.
9
10
Platonic forms: see: Forms, theory of.
1
2
Point (.): Euclid defined the point as something indivisible that con-
3
tains no parts, while others subsequently described it as “a place
4
without extension”, “a geometric entity without dimensions”, “a
5
line’s limit”, “infinite elements”, etc. The word στιγµη (stigma) with
6
which Plato originally labelled it means “instant” or “point”.51 Bion
711
used it to represent the “absence of the breast”, perhaps because in
8
its Greek conception the word “point” conjugates both dimensions
9
of time and space: instant, moment, stigma or trail (1965, p. 53). If
20
the point represents the absence of the object, “no-breast” or “no-
1
penis”, etc., and if we were to use the theory of thinking, then the
2
point would represent a pre-conception related to K (row D in the
3
Grid) (ibid., p. 77). But if we regard the “point” as a spot, it can then
4
be conceived of as a conjunction of part objects representing an
511
absence–presence, such as breast, penis, faeces or a cruel and
6
malignant persecutor (ibid., p. 78). It could mean “the place where”,
7
“the time when”, or a “stage of growth” (ibid., p. 119).
8
Words stand for thoughts, they are the void of the thing, or the
9
“no-thing” and can be represented by a (.), which can signify the
311
place or trail where the breast used to be, or the “no-breast” (ibid.,
1
p. 82). In relation to time, it could then mean “where the present
2
was” (ibid., p. 86). In the Grid it would correspond to category A1.
3
Similar to the “line”, the point represents a visual image that
4
remains invariable in spite of many situations. Minus point (.)
5
is equivalent to the place where the object “that is not” (absent), is;
6
7
8 51
In English both meanings are condensed in the word “period”, besides
911 “dot” and “spot” (Bion, 1965, p. 78).
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P 215

111 which for not been, is; or the place where “not being” would always
2 be. It is exactly the situation that takes place in the transference. See:
3 Circle, Line, no-thing, no-breast.
4
5 Point of view: see: Vertex.
6
711 Point-pair: Would correspond to two different points located on a
8 line in a system of coordinates. Bion uses this concept in relation to
9 the theory of transformation, together with other mathematical
10 concepts such as “number and “conjugate complex”, to establish
1 a “geometrical” relationship between points corresponding to inter-
2 nal and external realities, or between unconscious and conscious
3 contents or present and absent objects (1965, pp. 86, 103). See:
4 Complex conjugates, number, Circle.
5
6 Pons Asinorum: Name given to Euclid’s theorem 1.5 depicting the
7 demonstration of an isosceles triangle, according to which the base
8 angles are equal to each other because they are congruent with their
9 mirror image. Epicurus gave this theorem the name of “Pons
211 Asinorum”, which means “The Asses’ bridge”, because the com-
1 plex picture drawn by Euclid during its demonstration resembles a
2 bridge, which contrasts with its simplicity, to the point that
3 Epicurus stated that anybody who tried to “cross it”, meaning to
4 solve it, was an ass.
5 Bion attempts a relationship between the Oedipus myth and
6 Pythagoras’ theorem as well as Euclid’s geometry and paranoid–
7 schizoid and depressive positions. These comparisons are pro-
8 posed in his book “Cogitations” in an extremely dense and cryptic
9 style, as if he were emulating the Sphinx itself. In relation to
30 Pythagoras, for instance, he stated:
1
The side subtending the right angle: the sides containing the right
2
angle. How much can be obtained by ignoring the figure, the dia-
3
gram, except in so far as it serves a function—like that of the mate-
4 rial of a sculpture by Henry Moore—in framing the place where
5 there is no material? To act as a boundary to the open space, that is
6 to say the part where the figure is not. Then the squares on the sides
7 containing, and the squares on the side subtending, the right angle
8 serve to enclose the triangle—the “three-kneed thing”, but also the
911 right angle. The construction is a trap for light. [1992, p. 206]
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216 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 In this rather enigmatic communication, Bion invites us to ignore

2 the diagram, that is, the mathematical aspect of the theorem, and con-
3 centrate on what is enclosed, for instance, the Oedipus myth: in a
4 right-angled triangle there are the two sides forming the right angle,
5 that would represent both parents (e.g. vertical = father, and hori-
6 zontal = mother), while the opposite side or hypotenuse would rep-
7 resent the son. The “three-kneed thing” refers to the interpretation
8 apparently given by the Greeks to the triangle, when they considered
9 that the angles that put together all the sides, that is, father, mother,
10 and son, were equivalent to the genitals. Bion says something simi-
1 lar when he states that “Euclid 1.5 marks the point at which the ‘ele-
2 ments’ of geometry are left behind when the student crosses the
3 Pons” (ibid.). In other words, in order to avoid being an ass, the con-
4 tent of the figure must be ignored and attention must be directed to
5 its meaning; only then would the trapped light escape, and thus the
6 Pons would finally be crossed—or the theorem properly under-
711 stood—without having, as Epicurus announced, to be an ass.
8 Bion also refers to Pythagoras’ theorem known as the “Bride’s
9 Chair”, because its demonstration resembles, according to the
20 Arabs, a horse riding chair used to carry the bride. It has also been
1 said that the French referred to this theorem by the name of Pons
2 Asinorum, something questioned by Bion who assures us that this
3 last one corresponds to No. 5 of Book 1 and represents the theorem
4 of the isosceles triangle, while the Bride’s theorem represents a
511 right-angled triangle, which corresponds to Book 13, No. 47 (ibid.,
6 p. 207).
7
8 Positions, the: Concept used by Bion to refer not to both positions
9 D, (1992, p. 207), but to something in
as described by Klein: PS
311 between:
1
For convenience I propose to call this state, which is neither the
2
paranoid–schizoid position nor yet the depressive position but
3 something of each, the Positions. [ibid., p. 215]
4
5 Positive growth: see: Growth
6
7 Pre-conception: Bion discriminates between pre-conception and
8 preconception. The former he describes as part of the Grid’s verti-
911 cal axis, corresponding to row D, that is, to the existence of a desire
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P 217

111 in demand of a realization. The latter, on the other hand, refers to

2 premonition and represents a theory belonging to Grid columns 3
3 and 4; for instance, when an analyst has the presentiment that
4 something is taking place in the session that he is not completely
5 aware of (1963, p. 75). Thoughts, says Bion, can be classified accord-
6 ing to the nature of their developmental history, as pre-conceptions,
711 conceptions and concepts (1967, p. 111). Pre-conception would be
8 analogous to Kant’s notion of “empty thoughts”, a state of expec-
9 tation (1962, p. 91) comparable with the supposition that the baby
10 has an innate or a priori disposition towards the breast; in other
1 words, when the baby (pre-concept) gets in touch with the breast, a
2 realization takes place, that is translated into a concept and repre-
3 sents for Bion a kind of container–contained relationship. “Concep-
4 tions therefore will be expected to be constantly conjoined with an
5 emotional experience of satisfaction” (1967, p. 111) The classical
6 concept of “instinct” could be intuited behind Bion’s notion of pre-
7 conception. See: Conceptions, Concepts, Realization, Thoughts.
8
9 Precursors: Used by Bion to refer to feelings that can act as precur-
211 sors of other emotions, like for instance “if the hate that a patient is
1 experiencing is a precursor of love its virtue as an element resides
2 in its quality as a precursor of love and not in its being hate. And
3 so for all other emotions” (1963, p. 74). See: “Premotions, Premoni-
4 tions”.
5
6 Premonition: Represents an “emotional state rather than an
7 ideational content”, because the latter would be better characterized
8 by a pre-conception. “I do not dissociate ‘pre-monition’”, said Bion,
9 “from its association with a sense of warning and anxiety”; meaning
30 that premonitions could be interpreted as precursors of the emo-
1 tions. Directly observed, emotional states are meaningful only if they
2 can be conceived as premonitions; for instance countertransference
3 anxiety can be interpreted as a premonition capable of guiding the
4 analyst in his/her investigation and finally help to structure the
5 interpretation: “If premonitions cannot be experienced”, states Bion,
6 “ correct interpretation becomes difficult for the analyst to give and
7 difficult for the analysand to grasp”. In this sense premonition
8 appears to be related to other important concepts such as O or
911 hallucinosis. Bion also interchanges premonition with “premotion”.
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218 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 As a “psychoanalytic element” premonition could be repre-

2 sented as follows: (Anxiety ()), where  stands for an unsaturated
3 element.
4
5 Premotion: Bion uses this word without giving any definition. He
6 mentioned it twice in Chapter Sixteen of Elements of Psycho-Analysis
7 (1963, pp. 75–76), where he says: “. . . when a patient comes for a
8 first consultation his premotions (my italics) give information about
9 him that cannot be obtained from other factors” (ibid., p. 75). Per-
10 haps he was referring to feelings that can be intuitively grasped by
1 the analyst. A few lines later, he says:
2
3 I do not dissociate “pre-monition” from its association with a sense
4 of warning and anxiety. The feeling of anxiety is of value in guid-
5 ing the analyst to recognize the premotion in the material. The
6 premonition can therefore be represented by (Anxiety ()) where ()
is an unsaturated element. [1963, p. 76]
711
8
9 There are doubts whether “premotion” is a printing misspelling
20 for “premonition” or a neologism implying a condition previous to
1 an emotional state. However, there still remains the question of
2 why he did not use something like “pre-emotions” instead. Bian-
3 chedi (2001, personal communication) has expressed a similar opin-
4 ion. Meotti (2001, personal communication), had called attention to
511 the meaning given by followers of St Thomas Aquinas (“Thomists”)
6 who used the term “premotion” to refer to some kind of “motion”
7 emanating from God’s omniscience, as a form of causality and used
8 upon people to move them through their apparent freedom. They
9 have referred to it as a “physical premotion” (proemotio physica).
311 Based on this definition, Gooch (2001) put forward an interesting
1 hypothesis:
2
I think the premotion of the analysand stimulates the premotion of
3
the analyst or parent. The premotion may be the beta element and
4 the premonition the dawning of the corresponding alpha-function
5 or element that is required for psychic awareness (secondary
6 process, reality principle, signal affect, ego function) to develop,
7 in contradistinction to discharge (pleasure principle, primary
8 process, evacuation, somatization, acting-out, symptom formation).
911 [Personal communication]
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P 219

111 Primary and secondary splitting: Klein described as “primary split-

2 ting” a process present during the paranoid–schizoid position.
3 Bion on the other hand, refers to “secondary splitting” as the one
4 that takes place when psychotic patients, during analysis, regress to
5 the paranoid–schizoid position after having reached the depressive-
6 position. When this happen, says Bion, the patient turns with great
711 anger and anxiety against those fragments that were capable of fus-
8 ing together to create total objects during the depressive position,
9 and splits them again with such strength and violence, that any
10 possibilities of ego reparation become inaccessible and therefore the
1 prospect of recovering is impossible (1967, pp. 80–81). The conse-
2 quence of this condition is an attack against the pre-conceptions, or
3 against the thinking apparatus that would allow the conception
4 of the relationship between both parents as well as the understand-
5 ing of the Oedipus complex (1965, p. 60).
6
7 Primary qualities: see: Qualities, primary and secondary.
8
9 Prisoner: Similarly to the way in which the baby feels he has sadis-
211 tically attacked and destroyed the breast, psychotic patients, or
1 within the psychotic part of the personality, sense impressions can
2 also be attacked and mutilated. As a consequence, the person feels
3 a “prisoner” inside such a mental state and believes he is not able
4 to free himself from it, because the mind, which represents the
5 means and ends of escape, has become impoverished and lacks
6 the capacity to be conscious of reality (1967, p. 51). The feeling of
7 being a prisoner increases under the threat from those projected ele-
8 ments, that are part of the constellation by which the patient feels
9 contained.
30 Some time later Bion (1970) stated that when analysts do not
1 free themselves from memory and desire, they face the danger of
2 inducing in the patient the phantasy of being prisoner inside the
3 analyst’s desire, something that can be observed in patients in
4 whom “false self” pathology predominates, that is, when the other
5 person’s wish is privileged over the analysand’s own desire.
6
7 Progression and regression: Represents a form of oscillation
8 between the paranoid–schizoid and the depressive position and
911 vice versa, which can be observed between the psychotic and the
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220 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 non-psychotic parts of the personality. Progression would face the

2 danger of depression and guilt from reparation of destroyed
3 objects. Regression, on the other hand, can imply danger of suicide,
4 secondary fragmentation, and total deterioration (1967, p. 81).
5
6 The Positions are not to be regarded simply as features of infancy,
7 and the transition from paranoid-schizoid to depressive position as
8 something that is achieved once for all during infancy, but as a con-
9 tinuously active process once its mechanism has been successfully
10 established in the early months. [1992, pp. 199–200]
1
2 When this movement between both directions is not established
3 early, growth can be defective and deprive individuals of the
4 healthy capacity to have progressions and regressions at their dis-
5 position (ibid., p. 200). This mechanism could also be considered to
6 be related to formation and use of thoughts, similar to the relation-
711 ship between container–contained () where their functions can
8 be interchanged (1963, p. 44). It could also be understood as an inter-
9 action between a dispersion of particles with feelings of persecution
20 (PS), on the one hand, and integration of particles with feelings of
1 depression (D) on the other (ibid., p. 52). Bion states that PSD
2 organizes the object while  provides meaning (ibid., p. 90). See:
3 Depressive position.
4
511 Projective identification: Bion used this concept following closely
6 on from what Klein had previously stated, adding that it could also
7 have represented a very primitive form of thinking and communi-
8 cation, phylogenetic as well as ontogenetic (1962, p. 37; 1963, p. 37).
9 He emphasizes the importance of this mechanism in psychotic
311 patients and in the psychotic part of the personality, where it is
1 used to evacuate ego aspects, such as the apparatus of perception or
2 verbal thoughts. In these kind of patients, projective identification
3 takes the place of repression (1967, p. 52), because as we shall see
4 next, these patients have the need to split and evacuate the appara-
5 tus on which the psyche depends to carry out repression, and the
6 unconscious seems to be replaced by a world similar to dream fur-
7 niture (ibid.). In his theory of thinking, Bion established that
8 thoughts result from the experience between the pre-conception of
911 the breast the baby brings with him at birth, and its realization after
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P 221

111 he begins to feed. When the breast is available and the need satis-
2 fied, it will give place to a conception of the present breast or “good
3 breast”. But if there is the need and the breast is absent (no-breast) it
4 would give place to a “negative realization” and then two possibili-
5 ties can follow: (a) frustration is tolerated and will promote the com-
6 mencement of thinking about the absent breast; (b) frustration is not
711 tolerated, inducing the need to expel to avoid frustration—which is
8 experienced as the presence of bad objects—by means of mecha-
9 nisms of projective identification. Such evacuation, proposes Bion,
10 is experienced as the “substance of a good object”, because it allevi-
1 ates tension, something that will stimulate further evacuation with
2 the use of more projective identifications. At the end, concludes
3 Bion, it is felt that:
4
5 the appropriate machinery is . . . not an apparatus for thinking the
6 thoughts, but an apparatus for ridding the psyche of accumulations
7 of bad internal objects. The crux lies in the decision between modifi-
8 cation or evasion of frustration. [ibid., p. 112]
9
211 Bion believed that when Klein referred to “excessive projective
1 identifications”, she was not only talking about frequency, but also
2 about an excess of omnipotence in its use (ibid., p. 114).
3
4 Projective identification in reverse: A mechanism described by
5 Bion to explain how psychotic patients are capable of introjecting
6 or incorporating concepts or mental content coming from outside,
7 similar to the way in which interpretations attempt to help under-
8 stand the nature of their delusions, if they lack an apparatus for
9 thinking thoughts. “These objects”, he said, “are brought back by
30 the same route as that by which they were expelled” (1967, p. 61).
1 Because the apparatus for thinking has been split, mutilated,
2 and projected inside the external objects, patients lack an apparatus
3 for introjection, making them perceived interpretations given equal-
4 ity with projective identifications that assault and split them, per-
5 haps as revenge coming from those objects where they feel they have
6 placed their own projections. Also, because those re-incorporated
7 particles have the character of “things”, it makes it difficult for them
8 to figure them out (ibid., p. 62). Bion illustrates this mechanism with
911 a patient who said that he used his “intestine as a brain”, and when
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222 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Bion told him that “he had swallowed something”, the patient
2 answered that “The intestine doesn’t swallow”. Because the patient
3 cannot synthesize his objects to re-introject them, he would have to
4 agglomerate and compress them, and as a consequence, perceive
5 them as concrete things, as bizarre objects or ideograms, that he will
6 use in order to communicate with others (ibid., pp. 40–41, 61). See:
7 Psychosis, Psychotic and non-psychotic part of the personality,
8 Ideogram.
9
10 Projective transformations: Concept borrowed from projective
1 geometry and used by Bion to describe a kind of transformation
2 opposite to “transformations in rigid movement”, because the
3 deformations that result in the transformation (T) of the original
4 object are so immense, that it makes it difficult or impossible to
5 recognize the original elements in the end results (T). In relation
6 to the patient it would mean that the material presented is so dis-
711 torted, that an identification of the end products of projective iden-
8 tifications, present in the transference as well as in Op (patient’s
9 O), are almost impossible to recognize, and as a consequence, the
20 interpretation would be highly speculative (1965, p. 19). This kind
1 of transformation is observed in psychotic patients and corre-
2 sponds to categories in file A of the Grid (ibid., pp. 36, 114). Meltzer
3 (1978) associates this kind of transformation with Klein’s concepts
4 about “early transference”, based on part objects, internal objects,
511 splitting, and projective identification (p. 73). See: Transformation
6 in rigid movement, Transformations, Transformations in halluci-
7 nosis, Projective identification.
8
9 Proto-mental system: Initially Bion used this concept in relation to
311 group dynamics, in order to describe the existence of “undifferen-
1 tiated feelings” or a “potential state” preceding the emergence of a
2 basic assumption (ba) (1948b, pp. 101–102). It can be considered as
3 the system or matrix where differentiation of physical and mental
4 states began. It contains precursors for emotions present in all basic
5 assumptions, including those that remain latent. When any of the
6 basic assumptions becomes manifest and its feelings predominate
7 in the group, the others that remain latent stay contained within the
8 proto-mental system; for instance, if fight–flight is manifest, depen-
911 dent and pairing emotions will be latent (ibid., p. 105).
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P 223

111 Bion attempts to explain, with the use of this system, the
2 appearance of diseases, regardless of their aetiology. Diseases are
3 manifested in the individual depending on the group to which they
4 belong (city, family, work, etc); that is, they are the product of the
5 relationship between the proto-mental system, the dominating
6 basic assumption and the latent basic assumption. In all diseases
711 there are three dimensions: (a) the “matrix”, corresponding to the
8 undifferentiated or proto-mental system, (b) a determined “affilia-
9 tion” to the latent basic assumption, and (c) a “cause” determined
10 by the dominant basic assumption. Usually there will be psycho-
1 somatic pathology, although they could be infectious too. Tuber-
2 culosis, for instance, because of the need for the patient’s care,
3 would be associated (matrix) with a dependent basic assumption
4 (baD), it will have an affiliation with a pairing basic assumption
5 (baP) and will have as a cause a flight–fight basic assumption
6 (baF). Clinical experience has shown me that exophthalmia present
7 in hyperthyroidism, can be interpreted as the watchful monitoring
8 (dependency) of a projected “internal murderer” and thus corre-
9 spond to a flight–fight ba where baD and baA remain latent.
211
1 This evocation of primitive, perhaps tribal, life in the depths of the
2 mind, which can surface as group behaviour or, conversely, express
3 itself through bodily processes, has a frightening, even haunting
4 impact. [Meltzer, 1986, p. 38]
5
6 Meltzer (1978) has also established a parallel between the notion of
7 a “proto-mental system” and Freud’s concept of primary narcis-
8 sism: “as a level at which object relation and identification are
9 undifferentiated and where the ego is still purely a body-ego” (p.
30 9). Some time later Meltzer (1986) interpreted that the distinction
1 made by Bion between the proto-mental system, as an extreme rep-
2 resentation of what is “non-symbolic, nominative, externally fac-
3 tual, quantitative”; from what at the other extreme would be
4 considered as “mental or emotional, symbolic, internally oriented,
5 qualitative and aesthetic”, would be extremely clarifying. “At the
6 boundary between the proto-mental and the mental”, continues
7 Meltzer, “he has placed a hypothetical, “empty” concept, alpha-
8 function, the mysterious, perhaps essentially mysterious, process
911 of symbol formation” (p. 10). The Symingtons (1966) suggested that
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224 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 the proto-mental system foreshadowed Bion’s more mature con-

2 ceptualization of -elements (pp. xvi, 35).
3
4 Proto-real objects: According to Bion, they are primitive objects
5 that surround the baby, conforming a world dominated by reality
6 and pleasure principles, where objects will be alive if they satisfy or
7 dead if they frustrate. Later Bion referred to them as - and -
8 elements respectively. If intolerance to frustration increases, either
9 because the level of tolerance decreases or because the aggression
10 from the objects increases or both, the need to be free from the dis-
1 pleasure induces the baby to attack the apparatus responsible for
2 the transformation of sense impressions into material used for the
3 creation of dream-thoughts. As a consequence, if there is no appa-
4 ratus that can think or process thoughts, they might change into
5 things. The excess of these “dead proto-objects”, besides the call for
6 placating them, induces the need to idealize and to change them in
711 the future into objects of adoration that possess super-human attrib-
8 utes; a mechanism that according to Bion is implemented exactly
9 because they are dead.
20
Contrary to common observation, the essential feature of the
1
adored or worshipped object is that it should be dead so that crime
2
may be expiated by the patient’s dutiful adherence to animation of
3 what is known to be inanimate and impossible to animate. This
4 attitude contributes to the complex of feelings associated with
511 fetishism. [1992, p. 134]
6
7 In other words, the crime would be paid for by the useless depen-
8 dency on those objects that being inanimate (dead) are believed to
9 be animate, but exactly because of this they are not capable of pro-
311 viding anything; for example, the belief that statues can produce
1 miracles. Fetishism and religious faith could be explained with
2 these mechanisms. See: Animate–inanimate, difference between.
3
4 Proto-thoughts: Kind of primitive thoughts or ideograms, which
5 appear when the ego has to deal with the absence of the breast or
6 no-breast, which is considered to be bad exactly because it is
7 needed. Such an absence would induce the formation of primitive
8 forms of thinking or proto-thoughts, that take the place of the
911 absent or bad object. These “bad objects” are dealt with in two pos-
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P 225

111 sible ways: they can be evacuated through projective identification

2 mechanisms or the absence can be modified through the use of
3 verbal thoughts and the creation of an apparatus for thinking
4 thoughts. See: Verbal thoughts; Thinking, apparatus for.
5
6 D: see: Paranoid–schizoid and depressive positions:
PS
711
8 Pseudo-causation: Cause–effect interaction related to K. See:
9 Causality, theory of and K.
10
1 Psi (): Bion used the Greek letter  (psi) as an element or psycho-
2 analytic object to represent several concepts: the mind in general,
3 like the mind of the patient or the analyst; column 2 in the hori-
4 zontal axis of the Grid. The use of  to designate column 2 could
5 be related to “proton pseudos” (πρϖτον ψευδος)52, a concept Freud
6 (1886) used, parodying Aristotle, to refer to the “first lie” present in
7 hysterical patients. There is a certain discrepancy in the use of ,
8 between such a general representation of the patient or analyst’s
9 mind, on the one hand, and the narrow representation of lies in col-
211 umn 2 of the Grid, on the other. See: Function, horizontal, axis,
1 Grid.
2
3 Psi + ksï = (): Equation representing the union of  as a constant
4 meaning, for example, the condition of the analyst or patient’s
5 mind, with  as an unsaturated element that determines the value
6 of the constant once it has been established (1962, pp. 69–70). In this
7 case it would be equated with the patient’s uncensored condition of
8 free association, or the analyst’s mind without memory or desire.
9 The equation could be equivalent to a pre-conception waiting for a
30 realization that would produce a conception and then a concept in
1 the form of an interpretation (if it were the analyst) or an insight (if
2 it were the patient). See: Psychoanalytic element.
3
4
5
6
52
(πρϖτον (proton) = first, and ευδος (pseudos) = false, to lie). The expres-
sion is from Aristotle’s First analytics (book II, Chapter 18, 66a); possibly taken
7
from Aristotle’s Prior Analytics (Book II, Chapter 18, 66a) which deals with false
8 premises and false conclusions, asserting that a false statement is the result of a
911 proceeding falsity (“proton pseudos”) (Freud, 1886, p. 400).
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226 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Psychic mathematics: In Cogitations, in a note without a date, Bion

2 asks why mathematicians do not “speak” mathematics:
3
4 Is it that a string of mathematical formulas cannot be made to say,
“It’s a nice day”? Is the vocabulary not big enough? No: it must
5
obviously be that its primary purpose is not conversational,
6
although it is clear that one of the functions of mathematics is pub-
7
lic-ation. [1992, p. 110]
8
9 In Learning from Experience (1962), Bion predicts that although there
10 is no prospect yet for psychoanalysts to use mathematical formula-
1 tions, there are “suggestive possibilities” that something like that
2 might happen (p. 51). A first attempt to establish a relationship
3 between mathematics and psychology can be observed in “A the-
4 ory of thinking” (1967, p. 113) where he states that “mathematical
5 elements, namely straight lines, points, circles and something cor-
6 responding to what later becomes known by the names of num-
711 bers, derive from realizations of two-ness as in breast and infant,
8 two eyes, two feet and so on”, or in other words, the empirical real-
9 ization that there are things that come in pairs. On the other hand,
20 he also suggested that the development of mathematical elements
1 or “mathematical objects” as Aristotle calls them, is analogous to
2 the development of conceptions; for instance, something like a pre-
3 conception of the breast mates with a realization (breast feeding) to
4 produce a conception or a two-ness, similar to 1+1=2. If a child, for
511 example, has two marbles and later on finds two more, it will
6 not be long before he concludes that he has four. In this sense, Kant
7 said that all propositions of pure mathematics exist a priori, simi-
8 lar to Klein’s and Bion’s affirmation that there is an aprioristic pre-
9 conception of the breast, or the expression that “integral numbers
311 were created by God”.
1 The excess of projective identifications in psychotic patients or
2 by the psychotic part of the personality, implies an impossibility
3 to distinguish self from the external object, something that can be
4 translated as a difficulty to distinguish differences or two-ness. Bion
5 seriously attempts to provide precision to the uncertain, as can be
6 observed in his effort and enthusiasm to square the mind with the
7 use of his Grid. This reminds us of a similar enthusiasm previously
8 experienced by Descartes, although much less complex, when he
911 used geometry to square the abstract notion of mathematics.
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P 227

111 Bion states that objects belonging to external reality (R) and feel-
2 ings belonging to psychic reality (), can be quantifiable, because
3 they could increase or decrease. Numbers can be used to evoke
4 curiosity in the observer (category 4 of the Grid); for instance: “the
5 majority of people . . .”, “thousands (millions) all over the world
6 . . .”, “the Trinity”, “Four out of five people . . .”, etc.. Or expressions
711 can be used to produce envy: “you are not the only one, thousands
8 can do it”, etc. He attempts to distinguish between relativity
9 in Euclidian geometry and the precision of axiomatic algebra;
10 while the former represents approximations to space—because its
1 exactitude is variable depending on whether the space is flat or
2 curved—the latter represents absolute reality independent of the
3 environment. Bion also used psychological meanings and symbol-
4 isms to make a distinction between geometric and mathematical
5 developments. Geometry can be associated with presence–absence
6 or existence–non-existence of an object, whereas mathematical
7 developments are associated with the conditions of the object,
8 whether it is whole or split, total or partial. Besides, while geomet-
9 ric space is associated with depression (absence–presence, separa-
211 tion), mathematics would be associated with persecutions as
1 observed in the Kleinian paranoid–schizoid position. (1965, p. 151)
2 Meltzer (1978), making comparisons between Bion’s books
3 Transformations and Elements of Psycho-Analysis, relates the great dif-
4 ficulties the reader faces with mathematical signs as used by Bion:
5
6 In the present work no such hope sustains us in the face of the pro-
liferation of mathematics-like notations, pseudo-equations, followed
7
by arrows, dots, lines, arrows over (or should it be under?) words
8
and not just Greek letters but Greek words. How are we to bear such
9
an assault on our mentality? Is Bion patient B in disguise? [p. 71]53
30
1 While Grotstein (1981) emphasizes the election of mathematical
2 objects, because as he said, they:
3
4 had the advantage of being a language of signs and/or symbols
5 which could conveniently represent objects in their absence and
6 therefore facilitate a language useful for abstraction without the
7 penumbra of associations typical of words. [p. 12]
8
911 53
About patient “B”, see Transformations pp. 19–23.
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228 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Bion also uses the term “emotional mathematics” or “mathe-

2 matics of emotion”, to refer to different combinations of numbers to
3 represent situations. For example, number 1 could represent:
4
5 “one is one and all alone and evermore shall be so”. [or] 1/1 = a
6 relationship with “the whole of an object that is a whole object, that
is unrelated to any other objects and therefore has no properties;
7
since properties are a dimension of relationships”. With religion
8
as vertex this sign can represent the O represented by the term
9 “Godhead”. [1965, p. 154]
10
1 Psychoanalysis: According to Bion psychoanalysis must be
2 “regarded as a term binding a constant conjunction. Years must
3 pass before we understand what are conjoined and what the con-
4 junction means” (1970, p. 63). And later, in a rather pessimistic way,
5 he states:
6
711 What makes the venture of analysis difficult is that one constantly
8 changing personality talks to another. But the personality does not
9 seem to develop as it would if it were a piece of elastic being stretched
20 out. It is as if it were something which developed many different
1 skins as an onion does . . . The patient has a breakup, or breakdown,
rather than a “breakthrough”. Many a façade has been saved by the
2
misfortune that has made it a successful ruin. [1977a, p. 47]
3
4
During his experience in groups Bion defined psychoanalysis as
511
a “group work” (W) that stimulates the pairing basic assumption
6
(baP), and where sexuality occupies a central position. Later on, in
7
Transformations (1965) he states that the analyst’s work can be
8
interpreted “as transformation of a realization (the actual psycho-
9
analytic experience) into an interpretation or series of interpreta-
311
tions” (1965, p. 6). He also adds that we could not speak of
1
invariants in psychoanalysis because this is not a static condition:
2
3
Since psychoanalysis will continue to develop we cannot speak of
4 invariants under psychoanalysis as if psychoanalysis were a static
5 condition. In practice it is undesirable to discard established theo-
6 ries because they seem to be inadequate to particular contingencies,
7 such a procedure would exacerbate a tendency to the facile elabor-
8 ation of ad hoc theories at times when it were better to adhere to
911 established discipline. [ibid., p. 4]
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P 229

111 He also emphasized the feeling of isolation within the atmosphere

2 of intimacy that characterizes psychoanalysis, a feeling that should
3 always be present in the mind of the analyst when he speaks with
4 the patient’s family or other colleagues (1963, p. 15). In Attention and
5 Interpretation Bion investigates the relationship between psycho-
6 analysis and other sciences. It is not that the psychoanalytic method
711 is unscientific, but that:
8
9 . . . the term “science”, as it has been commonly used hitherto to
10 describe an attitude to objects of sense, is not adequate to represent
1 an approach to those realities with which “psychoanalytical
science” has to deal. [1970, p. 88]
2
3
4 Nor can science represent the ineffable, the unknown, or in Bion’s
5 terms, O. Such criticism can also apply to other vertexes such as
6 music, aesthetics, politics or religion. Science takes care of the sen-
7 suous aspects of things, such as symptoms, but not of depression or
8 anxiety, for instance, that lack weight or colour. What is needed is
9 a science that does not restrict knowledge (K), some kind of mathe-
211 matics of at-one-ment, of unification with the other. Bion attempts
1 to introduce the hypothesis of psychic mathematics, he attempts,
2 for instance, a relationship between O and mathematics based on
3 the simple fact that the object being observed and the feelings of
4 those who observe, can increase (+) or decrease ().
5 Bion distinguished between a “psychoanalytic theory” and a
6 “theory of observation”. The former corresponds to specific formu-
7 lations and determinations of the theoretical body of psychoanalysis
8 that allows unification of criterion, corresponding to conception’s
9 row F of the Grid. An example is the theory implicit in the concept
30 of projective identification. The “theory of observation”, on the
1 other hand, refers to the realization of theories in practice, some-
2 thing Bion exemplifies through the concept of “hyperbole”, which
3 corresponds to the realization of the theory of projective identifica-
4 tion. (1965, p. 160). See: Psychic mathematics, Psychoanalytic
5 elements.
6
7 Psychoanalytic elements: Initially, “psychoanalytic elements” and
8 “psychoanalytic objects” were used interchangeably; for instance,
911 in Elements of Psycho-Analysis, when Bion, referring to the relation-
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230 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 ship with emotional links (L, H, and K) (1963, p. 3), affirms that psy-
2 choanalytic objects derive from psychoanalytic elements (ibid., p. 11).
3 The opposite is said when referring to “idea”: he states that psy-
4 choanalytical objects are made of elements, like -elements (ibid.,
5 p. 4). Later on, when referring to passion, he makes no difference
6 between them: “. . . one of the dimensions of a psycho-analytic
7 object and therefore of a psychoanalytic element . . .” (ibid., p. 13, my
8 italics).
9 Meltzer (1978) referring to this confusion states:
10
1 It therefore becomes extremely confusing when he begins to
describe  as an element, along with Ps D, LHK, R (reason)
2
and I (idea, or psycho-analytic object) when he later calls them
3
mechanisms () and PsD or earlier had called them factors
4 in a function (LKH). This is made even more confusing when he
5 seems to discard  as an element in favour of a “central abstrac-
6 tion” which it must contain or imply, to which the term “element”
711 should be applied and reaches the conclusion that elements are
8 essentially unobservable. [p. 56]
9
20 In the last chapter of Elements of Psycho-Analysis, however, Bion
1 finally established a clear difference between psychoanalytic objects
2 and elements. He states that the psychoanalytic object has three
3 dimensions: analytic theory, mythology, and feeling.
4
An analytic object is not the same as an element but may be
511
regarded as having a relationship with an element analogous to
6 that of a molecule to an atom. The analytic object is not necessarily
7 an interpretation though an interpretation is an analytic object . . .
8 [which] emerges as a result of the operation . . . of PsD and
9 . (1963, p. 101–102)
311
1 He concludes:
2
The elements of psychoanalysis are ideas and feelings as represented
3
by their setting in a single grid-category; psychoanalytic objects are
4
associations and interpretations with extensions in the domain of
5 sense, myth and passion, requiring three grid categories for their
6 representation. [ibid., p. 103–104]
7
8 Referring to these dimensions, but before he made clear the differ-
911 ence between object and psychoanalytic element, he had said:
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P 231

111 Psychoanalytic elements and the objects derived from them have
2 the following dimensions:
3
4 1. Extension in the domain of sense.
5 2. Extension in the domain of myth.
6 3. Extension in the domain of passion.
711
An interpretation cannot be regarded as satisfactory unless it illu-
8 minates a psychoanalytic object and that object must at the time of
9 interpretation possess these dimensions . . . Extension in the domain
10 of sense . . . means that what is interpreted must . . . be an object of
1 sense. It must, for example, be visible or audible . . . [ibid., p. 11]
2
3 It must also have a common sense to allow a consensus.
4 The extension in the domain of myth refers to personal myths
5 that the analyst can use at a given moment in order to understand
6 the patient’s latent content; to say for instance in the face of the
7 patient’s aggression that his anger is like that of a “child that wanted
8 to hit his nanny because he has been told he is naughty” (ibid., p. 12).
9 These represent statements of the analyst’s personal myths and not
211 statements of observed fact, or formulations of a theory intended to
1 represent a realization. About the extension of passion, Bion says
2 that it represents, “an emotion experienced with intensity and
3 warmth though without any suggestion of violence . . . unless it is
4 associated with the term ‘greed’”. Different from sense and myth,
5 passion implies the presence of two minds linked (ibid., pp. 12–13).
It could correspond perhaps to what others call “empathy”.
6
It is quite possible that the selection of the term “element” could
7
have been encouraged by the “Euclidian elements” as well as by
8
the relevance that such a concept has in chemistry. According to
9
Bion, “psychoanalytic elements” represent abstractions, similar
30
to letters in the alphabet, that if combined with each other form
1
words; when combined they represent almost all the necessary
2
theories for the analytical work. All elements must be functions of
3
personality conceived as having dimensions which, in the analyst’s
4
mind, represents sense impressions, myths or passions. Bion says:
5
6 The combination in which certain elements are held is essential to
7 the meaning to be conveyed by those elements. A mechanism
8 supposed to be typical of melancholia can only be typical of melan-
911 cholia because it is held in a particular combination. [1963, p. 2]
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232 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 All elements must have the following characteristics: (a) they must
2 be capable of representing the same realization that they originally
3 described; (b) they must be capable of articulating with similar ele-
4 ments; and (c) when articulated they must form a scientific deduc-
5 tive system capable of representing a realization if it happens to
6 exist. Among these elements are: (i)  representing the dynamic
7 relationship between container and contained, similar to Klein’s
8 notion of projective identification; (ii) PsD, representing
9 approximation to a combination between Kleinian paranoid–
10 schizoid and depressive positions with Poincaré’s selected fact;
1 (iii) L (Love); (iv) H (Hate); and (v) K (Knowledge), representing the
2 last three links between psychoanalytic objects. All elements with-
3 out exception are considered functions.
4 Grotstein (1981) stated that the election of mathematical objects:
5
6 Had the advantage of being a language of signs and/or symbols
which could conveniently represent objects in their absence and
711
therefore facilitate a language useful for abstraction without the
8
penumbra of associations typical of words. [p. 12]
9
20 Psychoanalytic listening: In a letter to Andreas-Salomé dated May
1 25, 1916, Freud suggested a method to reach a mental state that
2 would bestow him with advantages to compensate for the “obscu-
3 rity” that usually surrounded any object of investigation. 54 The
4 method consisted in “blinding himself artificially”, or in his own
511 words: “I know that I have artificially blinded myself at my work
6 in order to concentrate all the light on the one dark passage”. Bion
7 implicitly described “listening” as a situation in which the analyst
8 should rid himself of any pre-conception, approximating to a state
9 of pure naivete, which if translated into words, would mean: “not
311 knowing [unsaturated] to make room for a pre-conception that will
1 illuminate a problem that excites my curiosity” (1965, p. 47). Later
2 on Bion adds the concept of “patience”, something similar to
3 Klein’s paranoid–schizoid position, but free from any form of
4 pathology, and referring only to feelings of suffering and frustra-
5 tion tolerance (1970, p. 124). (See: countertransference).
6
7
8 54
In his obituary of Charcot, Freud (1893) mentioned having heard about
911 this method from his French teacher (SE 3, p. 12; also in SE 14, p. 22).
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P 233

111 Listening should be accomplished free from any understanding,

2 memory or desire, and very often, especially with psychotic
3 patients, in a state of hallucinosis. This preparation will allow for
4 O, as the ultimate truth, to “evolve”, a concept Bion described as
5 “evolution” , which in classical psychoanalysis might be equivalent
6 to the notion of “unconscious phantasy”. Such evolution to illumi-
711 nation will allow, with the help of an act of faith, the construction
8 of the interpretation (ibid., p. 43).
9 In a note written in October 1959 (1992, p. 82), Bion made the
10 following confession while listening to a patient:
1
2 Drowsiness is coming to me; it is part of the relaxation I have to
3 achieve if my ideas are to be accessible. I must dream along, but then
4 I risk going fast asleep. I have had to shut my eyes because they
sting. Then I nearly went to sleep . . . I must not know anything
5
about. A wrapping up and packing of the goods I wish to remove
6
from the environment. Does this mean that  is to hide things from
7
the conscious? [ibid.]
8
9 And elsewhere:
211
1 Since it is essential that the creative worker should keep his -
2 function unimpaired, it is clear that the analyst must be able to
3 dream the session. But if he is to do this without sleeping, he must
4 have plenty of sleep. [ibid., p. 120]
5
6 Bion also explains that the suppression of understanding, mem-
7 ory, and desire, can result in the undesired complication of induc-
8 ing in the analyst a state of stupor or sleepiness. Although there is
9 a difference between this last condition and a state of normal lis-
30 tening, the difference is difficult to explain. The analyst could react
1 against the sacrifice of his own desires (pain–pleasure), because it is
2 something difficult to tolerate for both, the patient and the analyst.
3 Bion gives certain rules:
4
1. Memory: Do not remember past sessions. The greater the impulse
5 to remember what has been said or done, the more the need to
6 resist it. This impulse can present itself as a wish to remember
7 something that has happened because it appears to have precipi-
8 tated an emotional crisis: no crisis should be allowed to breach this
911 rule. The supposed events must not be allowed to occupy the mind.
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234 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Otherwise the evolution of the session will not be observed at the
2 only time when it can be observed -while it is taking place.
3 2. Desires: The psychoanalyst can start by avoiding any desires for
4 the approaching end of the session (or week, or term). Desires for
results, “cure” or even understanding must not be allowed to pro-
5
liferate. [ibid., pp. 381–382]
6
7
Psychoanalytic objects: Similar to how philosophers of science and
8
psychotic patients (or the psychotic part of the personality) attempt
9
to change abstractions into concrete things (see: symbolical equa-
10
tion), Bion tries, imitating Aristotle’s mathematical objects, to build
1
“psychoanalytical objects” in order to deal with spaces, such as
2
those experienced between “things” and “no-things”. Bion states:
3
4 It is convenient to postulate the existence of a mind represented
5 entirely by points, positions of objects, places where something
6 used to be, or would be at some future date. [1965, p. 106]
711
8 And later on:
9
20 In mathematics, calculations can be made without the presence of
1 the objects about which calculation is necessary, but in psychoana-
2 lytic practice it is essential for the psychoanalyst to be able to
3 demonstrate as he formulates. [1970, p. 1]
4
The notion of number can be the consequence of the realization
511
of two-ness, like two ears, two eyes, two hands, etc., or deci-mals
6
(ten-ness): ten fingers, ten toes. The development of mathematical
7
8 objects can correspond to a conception: the mating of the a priori
9 notion of number with its realization.
311
The identification of such an object depends on (a) the possibility of
1 finding a means by which the nature of the object can be commu-
2 nicated. This involves the employment of the very methods that are
3 the object of this investigation, and (b) the mental equipment that
4 the observer can bring to bear. [1962, p. 68]
5
6 Using an example from Bion we can presume that a constant 
7 represents, for instance, a desire: that a breast capable of satisfying
8 its own incomplete nature, exists. The realization of this desire, on
911 the other hand, symbolized as (), would provide an “emotional
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P 235

111 experience” of great pleasure (conception). Such an experience is

2 equivalent to the concept of phenomenon, as explained by Kant,
3 meaning the existence of an experimental or empirical object. The
4 representation of this realization using “mathematical objects”
5 would correspond to (), equal to a conception. If an “inborn char-
6 acter” of personality, symbolized as σψµβολ, is added, we will have
711 the following formula: ()(σψµβολ). Bion produced other exam-
8 ples related to growth and knowledge or K (1962, pp. 69–70). A
9 series of psychoanalytical objects could acquire coherence with the
10 presence of a selected fact and this would eventually allow the for-
1 mulation of a scientific deductive system (ibid., pp. 72–73). This
2 process implicitly carries a tendency towards concretization, some-
3 thing that brings it close to the thing-in-itself.
4 The notion of “psychoanalytic object” appears initially undistin-
5 guishable from “psychoanalytic elements”, an idea Bion broadens
6 later on in his book Elements of Psycho-Analysis (1963): for instance,
7 when, referring to the relationship between emotional links (L, H,
8 and K) (1963, p. 3), he affirms that psychoanalytic objects derive from
9 psychoanalytic elements (ibid., p. 11). The opposite is said when
211 referring to “idea”, when he states that psychoanalytical objects are
1 made of elements, like -elements (ibid., p. 4). Later on, when refer-
2 ring to passion, he makes no difference between them: “. . . one of
3 the dimensions of a psychoanalytic object and therefore of a psycho-
4 analytic element . . .” (ibid., p. 13, my italics).
5 Meltzer (1978) referring to this confusion states:
6
7 It therefore becomes extremely confusing when he begins to
8 describe  as an element, along with Ps D, LHK, R (reason)
and I (idea, or psycho-analytic object) when he later calls them
9
mechanisms () and PsD or earlier had called them factors
30
in a function (LKH). This is made even more confusing when he
1 seems to discard  as an element in favour of a “central abstrac-
2 tion” which it must contain or imply, to which the term “element”
3 should be applied and reaches the conclusion that elements are
4 essentially unobservable. [p. 56]
5
6 In the last chapter of Elements of Psycho-Analysis Bion finally estab-
7 lished a clear difference between psychoanalytic objects and ele-
8 ments. He states that the psychoanalytic object has three dimensions:
911 analytic theory, mythology and feeling.
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236 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 An analytic object is not the same as an element but may be

2 regarded as having a relationship with an element analogous to
3 that of a molecule to an atom. The analytic object is not necessarily
4 an interpretation though an interpretation is an analytic object . . .
[which] emerges as a result of the operation . . . of PsD and
5
. (1963, p. 101–102)
6
7 He concludes:
8
9 The elements of psychoanalysis are ideas and feelings as represented
10 by their setting in a single grid-category; psychoanalytic objects are
1 associations and interpretations with extensions in the domain of
2 sense, myth and passion requiring three grid categories for their
3 representation. [ibid., p. 103]
4
Meltzer (1978) also defined the psychoanalytic objects as “tri-
5
partite molecules” compounded of sensa, myth, and passion (p. 86).
6
When he compares the books Transformations with Elements of
711
Psycho-Analysis, he alerts the readers about the difficulties they will
8
have with all the mathematical signs used by Bion:
9
20 In the present work no such hope sustains us in the face of the
1 proliferation of mathematics-like notations, pseudo-equations, fol-
2 lowed by arrows, dots, lines, arrows over (or should it be under?)
3 words and not just Greek letters but Greek words. How are we to
4 bear such an assault on our mentality? Is Bion patient B in disguise?
511 [p. 71]
6
Grotstein (1981), on the other hand, states that the election of
7
mathematical objects,
8
9 . . . had the advantage of being a language of signs and/or symbols
311 which could conveniently represent objects in their absence and
1 therefore facilitate a language useful for abstraction without the
2 penumbra of associations typical of words. [p. 12]
3
4 Psychological (or mental) disaster: see: Arrogance, curiosity and
5 stupidity.
6
7 Psychological turbulence: Bion defines it as a state of resistance or
8 mental disturbance associated with change, in relation to commu-
911 nication with others, and most of all, with what might be considered
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P 237

111 as a psychological growth of great importance (1970, p. 34). It is

2 similar to the way in which a stream of transparent water remains
3 unnoticed, until the moment it finds an obstacle that generates
4 turbulence. The noumenon or thing-in-itself remains invisible,
5 unknowable—like the transparent stream of water—that can only
6 be intuited, although it could be known through a realization—or
711 turbulence—with an object, then giving place to a phenomenon:
8
9 When the noumena, the things themselves, push forward so far that
they meet an object [a realization] which we can call [for instance]
10
a human mind, there then comes into being the domain of
1
phenomena . . . The religious man would say, “There is, in reality,
2 God”. What Freud and psychoanalysts have investigated is pheno-
3 mena. [1974, p. 41]
4
5 Through realization we get to know the unknown, the thing-in-
6 itself, that Bion has referred to as turbulence, the capacity to pro-
7 duce a disturbance in something invisible to make it visible.
8 Leonardo da Vinci—an extraordinary mind—”drew pictures of
9 turbulence reminiscent of hair and water”. He could translate this
211 “turbulence and transform it by making marks on paper and
1 canvas which are clearly visible to us.” Also, from a religious ver-
2 tex, Bion quotes St John of the Cross in “The Ascent of Mount
3 Carmel”, when he states, in a rather exaggerated fashion, “. . . the
4 pain which is involved in achieving the state of naivety inseparable
5 from binding”, with God or the Godhead implying a state of depri-
6 vation from any desire of “worldly things which it possessed, by
7 denying them to itself; the which denial and deprivation are, as it
8 were, night to all the senses of man”, in order to achieve such state
9 of “binding” with God (Bion, 1965, pp. 158–159). It would be this
30 “denial” and “deprivation” in order to achieve a state of commu-
1 nion with God, that represented a state of turbulence in St John’s
2 life, which he expressed with an exaggeration of his pain, similar
3 to what, in a biological model, would be observed when a tadpole
4 becomes very upset because it is changing into a frog (1965,
5 pp. 158–159; 1974a, pp. 14–15). The psychoanalytic consulting room
6 might appear as a quiet and transparent stream, however, said
7 Bion, there is only turbulence there (1987, p. 308). Crossing a
8 caesura, for example, birth, adolescence, marriage, old age, death,
911 etc., would always determine a state of turbulence. When placing it
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238 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 on the Grid, it would correspond to column 1 or to a definitory

2 hypothesis (1965, pp. 158–159). See: Thing-in-itself, Noumenon,
3 Phenomenon, Caesura, Godhead and Realization.
4
5 Psycho-mechanics (of thinking): Bion uses this concept to explain
6 some psychic mechanisms; for instance, the way in which -
7 elements are capable of transformations, or opening towards
8 growth, necessary to understand progression and regression
9 movements present in PSD in relation to K, or the alternating
10 of container–contained movements (). Bion states:
1
2 A solution may be approached through investigation clinically of
3 the destructive splitting attacks that transform  into fragments
4 which nevertheless retain in their fragmented form an association
5 with each other sufficient to permit penetration of a problem. Similar
6 fragmentation of  leaves an association of fragments that still per-
form the function of ingesting or introjecting. [1963, p. 84]
711
8
This mechanism could explain the alternating movements of both
9
PSD and , as well as the change from  to  elements,
20
meaning the growth of the genetic or vertical axis of the Grid. See:
1
Progression and regression, Vertical axis, Paranoid–schizoid posi-
2
3 tion.
4
511 Psychosis: A great amount of Bion’s work has dealt with psychoses
6 and psychotic ways of thinking, distributed in several original
7 publications, present in almost all of his contributions. Asked, in
8 1973, about his analysis of psychotic patients, he answered:
9
I have only analysed schizophrenic patients who were able to come
311
to my consulting room. Although I still think that the best descrip-
1
tion of them was “schizophrenic”, I do not suggest they were com-
2 parable to the kind of patients who have to be hospitalized. . . . I am
3 amazed how often an analyst seems to think that he can hardly
4 claim his title [of analyst] unless he has treated many schizophrenic
5 patients . . . From the little I know I find it difficult to believe that
6 so many analysts are treating schizophrenics. Such a claim belongs
7 to the domain not of the science of psychoanalysis but of fashion.
8 As it is sometimes the fashion to wear feathers in hats, so psycho-
911 analysts wear “psychotics in their hair”. [1974, pp. 92–93]
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P 239

111 See: Schizophrenia, Hallucination, Attacks on linking, Splitting,

2 Bizarre object, -element, -function, -element, Psychotic and
3 non-psychotic personalities. . . .
4
5 Psychosis, splitting in: see: Splitting in psychosis.
6
711 Psycho-sphere: see: Noösphere.
8
9 Psychotic and Non-psychotic Personalities, differentiation
10 between:55 This article depicts the difference between psychotic and
1 non-psychotic parts of the personality within the same person. A
2 duality perhaps deduced by Bion from the fact that contacts with
3 reality established behind a psychotic patient’s ego, must be a
4 consequence of the presence of a non-psychotic part that remains
5 hidden by the psychotic part. The interplay and control between
6 both parts, summons up the relationship Bion had previously estab-
7 lished between the work group (W) and the basic assumptions (ba).
8 The major difference between psychotic and non-psychotic
9 parts would originate from the use of splitting and projective iden-
211 tification, aimed to unload ego aspects, such as the perceptual
1 apparatus (consciousness) and verbal thought, which have been
2 split very early in life. This division of both personality aspects pro-
3 gressively increases over time up to the point where any connection
4 between them becomes impossible. Just as the baby feels he has
5 attacked and sadistically destroyed the breast, psychotic patients
6 attack and mutilate their sense impressions, feeling themselves to
7 be prisoners inside such a mental state, from which there is no way
8 out. Unloading the perceptual apparatus leaves the mind impover-
9 ished and incapable of being aware of reality, which would have
30 represented the means and the end of any possible “escape”.
1 However, at the same time that they feel prisoners, they also expe-
2 rience that the expelled fragments, projected inside the external
3 objects—that “contain” or are “contained”—have a “life” of their
4 own, becoming what Bion calls “bizarre objects.
5
6 55
This article, read to the British Psychoanalytical Society in October 1955
7
and published in 1957, (International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 38, parts 3–4),
8 shows the best systematization of Bion’s discoveries about psychosis up to that
911 moment.
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240 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 The introjective processes are also seriously obstructed, there-

2 fore, in order to understand an interpretation or to reincorporate
3 projected elements; the only possible way is to use what Bion has
4 called a reverse projective identification (1967, pp. 40–41). There
5 also exists a difference in the defence format: while the non-psy-
6 chotic part of the personality uses repression, the psychotic one
7 uses projective identifications. Because there is no repression the
8 unconscious is replaced by a world made of objects similar to
9 dream furniture, in which these patients move around. Extension
10 of mechanisms of splitting and projective identification, increments
1 the breach between both parts of the personality to such a point,
2 that any attempt to reunite them becomes impossible.
3 In Transformations, Bion says that one of the difficulties of psy-
4 chotics has to do with their incapability to transform O into T,
5 besides the fact that they are not able to work analytically without
6 the presence of the real objects with which the work has to be done.
711 Such a limitation, he continues, goes as far as making them unable
8 to “think” about anything unless whatever it is in their mind also
9 appears in their external reality (see: sign-objects). Since psychotics
20 are able to express words and phrases, it is logical to suppose that
1 they are able to think; however, to think in the sense of manipulat-
2
ing words and thoughts to work with the object’s absence is exactly
3
what they cannot do (see: symbolic equation). Psychotics have no
4
memory, instead they have undigested facts (1965, pp. 40–41). Bion
511
also points out that, due to transformations in hallucinosis, these
6
patients use “magic” omnipotent aspects of hallucinations capable
7
of satisfying any desire. They do so in order to compete with inter-
8
pretations by making them useless like “mental faeces”, feeling at
9
the same time, that the analyst is trying to steal their “sanity” or the
311
power implicit in their hallucinations (ibid., p. 132).
1
2 Meltzer (1978) points out that Bion does not discriminate between
3 the psychotic part of personality and clinical psychoses such as
4 schizophrenia, which could be due to Klein’s influence in conceiv-
5 ing the paranoid–schizoid position as representing the fixation
6 point for the latter. He also adds that it is not clear whether
7 Bion “thinks that this part of the personality is ubiquitous or
8 only present in the person who actually presents a schizophrenic
911 disorder” (p. 26).
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P 241

111 Psychotic panic: see: Nameless terror.

2
3 Psychotic transference: Transference in psychotic patients “is pre-
4 mature, ephemeral, precipitated and intensely dependent” (1967,
5 p. 37). The pressure induced by both life and death instincts has
6 three main consequences: (a) a state of confusion with the analyst
711 because of massive projective identifications; (b) mutual mutila-
8 tions between both instincts; (c) in trying to escape from the anxi-
9 ety resulting from extreme confusion and harassed by painful
10 mutilations, the patient attempts to restore a “restricted relation-
1 ship.” Bion characterized this restricted relationship as “feature-
2 less”, although it can alternate with a more expansive form of
3 interaction. It can be deduced that the term “strict” might be simi-
4 lar with what others have described as schizoid or autistic (ibid.).
5
6 Public-ation:56 Within the mind, it represents the way in which
7 thinking functions, in that it is capable of making sense impres-
8 sions available to consciousness, and can communicate to the
9 group what was private to the person. Similar to the mechanism
211 displayed in the horizontal axis of the Grid, information that has
1 been changed into action could be communicated or publicized by
2 means of common sense (column 6 like G6 or H6 in the Grid). The
3 conflict, said Bion, could be technical and emotional:
4
5 The emotional problems are associated with the fact that the
human individual is a political animal and cannot find fulfilment
6
outside a group and cannot satisfy any emotional drive without
7
expression of its social component. His impulses, and I mean all
8
impulses and not merely his sexual ones, are at the same time
9 narcissistic. The problem is the resolution of the conflict between
30 narcissism and social-ism. The technical problem is that concerned
1 with expression of thought or conception in language, or its
2 counterpart in signs. [1967, p. 118]
3
4 For Bion, this course of public-ation is not different from the process
5 used by the individual to translate a preverbal thought into a verbal
6 one, or to make explicit what is implicit, or to make conscious what
7 is unconscious. Abstraction could also be thought of as a necessary
8
911 56
Bion breaks the word perhaps to emphasize its content of “public action.”
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242 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 step towards publication, as well as the interpretation, which

2 represents a form of publication in the analyst’s attempt to make
3 conscious what has been unconscious. See: Growth, Correlation,
4 Social-ism, Common sense, Narcissism, Horizontal axis.
5
6 Pure and absolute interpretation: A form of interpretation Bion
7 considers as “free from contaminations or countertransference
8 noise” or absolute “on the analogy of absolute zero or absolute
9 cold”. He said:
10
There are certain patients who can recognize that any interpretation
1
I give is not absolute. I can describe it in terms of an actual experi-
2
ence in this way: The patient cannot listen to what I am saying
3
because of the noise. Sometimes the “noise” is the way I speak,
4 sometimes it is the distraction produced by a fly in the room, but in
5 a sense all the noises that he can hear appear to have an equal
6 value. He can say, “I know you are angry”, and if I am honest about
711 it, I realize that he is right. But he may not differentiate between
8 whether I am annoyed by the buzzing of a fly, or by the noise of the
9 traffic, or by what he is saying and doing. All these facts are of
20 equal value. [1974, p. 77]
1
2 Pythagoras, theorem of: According to this theorem, the square of
3 the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the square
4 of the sum of the opposite sides. Bion attempts to establish a rela-
511 tionship between the Oedipus myth and this theorem on one hand,
6 and Euclidian geometry and Klein’s paranoid–schizoid and
7 depressive position, on the other (1992, p. 207). He made these
8 statements in his book Cogitations, in such an enigmatic style, that
9 it could be assumed that perhaps he was emulating the sphinx
311 itself. In relation to Pythagoras’ theorem he had this to say:
1
The side subtending the right angle: the sides containing the right
2
angle. How much can be obtained by ignoring the figure, the dia-
3
gram, except in so far as it serves a function—like that of the mate-
4 rial of a sculpture by Henry Moore—in framing the place where
5 there is no material? To act as a boundary to the open space, that is
6 to say the part where the figure is not. Then the squares on the sides
7 containing, and the squares on the side subtending, the right angle
8 serve to enclose the triangle—the “three-kneed thing”, but also the
911 right angle. The construction is a trap for light. [ibid., p. 206]
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P 243

111 In this rather enigmatic communication, Bion invites us to ignore

2 the diagram, that is, the mathematical aspect of the theorem, and
3 concentrate on what is enclosed, for instance, the Oedipus myth:
4 in a right-angled triangle there are the two sides forming the right
5 angle, that would represent both parents (vertical = father and
6 horizontal = mother), while the opposite side or hypotenuse would
711 represent the son. The “three-kneed thing” refers to the interpreta-
8 tion apparently given by the Greeks to the triangle, when they con-
9 sidered that the angles that put together all the sides, that is, father,
10 mother and son, were equivalent to the genitals. Bion says some-
1 thing similar when he states immediately after that “Euclid 1.5
2 marks the point at which the ‘elements’ of geometry are left behind
3 when the student crosses the Pons” (ibid.). In other words, in order
4 to avoid being an ass, the figure must be ignored for its content and
5 attention be placed on its meaning, only then would the trapped
6 light escape, meaning that the Pons would be finally crossed—or
7 the theorem properly understood—without having, as Epicurus
8 announced, to be an ass.
9 Bion also refers to Pythagoras’ theorem, known as the “Bride’s
211 Chair”, because its demonstration resembles, according to the
1 Arabs, a horse riding chair used to carry the bride. It has also
2 been said that the French referred to this theorem with the name
3 of Pons Asinorum, something questioned by Bion who assures that
4 this last one corresponds to No. 5 of book 1 and represents the
5 theorem of the isosceles triangle, while the Bride’s theorem repre-
6 sents a right angle triangle which corresponds to Book 13, No. 47
7 (ibid., p. 207) See: Euclidian geometry, Theorem of the Bride’s
8 chair, Pons Asinorum.
9
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
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111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 245

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 Q
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Qualities, primary and secondary: From Latin qualitas, qualis,
1 meaning which? what? Of what nature? Represents the proper-
2 ties that determine the nature of both primary and secondary.
3 Primary qualities are those represented by: (1) what is essential to
4 all material objects and consequently present in all; and (2) what are
5 represented by perceptual experiences and independent of the
6 subject who perceives them. Secondary qualities, on the other hand,
7 like colour, taste, sound, etc.: (1) are not essential to material
8 objects and do not participate in the correct explanation of such
9 experiences; (2) are not in all objects and depend more on the
30 subject who perceives them—they are subjective. Primary quali-
1 ties are more related to the object, whereas secondary qualities
2 are related to the subject. However, for Berkeley and later for
3 Kant, all qualities are subjective, because regardless of what they
4 might be, either primary or secondary, they are all perceived by the
5 senses.
6
7 Quality of contact: According to Lipgar (1998), J. D. Sutherland,
8 who had worked with Bion during the World War II on the task
911 of selecting candidates for officer training, stated that he often

245
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246 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 commented about the “need to judge the ‘quality contact’ the
2 candidate had with others” (p. 30). Lipgar continues:
3
4 They felt that many different personalities could make good
officers, but Bion sought that “crucial quality which (is) ‘a man’s
5
capacity for maintaining personal relationships in a situation of
6
strain that tempted him to disregard the interest of his fellows for
7
the sake of his own.” [ibid.]
8
9
Quantum theory: Discussing what Heisenberg (1958) said, Bion
10
wonders if the hypothesis on the dual demeanour of light, some-
1
times behaving as “elementary particles” and other times as a
2
“wave”, could be matched with primitive phantasies parallel to the
3
Ps D theory, in the sense that the “particle” would correspond
4
to Ps and the wave to D. He argues:
5
6 Is it possible that the explanation fundamentally has to be in terms
711 of primitive phantasies?—e.g. elementary particles (paranoid–
8 schizoid), or wave theory (depressive)—because these are limita-
9 tions in the human mind which cannot be transcended? [1992, p. 60]
20
1 Heisenberg’s theory of the “uncertainty principle”, which deter-
2 mines that a subatomic (photons) particle’s momentum or location,
3 can be measured only at the particular and specific moment when
4 it is found, because the conditions needed for accuracy in observa-
511 tion of the particles, are in direct conflict with those needed for the
6 observation of its position. A certain resemblance between this
7 hypothesis and Bion’s conception of O, could be considered.
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
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111
2
3
4
5
6
711 R
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 R (=Reason): A function that serves passions, whichever they
1 might be, and dominates them within the world of reality. By pas-
2 sions Bion understands all emotions located between L (love), H
3 (hate) and K (knowledge). R is associated with idea (I) in as much
4 as the latter is used to fill in the fault between an impulse and its
5 satisfaction (1963, p. 4). “Reason” says Bion, “is emotion’s slave and
6 exists to rationalize emotional experience” (1970, p. 1). See: I (Idea),
7 K, L, H.
8
9 Reality principle: Bion uses in detail what Freud originally
30 described in 1911, about psychic reality and its relation to the inter-
1 action between consciousness and the external world, in order to
2 build his theory of thinking, to understand the relationship
3 between the psychotic and non-psychotic parts of the personality,
4 as well as to structure the horizontal axis of his Grid. Psychotic
5 patients make destructive attacks on those ego aspects necessary to
6 establish a link between consciousness and external reality.
7 Following Freud these aspects are: (i) attention: consciousness
8 ascribed to sense organs and used to search the external world;
911 (ii) notation: as part of memory; (iii) judgement: an impartial view

247
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248 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 developed to take the place of repression; (iv) action: a new function
2 destined to induce motor discharges; and (v) thought: a process
3 from where ideation developed. In 1911, Freud stated:
4
5 Thinking was endowed with characteristics which made it possible
for the mental apparatus to tolerate an increased tension of stimu-
6
lus while the process of discharge was postponed. It is essentially
7
an experimental kind of acting, accompanied by displacement of
8 relatively small quantities of cathexis together with less expendi-
9 ture (discharge) of them. [p. 221]
10
1 For Bion all of these adaptations were also related to the establish-
2 ment of verbal thought and with the emergence of the depressive
3 position. See: Horizontal axis, Attention, Notation, Judgement,
4 Action, Verbal thoughts, Thoughts.
5
6 Realization: It can be interpreted as an action to bring something
711 into real or concrete existence. In his “theory of thinking” Bion refers
8 to the “realization of pre-conceptions” (1967, pp. 111–119); in other
9 words, when the baby sucks the breast, a realization takes place
20 between the innate preconception of the breast and the breast as a
1 real object, a situation that will generate a conception, that is, the sat-
2 isfaction of a wish. When the need for the breast meets an absence of
3 the breast or “no-breast”, the realization of this absence, of this frus-
4 tration, if well tolerated, will be translated into thoughts, as well as
511 into an apparatus to think thoughts and into a capacity for abstract
6 thinking. Later on Bion states that the theory of functions “makes it
7 easier to match the realization with the scientific deductive system
8 that represents it” (1962, p. 2), in a sense similar to the way in which
9 three dimensional “Euclidian geometry has the structure of ordinary
311 space as one of its realizations” (ibid., p. 99). In other words, the the-
1 ory of functions facilitates the knowledge of the exact purpose a
2 given scientific deductive system might have, similar to the way in
3 which Euclidian geometry has as its purpose, dimensioning the ordi-
4 nary space. Writing a book would be, for instance, a realization of K.
5 Following the theory of transformations, an artist can transform
6 a landscape (realization) into a picture (representation), something
7 he achieves by means of a series of invariants which make his work
8 something intelligible. Through the use of a realization we might
911 be able to know about the unknown, the thing-in-itself, which
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R 249

111 represents what Bion referred to as turbulence, or the capacity to

2 rouse a disturbance that will make the invisible visible, like intro-
3 ducing a stick in a clear and smooth stream of water. Realizations
4 allow us to know about the ineffable, the noumenon, by changing it
5 into a phenomenon. From a religious vertex, for instance, we could
6 intuit the existence of the Godhead, which would correspond to the
711 thing-in-itself, or to that of which we know nothing; however, when
8 we believe we know something about God through a realization, for
9 example a miracle, then a turbulence will appear and it will intro-
10 duce us to the world of phenomena. Exactly this same mechanism is
1 used by Bion to explain the enlightenment of O as a thing-in-itself,
2 its change from the unknown or the noumenon, into the world of
3 phenomenon (O  K), which will allow the construction of inter-
4 pretations and the possible realization of the patient’s unconscious
5 meaning during the analytic session. See: Pre-conception, Theory of
6 functions, Euclidian geometry, Thing-in-itself, Turbulence, Nou-
7 menon, Phenomenon, O, Godhead.
8
9 Receptors: see: Perception, organs of.
211
1 Regression: In 1976, during a conference in Los Angeles, Bion said:
2
We talk about “getting back” to childhood or infancy. It is a useful
3 phrase, but I think it is meaningless. Do any of us “get back” to
4 infancy or childhood, or even tomorrow? It is clear that we don’t.
5 Why do we bother to talk about these things which, supposedly,
6 have their origin very early in one’s life? What if we do develop a
7 character in infancy or childhood? What does it matter . . . We
8 could say that these characteristics which are supposedly split off,
9 or got rid of in some way, are forgotten—and after all, we do not
30 continue to behave like infants; apparently these things are got rid
1 of. Do you remember when you were at the breast? No, it’s forgot-
ten or got rid of. But having been forgotten these things persist in
2
some archaic way in one’s mind, so that they still continue to oper-
3
ate, to make themselves felt . . . Since they operate in this archaic
4 way they go on affecting one’s work. [1994, p. 244]
5
6 Regression and progression: see: Progression and regression.
7
8 Reparation: Bion did not use this concept often, but when he did,
911 he generally followed the description used by Klein. In Cogitations,

249
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250 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 at a time when he referred to -function as simply , he stated that

2 attempts at reparation exercised by , “were destroyed by sadistic
3 attacks made by psychotic superego” using minute split and pro-
4 jective identifications. Attempts to recover and reunite fragments
5 were continuously “hampered by coincidental destructive proce-
6 dures” (1992, p. 97).
7 He describes assimilation as the aptitude to incorporate sense
8 impressions capable of enhancing the self. In psychotic patients this
9 possibility is destroyed due to the domination of the death instinct
10 as well as to the increment of the superego’s sadism. Destruction of
1 assimilation does not encumber incorporation of sense impressions
2 and their subsequent storage, it would just hamper its integration
3 within the self, remaining inlaid as foreign objects or things-in-
4 themselves, useful only to be discharged by means of projective
5 identification. Fear of annihilation can increase dominance of live
6 instincts, something that would revert the process and introduce
711 reparation of the capacity to assimilate (ibid., p. 164). According to
8 Bion this process can be observed during analysis, in the patient’s use
9 of certain words which evidence the production of material suitable
20 to be used in the formation of dream thoughts in dreams, which the
1 patient can associate and communicate. Such verbal statements are
2 then capable of articulating with each other to form complete wholes
3 and subsequently are not suitable for projective identification. They
4 are also transformations in process of further transformations
511 according with future assimilations of sensory impressions (ibid.,
6 pp. 157–165). See: Assimilation, Progression and regression.
7
8 Reproductive system: see: Internal reproductive system.
9
311 Resistance: It represents the inaccessibility of O, the struggle to
1 maintain thoughts always unconscious, the fear of truth and of the
2 object becoming real, “resistance operates because it is feared that
3 reality of the object is imminent” (1965, p.147). It would never rep-
4 resent fear of falseness, perhaps because it is felt that instead of
5 dealing with reality inaccessibility, it is better to ignore it: “There
6 are occasions . . . when it is felt to be wise, not pathological, to turn
7 a ‘blind eye’ “ (ibid., p. 149). It is difficult to know reality, to grasp
8 the truth, “it is impossible to know reality for the same reason that
911 makes it impossible to sing potatoes”, you can plant them, peel
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R 251

111 them or eat them, but never sing them (ibid., pp. 147–148). Resis-
2 tance is closely related to transformations of K in O (TK O) and
3 linked to column 2 of the Grid.
4 Bion also suggests that resistance in dream work, would also
5 result—besides what is known from classical theory—from the
6 patient’s “felt need” to convert his/her conscious rational experi-
711 ence into a dream, and not the other way around, to convert a
8 dream into a conscious rational experience, which usually repre-
9 sents the desire or “felt need” of the analyst. Bion concludes:
10
1 The “felt need” is very important; if it is not given due significance
and weight, the true dis-ease of the patient is being neglected; it is
2
obscured by the analyst’s insistence on interpretation of the dream.
3
[1992, p. 184]
4
5 See: “Felt need”, Truth, False, Horizontal axis.
6
7 Reversal of -function: Represents a condition where -elements
8 function in reverse, self-digesting themselves and resulting as a
9 consequence in the formation of -elements, as well as bizarre
211 objects and a dispersion of the “contact barrier”. Such reversal
1 characterizes a mechanism Bion has used to explain the formation
2 of the “ screen”: Instead of sense impressions being changed into
3 -elements to be used in dream and conscious thoughts, as
4 observed in the non-psychotic part of the personality, the develop-
5 ment of the contact barrier is hindered and destroyed. The contact
6 barrier loses its texture, -elements are denuded from the charac-
7 teristics that separate them from beta-elements and then projected
8 to form the  screen (1962, p. 25).
9 Meltzer (1978, pp. 119–126) has used a clinical presentation to
30 explain in detail what Bion had elucidated theoretically. Its reading
1 is recommended. See: -function, -element, -element, Contact
2 barrier,  screen.
3
4 Reversible perspective: Represents a form of splitting of time and
5 space, which Bion illustrates with the use of the well-known
6 Wecker’s cube and Rubin’s vase. Both pictures show changes of
7 perspective depending on which aspect of the diagram is seen as
8 “figure” and what is seen as “ground”. In the cube, for instance, it
911 depends on which side—either AB or CD—is seen as closer;
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252 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4 Figure 2. Reversible perspective.
5
6 whereas in the vase, it depends on whether the shape of a vase or
711 two profiles looking at each other were chosen. With such double
8 perspective, Bion attempts to illustrate, during his work with
9 groups, the concept of duality observed between the work group
20 (W) and one of the latent basic assumption groups. Then he stated:
1
2 In the group the psychiatrist should consider from time to time
3 what is the “dual” of any given emotional situation that he has
4 observed. He should consider also whether the “dual” of the situa-
511 tion he has just described has not already been experienced and
6 described at some previous sessions. [1948b, pp. 87–88]
7
8 Subsequently, Bion used a similar dynamic to explain the possible
9 agreement or disagreement that might take place between the ana-
311 lyst and his/her patient, or within the patient himself, as a defence
1 to deal with the pain of growth. He refers to a condition where the
2 patient can use his own “scientific deductive system” to oppose
3 and compete against the “scientific deductive system” provided by
4 the interpretation. It can be summarized by the old maxim:
5 “Sometimes the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing”, or
6 the Spanish one: “One thing thinks the mule and something else
7 who is riding it.”
8 The agreement can be quite obtrusive, like the patient who
911 openly opposes the content of an interpretation. At other times it
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R 253

111 might not be so obvious, as in the case of reversible perspective.

2 Seen from the particular vertex of psychoanalytic elements, such
3 discrepancy takes place between K and K (minus K), that is,
4 between the analyst’s knowledge and the patient’s void of know-
5 ledge. The agreement implies how to change a dynamic condition
6 that produces growth and advancement, for another one that is
711 repetitious and static. As the analysis elapses in a “reversible” con-
8 dition, an unconscious agreement between both analyst and patient
9 might take place. Sometimes it is based on almost imperceptible
10 sense impressions, such as gestures, attitudes, silences, etc., but
1 giving the impression that the analysis is really “working”, as Bion
2 states, structured on a “contact barrier” between patient and ana-
3 lyst, when in reality this is not the case. This divergence is usually
4 never talked about; it elapses between silences and agreements,
5 although Bion strongly believes that if exposed to the Grid, it might
6 be revealed (1963, p. 54n). Sometimes it might become evident,
7 when the patient is caught unguarded; however, reversible per-
8 spective would be re-established immediately. Deep down, con-
9 cludes Bion, this mechanism really represents a defence against
211 mental pain induced by growth (ibid., p. 63).
1 A young patient, who used phobic and avoidant defence mecha-
2 nisms, after one month of initiating her analysis and almost at the
3 end of the session, said that she “continuously repeated my inter-
4 pretations in her mind in order not to forget them”. I then told her
5 that perhaps we could consider the opposite, that she repeated them
6 to be certain she could free herself from them and leave nothing
7 inside. After a long silence, she stood up looking in the opposite
8 direction from where I was, something rather unusual, and I had the
9 impression that, similar to Bion’s patient (1965, p. 131), she was
30 expelling my words through her eyes. Moreover, I thought that if
1 I had accepted her hypothesis about “remembering my words”, I
2 would have initiated a reversible perspective. What is behind this
3 mechanism of reversible perspective is a defence against the pain of
4 growing in relation to the Oedipus myth (ibid., p. 63).
5 Using reversible perspective, a patient can avoid getting into a
6 direct confrontation with the analyst, like experimenting with the
7 anxiety of an Oedipus situation; instead he would only go his/her
8 way using a mechanism Bion referred to as “static splitting”,
911 representing a failure in the capacity to allow the mating of a
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254 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 pre-conception with a realization in order to give place to a

2 conception. Sometimes, says Bion, when reversion is not possible,
3 the patient might revert to small distortions of communication, in
4 the way of listening to the interpretations, giving some twists or
5 mis-hearings and misunderstanding, or in more serious pathology,
6 making use of delusions and hallucinations (ibid., p. 60). Although
7 not completely explicit, Bion also associates reversion of perspec-
8 tive with the concept of “binocular vision”, either as a substitute
9 when reversion does not exist, or as interference if it does exist,
10 something questioned by other analysts (Meltzer, 1978, p. 6). From
1 the point of view of Grid categories, in the reversible perspective,
2 what the analyst might say could correspond to F5, G5 and G6,
3 while what the patient says could be placed on F1, G1 and G2. See:
4 Duality, Point of view, Vertex, Static splitting, Altered focus,
5 Binocular vision.
6
711 Ritual: see: Magic.
8
9 Rivalry, acting (acting-out) of: Considered as a feeling or rather a
20 constant conjunction that can dominate during transformation in
1 hallucinosis (referring to psychotic patients or to the psychotic
2 part of the personality), because the patient, enthralled by his feel-
3 ings of rivalry tries to “occupy” the analyst’s place and deprive him
4 of his analytical vertex, inducing a sort of dilemma in the analyst,
511 between surrendering his techniques or maintaining the analysis.
6 This condition can sometimes induce in the patient the feeling that
7 the analyst considers himself, as well as his acts and techniques, to
8 be much superior to the patient’s hallucinatory magic. In such
9 cases rivalry could be acted out (1965, p. 136). Bion states that the
311 patient presents himself as “a person anxious to demonstrate his
1 independence of anything other than his own creations”, which are
2 the product of his alleged ability to use his senses as organs of evac-
3 uation. Whatever is projected represents a universe that surrounds
4 the patient in the form of bizarre objects. The purpose of this func-
5 tion of the senses and their mental counterpart is to create a “per-
6 fect world” (ibid., p. 137), where any sense of imperfection is ipso
7 facto experienced as the product of hostile forces intervening from
8 the outside. Thanks to this capacity, the patient is completely inde-
911 pendent of the whole world, except from his own products, and
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R 255

111 therefore he feels beyond any experience of rivalry, envy, greed,

2 threats, love or hate; however, since all defences fail, he is continu-
3 ously facing the anxiety produced by the presence of dependency
4 and imperfection. See: Transformation in hallucinosis, Hallucin-
5 ations, Magic, Animate-inanimate, Bizarre objects, Envy.
6
711 Roman à clef: French expression used to describe novels written
8 about dramas of real people that were disguised to avoid recogni-
9 tion. Freud (1905) had used the phrase in the introduction to Dora’s
10 case, where he criticized the confusion of many medical doctors
1 who were trying to uncover the true identity of Freud’s patients for
2 their own lascivious desires. Bion used this concept to illustrate
3 invariants present during different forms of transformation. For
4 instance, invariants present in photographs are not the same as
5 invariants present in impressionist paintings, and invariants in
6 pornographic literature such as a roman à clef (or the capacity to rec-
7 ognize the character in spite of his/her camouflage) are not the
8 same as invariants observed in psychoanalytical treatments. See:
9 Invariants, Transformation, Transformation in rigid movement,
211 Projective transformations.
1
2 Rudimentary conscious: Bion uses this name as well as “rudimen-
3 tary mental apparatus” to describe the child’s undeveloped mind
4 that requires maternal reverie in order to elaborate his/her sense
5 impressions into -elements. A rudimentary conscious cannot deal
6 with those tasks that would ordinarily be considered as affairs
7 suitable for an adult’s mind, which can contain them. When the rela-
8 tionship between this primitive mind and maternal reverie is broken,
9 such rudimentary conscious cannot deal with the burden that must
30 now support, then giving place to the establishment of an internal
1 object (“projective-identification–rejecting-object means”), which,
2 instead of providing the infant with an understanding, such an object
3 provides a wilful misunderstanding with which the infant is now
4 identified (1967, pp. 116–117). Bion describes four aspects to define
5 the mental structure this rudimentary psyche has: (1) Thinking, asso-
6 ciated with modification or evasion (see: frustration, thoughts);
7 (2) projective identification, associated with evasion through evacu-
8 ation, which should not be confused with ordinary projective iden-
911 tification; (3) Omniscience; and (4) Communication.
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256 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 This kind of primitive mind can be observed in borderline

2 patients, who often display evasion as a form of deafness or lack of
3 attention. See: Maternal reverie, Alpha-elements, Alpha-function,
4 Projective identification, Frustration, Apparatus of thinking,
5 Thoughts.
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 257

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 S
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Saturated–unsaturated elements: Concept borrowed from chem-
1 istry in order to explain when a given situation or state is main-
2 tained in maximum impregnation (saturated) of something, or on
3 the contrary, completely free or empty (unsaturated). Bion fre-
4 quently uses the Greek letter  (ksi = x) to depict the presence of a
5 saturated or unsaturated element. For instance, -elements are
6 described as well categorized objects, equal to things-in-themselves
7 and completely saturated. On the other hand, Bion insists that the
8 mind of the analyst, during the session, should always remain free
9 from any memory or desire, like a blank sheet of paper, in other
30 words be completely unsaturated, just like a pre-conception (1963,
1 p. 70).
2 Psychotic patients can be afraid of projected elements that show
3 a strong need for saturation, because they often confuse them with
4 their own feelings of greed. For instance, they could experience the
5 analyst’s interest in recollecting information as an attempt to rob
6 them of their sanity (1965, p. 122)
7 Grotstein (1981, p. 14) has argued that the apparent obscurity
8 observed in Bion’s form of expression, could be a consequence of
911 the careful selection of words to avoid the penumbra of associations

257
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258 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 present in some expressions, which might have interfered with the
2 specific meanings he wished to convey. For instance, if we were to
3 say “othered” instead of “altered” (alter = other), etymologically
4 they could both mean the same; however, the latter carries such a
5 penumbra of saturation because it has been used for so many years,
6 that it will not be able to convey the same exact meaning of “being
7 interfered by the other”, that the former does. See: Psi, , Pre-
8 conception, -elements.
9
10 Schism: Bion described it as a form of resistance that can take place
1 in groups that feel forced to “evolve”. This form of resistance does
2 not operate in work groups (W) because its “scientific” orientation
3 allows them to face frustration and thus function in a similar way
4 as would a healthy ego. But if this is not possible, the group might
5 then resort either towards oscillations of the Dependent group
6 (baD) or towards “schism”, meaning a splitting of the group into
711 two sub-groups. (a) One opposed to further advance, maintaining
8 itself dependent to the group’s bible or to a pleasing leader who
9 gives in to any demand and is ruled by tradition, like the “word
20 of God”; this kind of leader is made god in order to resist
1 change. Members of this sub-group manipulate the leader to sup-
2 port any new adherence without great demands, making the sub-
3 group very popular. (b) The other sub-group, on the contrary,
4 becomes extremely exacting in their demands, rapidly reducing the
511 number of new recruits, avoiding in this manner the painful
6 confrontation between old sophisticated and new inexperienced
7 members.
8
9 One sub-group has large numbers of primitive unsophisticated
311 individuals who constantly add to their number, but who do not
1 develop; the other sub-group develops, but on such a narrow front
2 and with such few recruits that it also avoids the painful bringing
3 together of the new idea and the primitive state. [1948a p. 128]
4
5 Bion concludes:
6
7 I am reminded of allegations that a society breeds copiously from
8 its less cultured or less educated members, while the “best” people
911 remain obstinately sterile. [ibid.]
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S 259

111 Schizophrenia: According to Bion, schizophrenic pathology origi-

2 nates from disturbances in the integration between environment
3 and personality, although later on he established that it might
4 correspond to a “physical disorder originated in pathological phys-
5 ical states” (1965, p. 144). However, leaving out the importance of
6 the external environment, says Bion, there are some important char-
711 acteristics found in all schizophrenic personalities: (a) a never-
8 decided conflict between life and death instincts; (b) an ascendancy
9 of destructive over life impulses, which could be so destructive that
10 even feelings of love are drowned and changed into sadism;
1 (c) hatred of internal and external realities and of every aspect
2 of the mind (apparatus of perception) that might help make it
3 conscious, destroying them with the use of minute splitting and
4 massive projective identifications, which result in a mental state
5 that is neither alive nor dead; (d) as a consequence, there is a con-
6 stant terror of imminent annihilation; (e) a premature and hasty
7 form of object relations of the kind observed in psychotic transfer-
8 ence, where frailness contrasts with the tenacity that remains, rep-
9 resenting in these clinical features a pathognomonic characteristic
211 of schizophrenia (1967, p. 38). Much of what has been said by Bion
1 about psychoses in general, as well as the psychotic part of the per-
2
sonality, are in close relationship to schizophrenia.
3
Asked in 1973 in Rio de Janeiro about the analysis of psychotic
4
patients, Bion answered:
5
6
7 I have only analysed schizophrenic patients who were able to come
to my consulting room. Although I still think the best description
8
of them was “schizophrenic”, I do not suggest they were compara-
9
ble to the kind of patients who have to be hospitalized. I must add
30
that in the psycho-analytic world with which I am familiar “crazes”
1
appear to be frequent. I am amazed how often an analyst seems to
2 think that he can hardly claim his title unless he has treated many
3 schizophrenic patients. I would almost wonder how mental hospi-
4 tals manage to make a living. From the little I know I find it diffi-
5 cult to believe that so many analysts are treating schizophrenics.
6 Such a claim belongs to the domain not of the science of psycho-
7 analysis but of fashion. As it is sometimes the fashion to wear
8 feathers in hats, so psycho-analysts wear “psychotics in their hair”.
911 [1974, pp. 92–94]

259
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260 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 Schizophrenic language: Schizophrenic patients use language in

2 three ways: (a) as a form of action; (b) as a form of communication;
3 (c) as a form of thought.
4
5 (a) Language can take the place of action, for example the
6 patient who wishes to “take the movement out of the piano”
7 to understand why someone is playing it, or the opposite
8 when the patient tries to use omnipotence of thought to
9 solve the impotence of finding himself in a place when he
10 feels he should be somewhere else.
1 (b) Language can also be at the service of projective identifica-
2 tion and used to parasitize an object in order to control it,
3 and avoid the pain of separation anxiety. It can also be used
4 to split the object, like for instance, to split the analyst or his
5 speech.
6 (c) In view that processes of incorporation are obstructed, due
711 to paranoid anxieties from the fear of continuous attacks
8 from his projective identifications on the parasite object,
9 identifications are now experienced as projective identifica-
20 tions in reverse, a mechanism Bion has described as respon-
1 sible for the agglomeration and compression of ideas that
2 lead in these patients, to “highly compact speech”; a con-
3 struction more “appropriate to music than the articulation
4 of words as used for non-psychotic communication” (1967,
511 p. 41).
6
7 Scientific deductive system (s.d.s. or “system axiomatic deduc-
8 tive”): Throughout most of his work, Bion seriously attempts to
9 provide psychoanalysis with the precision of a system based on
311 mathematics and constructs taken from Euclidian geometry:
1
I wish to introduce as a step towards formulations that are precise,
2
communicable without distortions and more nearly adequate to
3
cover all situations that are basically the same. [1965, p. 125]
4
5 Bion attempts to define the substance behind his system, using a
6 quote from Braithwaite (1955):
7
8 . . . consists of a set of hypotheses which form a deductive system,
911 that is, which is arranged in such a way that from some of the
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S 261

111 hypotheses as premises, all the other hypotheses logically follow.

2 [1992, pp. 2–3]
3
4 Concluding that a
5
. . . peculiarity of psychoanalysis is that the scientific deductive sys-
6
tem is a series of hypotheses about hypotheses about hypotheses
711
. . . [ibid., p. 46]
8
9
And later on:
10
1 [it is] . . . any system of hypotheses in which certain hypotheses
2 occupy a high level in the particular system, and are used as premises
3 from which lower-level hypotheses are deduced. [ibid., p. 156]
4
5 This particular deductive system must be preceded by the struc-
6 turing of a set of organized ideas accomplished by the use of sym-
7 bols, requiring also the capacity to tolerate frustration and
8 depression, similar to Klein’s description of the process of “synthe-
9 sis in the depressive position.” According to Bion, the problem
211 consists in how a primitive system of ideation reaches the level of
1 sophistication present in a scientific deductive system, related to the
2 formation of permanent knowledge.
3 From a genetic point of view, or simply from the vertex of
4 psychoanalytic listening, there would be:
5
6 (1) Awareness of external facts, or “actual elements”, through
7 the use of sense organs, equivalent to what scientists refer to
8 as “observable facts”. Bion gathers them into three groups:
9 (i) touch and smell; (ii) sound and (iii) sight. The first one is
30 non-verbal and related to sex, the second is verbal and
1 musical and the last one, verbal and pictorial.
2 (2) The possibility of an individual to translate an “actual ele-
3 ment” into an idea and then create symbols, would depend
4 on the individual’s capacity to tolerate frustration produced
5 by the absence of the object as well as to tolerate the depres-
6 sion from the depressive position. This operation is absent
7 in psychotics, because for them words are things.
8 (3) A mental development associated with the “ability to see
911 facts as they really are, [producing] . . . internally a sense of
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262 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 well–being that has an instantaneous and ephemeral effect

2 and a lasting sense of permanently increased mental stabil-
3 ity” (ibid., p. 6). In other words, scientific knowledge is the
4 consequence of growth of common sense knowledge (ibid.,
5 p. 26).
6
7 Most of these conceptualizations correspond to the role Bion
8 gave to alpha-function, as capable of translating sense impressions
9 or beta-elements into more sophisticated elements, useful in the
10 process of thinking, or creating alpha-elements.
1 The interpretation could act as a selected fact capable of pro-
2 viding order to the initial chaos of observations (ibid., pp. 6; 7). In
3 order for a scientific deductive system to be achieved, says Bion, it
4 is necessary that selected facts that organize the system, be elabo-
5 rated by means of a conscious rational process and not by emo-
6 tional experiences; besides, hypotheses in the system should be
711 grouped with the help of logical rules, different from those mecha-
8 nisms that organize elements following a selected fact (1962, p. 73).
9 A scientific hypothesis should contain three functions: (a) a private
20 event should be made public (the interpretation); (b) it should con-
1 sent to reality testing, be remembered, proved and predicted; and
2 (c) arranged in such a way for it to make sense (1992, p. 14) Let us
3 take for instance the proverb “action without thought is like shoot-
4 ing without aim”, which is publicly known, it can predict a fact and
511 organize a sense. “Common sense” is an important aspect in scien-
6 tific deductive systems; the interpretation, for instance, requires
7 that at least both analyst and patient share a consensus:
8
The analyst, however, is also able to claim that his interpretation is
9 based on common sense; but it is common only to some psycho-
311 analysts who may be presumed to witness the same events and
1 make the same deductions. [ibid., p. 10]
2
3 In relation to the Grid, Bion places the scientific deductive system
4 as part of the horizontal axis, or axis of the uses. However, it could
5 also have been located also on the vertical axis, because of its ten-
6 dency towards a successive complexity of thinking, or in row G, or
7 be represented by mathematical calculus and correspond to row H.
8 See: Symbolic equation, -function, -elements, -elements,
911 Apparatus for thinking, Grid, the, Vertical axis, Horizontal axis.
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S 263

111 Screen of -elements: It represents a construct in the phenomen-

2 ology of the apparatus to think thoughts, structured as an agglom-
3 eration of -elements placed between the unconscious and
4 consciousness within the mind of psychotic patients or the
5 psychotic part of the personality. It is responsible for a state of
6 confusion similar to dreams, as well as the possibility of massive
711 projections of -elements. These elements might induce emotional
8 changes in the analyst that could determine the profile of the
9 countertransference and the architecture of the interpretation.
10 Bion explains how the screen of -elements is created as a con-
1 sequence of a process he refers to as the “reversal of -function”,
2 according to which:
3
4 Instead of sense impressions being changed into alpha-elements
5 for use in dream thoughts and unconscious waking thinking, the
6 development of the contact-barrier is replaced by its destruction.
7 This is effected by the reversal of alpha-function so that the con-
8 tact-barrier and the dream thoughts and unconscious waking think-
9 ing which are the texture of the contact-barrier are turned into
211 alpha-elements, divested of all characteristics that separate them
1 from beta-elements and are then projected thus forming the beta-
screen. [1962, p. 25]
2
3
Meltzer (1986) referred to -screen as a “pseudo communication of
4
non-sense”, he also suggested a relationship between the concept of
5
-screen and “Esther Bick’s delineation of the ‘gift of the gab’
6
method of ‘second skin’ formation” (p. 35).
7
8
9 Secondary qualities: see: Qualities, primary and secondary
30
1 Security: Bion refers to patience as a feeling that should prevail
2 when analytic listening is dominated by those mechanisms present
3 in the depressive position, as described by Klein, different from the
4 emotions that might prevail when a session is dominated by mech-
5 anisms present in the paranoid-schizoid position. I think Bion is
6 referring to the patience and capacity to tolerate frustration with
7 which an analyst must deal when faced with the uncertainties
8 induced in the analysis by object relations of the kind experienced
911 in the paranoid–schizoid position, in contrast to the feeling of
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264 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 certitude stimulated by the security provided by object relations

2 that take place during the depressive position (1970, p. 124).
3
4 Segal, Hanna: see: Symbolic equation
5
6 Selected fact: Concept originally used by Henri Poincaré in his
7 book Science and Method (1908) to explain the process of creation
8 of a mathematical formulation. Bion reproduces the text in Learning
9 from Experience.
10
1
“If a new result is to have any value, it must unite elements long
2
since known, but till then scattered and seemingly foreign to each
3
other, and suddenly introduce order where the appearance of dis-
4
order reigned. Then it enables us to see at a glance each of these
5 elements in the place it occupies in the whole. Not only is the new
6 fact valuable on its own account, but it alone gives a value to the
711 old facts it unites. Our mind is frail as our senses are; it would lose
8 itself in the complexity of the world if that complexity were not har-
9 monious; like the short-sighted, it would only see the details, and
20 would be obliged to forget each of these details before examining
1 the next, because it would be incapable of taking in the whole. The
2 only facts worthy of our attention are those which introduce order
3 into this complexity and so make it accessible to us.” [1962, p. 72]
4
511 In his “commentaries” about the “Imaginary twin”, although
6 by then he had not yet mentioned Poincaré, it is obvious that Bion
7 is referring to the “selected fact”, when he said:
8
9 [It is] what I now call an “evolution”, namely, the coming together,
311 by a sudden precipitating intuition, of a mass of apparently unre-
1 lated incoherent phenomena which are thereby given coherence
2 and meaning not previously possessed. [1967, p. 127]
3
4 And:
5
From the material the patient produces, there emerges, like the pat-
6
tern from a kaleidoscope, a configuration which seems to belong
7
not only to the situation unfolding, but to a number of others not
8
previously seen to be connected and which it has not been designed
911 to connect. [ibid.]
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S 265

111 In Cogitations, in an undated note, probably written some time

2 before the previous quotation, Bion correlates selected facts and com-
3 mon sense, stating that the former would provide sense to an idea
4 which, once proven to be true and communicated to others, would
5 integrate, like a selected fact, a great amount of people, societies or
6 groups, according to the sense such an idea has made common to all.
711 At first it would be a private fact, and later on, after it is believed to
8 be true because it fits into a scientific deductive system, it will
9 become public through communication and common sense, and
10 will be able to integrate a large group of minds (1992, p. 193).
1 A “cause” and a selected fact are very much alike, because they
2 can both be associated with an emotional experience capable of
3 providing, at a given moment, a sense of synthesis or creative asso-
4 ciation. At the same time it will also bring knowledge of the exis-
5 tence of discrete, not yet connected objects. A selected fact is
6 associated with the synthesis of objects in a synchronic manner
7 where time is excluded, while cause relates in a diachronic way
8 following time as a narrative (ibid., p. 275). For instance, an inter-
9 pretation could act, at a particular instant (timeless), as a selected
211 fact that triggers a series of associations that have unconsciously
1 remained in constant conjunction, while leaving out other “dis-
2 crete” objects not bound to this chain of associations. On the other
3 hand, we know because of the Oedipus myth narrative, what
4 exactly—emotionally—follows in time after Oedipus’ arrival at the
5 crossroads.
6 Further on Bion explains that the selected fact describes the syn-
7 thesis processes experienced by the psychoanalyst, similar to the
8 way in which paranoid–schizoid objects become coherent and ini-
9 tiate the depressive positions, as adumbrated by Klein (1962,
30 pp. 72, 87; 1992, p. 213). The selected fact corresponds to an emo-
1 tional experience that appears due to feelings of coherence and
2 discovery, which does not necessarily have to be logical, but does
3 require a relaxed attitude on behalf of the analyst in order to pro-
4 vide a matrix of abstraction from where the interpretation can
5 spring. If this process is obstructed, on the other hand, it will be
6 accompanied by an emotion similar to the one experienced during
7 a reversible perspective (1962, p. 87).
8 A young married childless woman stated that not long ago one
911 of her sisters, whom she felt had always been preferred by her father,
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266 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 had moved with her husband back to their parents’ house. She com-
2 plained that her father’s preference was terribly unfair and very
3 painful. Her mother, described as “an older sister”, she felt might
4 have suffered a lot because of her father’s alcohol abuse and unfaith-
5 fulness. She cries as she speaks. She refers to having difficulties with
6 her own husband, mostly in relation to sex, for he wants her but she
7 usually refuses to be touched by him, although she might give in and
8 have sex, but does not wish to be caressed. “Perhaps I feel angry
9 because he is too selfish”. There is the countertransference feeling
10 of two children playing. She recalls seeing a whale at the Miami
1 aquarium, purposely splashing some children that were watching
2 it just beside her, and this made her cry; and as she speaks about it,
3 she cries again. She also recalls when she was a little girl and a whale
4 also splattered her intentionally, and then she also wept.
5 We could deduce that the “splash from the whale” represented
6 a selected fact, because it clarifies and gives a sense to the whole
711 content of the session. The fact that the whale had deliberately
8 splattered a child, meant that the child was preferred by the whale,
9 and this was what made her cry, then and now, because it reminded
20 her of the times—in contrast to her sister—when she was not cho-
1 sen. Her parents were not good “splashing whales” for her, and she
2 had chosen to marry a man who was not either; this is the reason
3 for her ambivalence towards him, because she wished that he could
4 have such a fantastic capacity to “splash”, in order for her to use
511 him to get revenge on those who, like her sister, have been well
6 “splattered”. After this is interpreted, she produces a short dream:
7 the image of a pregnant woman who walks holding a little girl by the hand.
8 She said she could be the little girl and that the woman “was really
9 pregnant” because she looked immense. The analyst then asked:
311 “Like a whale?” In tears she smiled. It appears as if there is a
1 narcissistic conglomerate where the patient represents all the char-
2 acters: “she is pregnant of herself, as a self-splashing whale”,
3 representing a manic mechanism to deny the pain of exclusion, for
4 after all, she is continuously “dousing” herself with tears.
5 Britton and Steiner (1994) emphasized the risk that could be
6 faced when an interpretation is based on an “overvalued idea”
7 instead of a selected fact.
8
911 Sense organs: see: Perception, organs of
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S 267

111 Sensuous reality: It corresponds to the reality that can be discerned

2 by means of the sense organs, indispensable to conceive the phe-
3 nomenon, but useless to perceive the ineffable, the noumenon or
4 the thing-in-itself. Bion states that we are forced to
5
6 . . . talk about things which could be described as phenomenal,
while having to use that same language for things which are
711
noumenous. This is a serious problem. If we invent words nobody
8
will understand what those words mean. If we do not, their sensu-
9 ous history is evoked. As with a “dead” metaphor carelessly used,
10 its ghost begins to walk. Neologisms are the privilege of the
1 mentally ill. They are not available for use by the psychoanalyst.
2 [1974a, p. 34]
3
4 And further on:
5
. . . we know so little about the mind, or psyche, or spirit—
6
whichever term we borrow to talk about this thing which is not sen-
7
suously apprehensible, which does not fall within the spectrum of
8 the sensuous range. [ibid., p. 42]
9
211 Bion states that the difference can be observed when we listen to
1 someone and we say, “I see what you mean”; in contrast to the ana-
2 lyst who listens to his patient and thinks “I don’t know what he is
3 talking about”, something that can change during the session and
4 we might then say “now I know what he is talking about”. “This”,
5 says Bion, “. . . that would be known in the future but is not yet
6 known is the noumena or the thing-in-itself; later on, when it is
7 understood it would change into a phenomena.”
8
9 . . . The immediate interpretation, now, goes backward and it goes
30 forward. “I think I see what you mean.” Or to put it in other terms,
“I think I remember something like what you are saying”. . . It
1
glances back; it intuits “the shape of things to come” . . . A
2
“present” experience is past, is present and is future; it is timeless—
3 unless someone can invent space–time, psychoanalytic time and
4 space. [ibid., p. 36]
5
6 See: O, phenomena, noumena, Thing-in-itself, Truth.
7
8 Sigma (= ): Greek letter (= S) used in mathematics to denote a total
911 sum. Bion uses it to represent the totality of the mind, both in a
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268 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 nation as well as in a person. He prefers to use this sign instead of

2 a concept like noösphere introduced by Teilhard de Chardin (1947)
3 to describe the collective unconscious.  would be equivalent to
4 νουσ (noos) of the Greeks (1992, p. 313) (meaning: “intelligence,
5 spirit, mind, thought, memory”), and different from small sigma:
6  (= s), which Bion uses to represent the soma (ibid., p. 314). He
7 insists on the need to investigate the relationship between  and ,
8 which have been considered equivalent in classical psychoanalysis:
9 “The object of my proposal is to do away with such a limitation and
10 to regard the relationship between body and mind (or personality,
1 or psyche) as one that is subject to investigation” (ibid.).  and 
2 should not be confused, notwithstanding the attraction  could
3 exercise in some individuals: “But psychoanalytic scrutiny con-
4 vinces one that  is the significant fact, and  important only in so
5 far as it is receptive or emitter57 of ” (ibid., p. 316). In  can be
6 found what we call “psychotic thinking”, an area Bion referred to
711 as of “short wave”, that lacks the capacity to discriminate, some-
8 thing musicians refer to as “incapacity to listen”. The analyst must
9 adjust his/her aptitude to listen in order to penetrate the isolation
20 of the psychotic patient, who will then welcome the attention pro-
1 vided by the analyst, feeling that he has finally become compre-
2 hensible to somebody. See: Medical model.
3
4 Significant dreams: Bion alludes to several dreams, many in pre-
511 sentations of clinical cases, for example the “imaginary twin”
6 (1967), as well as other dreams he uses to explain theories, like for
7 instance the dream of the “tiger and the bear” (1965, pp. 15–16), or
8 “the arm that fell off” (1992, p. 231). He refers only once to a dream
9 of his own: “the dream of the Negro” (ibid., pp. 51–52). During the
311 weekend a patient dreams of a tiger and a bear fighting, and wakes
1 up with his own scream, dreadfully frightened, feeling that during
2 their wild tussle they would stumble and kill him. The bear man-
3 aged to stop the tiger but its nose was bitten off, an image that made
4 the patient shudder when he thought about it (1965, pp. 15–16).
5 Bion produces no patient history or associations to the dream
6 about “the arm falling off”, he only uses it as an example to explain
7
8 57
Bion uses the word “emittive” that was changed to “emitter’, because it
911 did not appear in the dictionary (Webster Collegiate Dictionary)
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S 269

111 that similar to myths, dreams can show how -elements are assem-
2 bled in a constant conjunction. He assures us that dreams and
3 myths, although he gives no explanation, can be reduced to an alge-
4 braic calculus and
5
6 . . . therefore as capable of yielding, after scrutiny, the tools that can
interpret, through their suitability to represent a problem, the prob-
711
lem itself, and so open the way to its solution. [1992, p. 230]
8
9 In the dream the patient was seated:
10
1 . . . in a railway train and gave the signal usually given to indicate
2 an intention to stop when driving a car, and that his arm fell of, it
3 must be assumed that certain elements are conjoined. [ibid., p. 231].
4
The third one is Bion’s dream that took place on the night of the 3–4
5
of August 1959, after dozing while reading a passage on Quine’s
6
Mathematical Logic (p. 31) about “dealing with negative”.
7
8 The dream, I thought as I wakened, was associated with “neg”
9 being both negro and negative. But why did I not write it down
211 then? And now I think of negative and native: “natives” is associ-
1 ated with memories of India, my mother, and natives as being
2 coloured people like Indians who were “inferior”. Also “dative” as
3 being a present, and dates which I liked. “Ablative”, to lift off or
4 take away. Negro, as he appeared in the dream, now seems to me
not to be a real person but an ideogram. My theory is that this
5
ideogram has enabled me to store all these ideas, which I am now
6
producing—maybe because I am a dreamer. Perhaps there is a class
7 of persons, or class of dreamers, to which it might be useful to say
8 some people belong. [ibid., pp. 51–52]
9
30 Bléandonu (1994) using Bion’s association with the word “date”,
1 has the following to say:
2
Bion does not consider the overdetermination of “date” through its
3
meaning or “rendezvous”: with whom? . . . Unlike a Kleinian or a
4
Freudian, Bion abandons this associative richness to consider the
5 “negro”—not as a real person but as an ideogram . . . What did Bion
6 mean by proposing that the “negro” was not a real person? Simply
7 that it was a person from a dream. He differentiated between the
8 status of a representation during sleep—where the “negro” had
911 appeared to be “real”, and had represented an “undigested” fact—
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270 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 and the status of the “negro” in the interpretation given to the
2 reader. By making the “negro” into an ideogram, Bion had partly
3 “digested” the fact. The visual image of the “negro” evoked by the
4 writing is part of the process of mental digestion. [pp. 174–175]
5
6 Sign Objects: Objects used to represent signs, different from sym-
7 bols, which make possible thinking about objects that are not pre-
8 sent. They stand for primitive forms of thinking, before proper
9 tools appear. For instance, if someone wished to know how many
10 apples there were if four men carried three each, it would not be
1 necessary to have the four men and apples present in the room, it
2 would be enough to employ mathematical notations to solve the
3 problem “without having to rely on the physical presence of the
4 objects.” If objects were present they would be signs and not
5 abstract representations or symbols. The “object-sign” corresponds
6 to the thing-in-itself or -elements (1963, pp. 38–39).
711
8 Silence: Bion referred to silence during psychoanalytic sessions
9 throughout many of his publications. As a paradigm of these con-
20 tributions it would be useful to reproduce a statement made by
1 Bion in one of his conferences in 1974 in Rio de Janeiro:
2 . . . a patient comes into the consulting room and does not say a
3 word; perhaps he keeps on coming for six days, or six weeks, or six
4 months without saying anything. If one can stand it, then after six
511 months one might begin to think, “I have an idea about the pattern
6 of this silence. I wouldn’t like to say at any given moment why his
7 silence today is not the same as his silence on Friday, and it won’t
8 be the same tomorrow. But I think that if I can go on listening to
9 him being silent”—in the way that Freud talks about the impor-
311 tance of going on being present in the consulting room with the
1 patient for long enough—”I begin to be aware of a pattern”.
Although we cannot say whether we have heard anything we could
2
say, “It has an effect upon me—not on my countertransference—
3
and I think I have had a respect for the silence of the session”. If we
4 cannot respect the silence—”I can’t be bothered with this person;
5 I can’t come here day after day and have him lying on the couch,
6 saying nothing”—then there is no chance of making any further
7 progress. It is difficult to explain to someone not present why we
8 think that we could hear the difference between one silence and
911 another. The patient, however is present. [1974a, p.94]
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S 271

111 Francesca Bion (1995), on the other hand, repeats comments

2 made by Bion about the patient who is silent all the time, as follows:
3
4 . . . restricting ourselves to verbal intercourse won’t get us far with
5 this kind of patient. What kind of psychoanalysis is needed to
interpret the silence? The analyst may think there is a pattern to the
6
silence. If they cannot respect the silence, there is no chance of
711
making any further progress. The analyst can be silent and listen—
8 stop talking so that he can have a chance to hear what is going on.
9 [p. 20]
10
1 And on another occasion:
2
3 Some silences are nothing, they are 0, zero. But sometimes that
4 silence becomes a pregnant one; it turns into 101—the preceding
and succeeding sounds turn it into valuable communication, as
5
with rests and pauses in music, holes and gaps in sculpture. [ibid.]
6
7 Social-ism (Vs narcissism): It seems that Bion, at a given moment,
8 used the concepts of socialism and narcissism to explain the polar-
9 ization between both instincts, life or sexual and death or ego-
211 instincts, as they were originally explained by Freud (1967, p. 118).
1 It would not be difficult to speculate that such a different vertex
2 would be the product of Bion’s experience in group dynamics. He
3 said:
4
5 This bi-polarity of the instincts refers to their operations as ele-
6 ments in the fulfilment of the individual’s life as an individual, and
7 as elements in his life as a social or, as Aristotle would describe it,
8 as a “political” animal. [1992, p. 105]
9
30 It is preferable, says Bion, to establish a polarization between
1 “group” and “individual” and not between ego and sexuality as
2 Freud did. At some other point, however, he emphasizes the nar-
3 cissistic schism between projected elements and their introjected
4 mirror counterpart.
5 These two terms [social-ism and narcissism] might be employed to
6 describe tendencies, one ego-centric and another socio-centric . . .
7 They are equal in amount and opposite in sign. Thus, if the love
8 impulses are narcissistic at any time, then the hate impulses are
911 social-istic, i.e. directed towards the group, and, vice versa: if the
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272 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 hate is directed against an individual as a part of narcissistic

2 tendency, then the group will be loved socialistically. [ibid., p. 122]
3
4 The increase of narcissistic intensity would be accompanied by nar-
5 rowing of the emotions, up to the point in which only one emotion,
6 such as love or hate, can be experienced. Similarly, an increase of
7 social-ism intensity is accompanied by a widening of the emotional
8 spectrum. Bion also admits that the conflict between both extremes,
9 group and individual, should be solved within the ego; but if this
10 fails, that is, when extreme pathologies obstruct such a solution, the
1 conflict might be translated into ego weakness and even its destruc-
2 tion, making it impossible ever to achieve satisfaction. Such a
3 circumstance can determine intense hate towards reality, as is com-
4 monly observed in psychosis (ibid., p. 106).
5 Pathology, says Bion, from a psychoanalytical point of view,
6 always has an emotional character. Furthermore, this source can be
711 regarded as lying in the individual’s (a) narcissism and (b) social-
8 ism. Emotions can be understood as a disturbance of ideation,
9 similar to the way in which the reflection on the water surface can
20 be disturbed by the breeze (1965, p. 80). See: Meaning, Turbulence.
1 Sophisticated group: see: Work group
2
3 Space: Bion states that the “no-breast” is at variance with the breast
4 and it can be represented using geometric similes, like for instance
511 the image of a point (.), as something ephemeral resembling a stac-
6 cato mark in a musical score. It could correspond to a breast that has
7 been reduced to a simple position, the place where the breast was;
8 the breast has disappeared consumed by greed or destroyed by
9 splitting maintaining only its position. In this sense, and following
311 the analogy of the breast–no-breast, Bion considers space as pure
1 emotional violence dominated by greed and by the “no-space”,
2 represented by the place where the space was. On the Grid, he uses
3  as “the ultimate non-existent ‘object’, the ‘space’ and ‘time’
4 annihilated object and its all-consuming greed for, and envy of,
5 anything that exists . . .” (1965, p. 104).
6 Frustration tolerance implies awareness of the amount of time
7 there is between the presence and absence of objects, “and of what
8 a developing personality later comes to know as ‘time’ . . .”. In
911 a similar trend, the position where the breast was that now is
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S 273

111 experienced as the “no-breast”, will later on correspond to the

2 notion of “space” (ibid., p. 54). See: no-breast, point, time.
3
4 Splitting in psychosis: Bion discriminates between splitting and
5 dissociation. Splitting represents a process that takes place in
6 psychosis as well as in the psychotic part of the personality, while
711 dissociation is present in more benign pathology, such as neuroses
8 like hysteria. Bion describes splitting as the main mechanism used
9 in massive and sadistic attacks against some aspects of the ego,
10 such as the apparatus of perception, verbal thinking, and against
1 the thinking process matrix, which had already been split from the
2 very beginning of the subject’s life. An important aspect is the split-
3 ting directed towards the link that brings together reality sense
4 impressions and their awareness, something that makes symbol
5 formation impossible. In subsequent stages, splitting also affects
6 word combination, like the use of substantives or verbs, hindering
7 the possibility of articulated language. Splitting is followed by
8 massive projective identifications towards internal and external
9 objects, something responsible not only for the creation of bizarre
211 objects, but for the impoverishment of the internal world as well.
1
2 Splitting, static: see: Static splitting.
3
4 Stammer: Bion describes a patient with a serious form of stammer
5 which brought him to the point where he became completely silent.
6 He tries to understand the dynamic of this patient with the help of
7 the container–contained model: “a man speaking of an emotional
8 experience in which he was closely involved began to stammer
9 badly as the memory became increasingly vivid to him” (1970,
30 pp. 93–94). Bion interprets that this man was attempting to contain
1 his experience within the words of his narrative, like someone who
2 is about to lose control uses language to avoid it; however, the
3 words he uses to contain his feelings are destroyed by them, and
4 therefore such feelings get dispersed “as enemy forces might break
5 through the forces that strove to contain them” (ibid., p. 94). The
6 meaning this man was trying to express itself became denuded, “his
7 attempt to use his tongue for verbal expression failed to ‘contain’ his
8 wish to use his tongue for masturbatory movement in his mouth”
911 (ibid.). From the point of view of a container–contained interaction
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274 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 (), this condition represents a “parasitic” relationship where

2 on element (emotion = ) depends on another one (word = ) to
3 produce a third one (incoherent communication) that will destroy
4 all three of them (ibid., pp. 95–96). See: Parasitic, Commensal,
5 Symbiotic, Palinurus, death of, Container–contained.
6
7 Statements: Bion defined “statements” as synonymous with “for-
8 mulation” (1997, p. 15). He established that the statement could be,
9
10 . . . anything from an inarticulate grunt to quite elaborate construc-
1 tions . . . A single word is a statement, a gesture or grimace is
2 a statement; in short it is any event that is part of communication
3 between analyst and analysand, or any personality and itself.
[ibid., p. 8]
4
5
Later on he assures us that all psychoanalytic statements are trans-
6
formations and also theories (ibid., p. 15). For instance, a statement
711
that declares that a phobic patient is terrorized by a hidden internal
8
murderer, represents a theory, which also demonstrates in the
9
patient the existence of a transformation in rigid movement
20
(meaning that in spite of the changes suffered by the internal object,
1
her criminal part can still be recognized). At a given moment the
2
patient refers to her difficulty travelling by plane, something that
3
might represent a corroboration of the statement-theory, because
4
she might fear that the aeroplane could crash as a retaliation for her
511
criminal part.
6
7
Static splitting: Bion considers that the condition he described as
8
reversible perspective is ruled by a “passive” form of splitting,
9
different from the more “dynamic” one described by Klein in the
311
paranoid–schizoid position.
1
2 In the situation I describe there appears to be no dynamic splitting.
3 It is as if the splitting was arrested in a static pose action being
4 no more necessary than it is when hallucination is substituted for
5 reality. [1963, p. 58]
6
7 When static splitting takes place, the patient would not have to get
8 into a disagreement about Oedipal situations within him/herself,
911 or anything like that, which have been considered “dynamic” by
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S 275

111 Bion. He just reverses the perspective, that is, changes a dynamic
2 situation into something very “passive” and different from intru-
3 sive projective and introjective identifications of -elements. In
4 other words, the patient will go “his own way” expecting the ana-
5 lyst to go “his own”, but creating the feeling that they are going
6 together.
711
8 Subsidiary basic assumption: Other forms of basic assumptions
9 (ba), for instance, to consider that the well-being of individuals is
10 secondary to the survival of the group. See: Basic assumption,
1 Dependent ba, Fight-flight ba, Pairing ba, Group
2
3 Symbiotic relation: Bion described three different kind of links
4 between container () and contained (): commensal, symbiotic,
5 and parasitic. The symbiotic represents a confrontation where one
6 element depends on another for the benefit of both. In this kind of
7 relationship the result can be translated into growth, although it
8 might not be easily discerned. In a relationship like the one that
9 takes place between the establishment and the mystic, for instance,
211 the former can express a sort of benevolent hostility towards the
1 latter, who can in turn be under careful scrutiny; however, “from
2 this scrutiny the group grows in stature and the mystic likewise”.
3 On the other hand, in the parasitic association even friendliness is
4 deadly (1970, p. 78).
5
6 Symbolic equation: Segal (1957) refers to the “equation” between
7 the original object and its symbol in the inner as well as in the outer
8 world, as representing the basis for concrete thinking in psychotic
9 patients, where substitutes do not differ from the original objects,
30 and both are treated as if they were one and the same thing.
1 “Symbolic equation”, means a lack of differentiation between object
2 and symbol: “penis = violin”. Segal says:
3
The symbolic equation between the original object and the symbol
4
in the internal and the external world is, I think, the basis of the
5 schizophrenic’s concrete thinking where substitutes for the original
6 objects, or parts of the self, can be used quite freely, but, as in the
7 . . . examples of schizophrenic patients which I quoted, they are
8 hardly different from the original object: they are felt and treated as
911 though they were identical with it. This non-differentiation between
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276 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 the thing symbolized and the symbol is part of a disturbance in the
2 relation between the ego and the object. Parts of the ego and internal
3 objects are projected into an object and identified with it. The differ-
4 entiation between the self and the object is obscured. Then, since a
part of the ego is confused with the object, the symbol—which is
5
a creation and a function of the ego—becomes, in turn, confused
6
with the object which is symbolized. [ibid., p. 41]
7
8 Bion adds that a difficulty in the treatment of psychotic patients is
9 their impossibility to work without the presence of the real objects
10 the analysis is dealing with. Using his theory of transformations,
1 Bion states that these patients are unable to transform O into K (see
2 Symbol formation).
3
4 Symbol formation: For Bion it represents the capacity to place
5 together two objects in such a way that whatever is common
6 between them, makes itself obvious, while their unaltered differ-
711 ences, are avoided (1967, p. 50); for example, the fox and astuteness.
8 The faculty to create symbols depends on: (a) the capacity to con-
9 ceive whole objects; (b) the ability to overcome the use of splitting
20 present in the paranoid–schizoid position; and (c) bringing together
1 split parts and initiating the depressive position (ibid., p. 26).
2 Bion published the above comments in 1953; however, 13 years
3 later, he seemed to have disagreed with his previous ideas of the
4 need of a complete prevalence of the depressive position in order
511 for symbolic formations to take place. At that point he questioned
6 Klein’s assumption about the fact that disarray of symbol formation
7 could give rise to serious pathologies such as psychosis.58 “The psy-
8 chotic patient”, says Bion, “does not always behave as if he is inca-
9 pable of symbol formation” (1970, p. 65). The difficulty consists in
311 the privacy of his symbolic formulation, which often cannot be pub-
1 licly recognized as such, like a “private communication made by
2 God (or Devil or Fate)”, for instance. He continues:
3
4 The symbol, as it is usually understood, represents a conjunction,
5 which is recognized by a group to be constant; as encountered in
6
7 58
According to Meltzer (1978), Bion’s creativity increased highly after
8 Klein’s death in 1960, meaning that perhaps he was submitting his originality
911 to the ideas of his analyst and teacher.
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S 277

111 psychosis it represents a conjunction between a patient and his

2 deity which the patient feels to be constant. [ibid.]
3
4 See: Symbolic equation.
5
6 Synthesis: In a strict sense it means to produce something out of its
711 own elements, like creating water from the union of oxygen and
8 hydrogen; in a wider sense, it signifies the production of something
9 new out of previously existing things, which might also have been
10 produced from a previous synthesis. Kant has distinguished
1 between synthetic and analytic prepositions. The former, different
2 from the latter, can be recognized only through experience; for
3 instance, to say that the “Angel Fall is the tallest fall in the world”,
4 would imply having previously measured it. In the analytic prepo-
5 sition, the predicate is part of the subject: “a fat man is a man”,
6 “a right–angled triangle is a triangle”. Other philosophers deny any
7 difference between them.
8
9
211
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 278

111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
711
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 279

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 T
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Thalamic or sub-thalamic terror: Word created by Bion to name the
1 kind of dread that would be experienced if there were no higher
2 mental regulation for such a fear (1987, p. 319). It would be a social
3 and individual fear, to the point that attempts would often be made
4 not to experience this fear but to ignore it: “there are situations in
5 which a patient shows great signs of fear; that patient may also
6 have learnt not to show them” (ibid., 253). There are these peculiar
7 zones of the body, which do behave as if they had a brain or mind
8 of their own; “. . . we would have to say, has the parasympathetic
9 got a brain? Does the thalamus do a parasympathetic sort of think-
30 ing?” (ibid., pp. 253–254; 1974, p. 99). See: Nameless fear.
1
2 Theorem of Pythagoras: see: Pythagoras, theorem of.
3
4 Theorem of the Bride’s Chair: Also known as “theorem of the
5 Bride”, because the demonstration of Pythagoras’ theorem, accord-
6 ing to the Arabs, resembles the saddle used by a bride. Apparently
7 the French had confused this name with another theorem, that of
8 Pons Asinorum, something questioned by Bion who assures us that
911 the latter corresponds to No. 5 of Book No. 1 and it represents an

279
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280 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 isosceles triangle, while the Bride’s Chair represents a right-angled

2 triangle which corresponds to Book 13, No. 47 (1992, p. 207).
3
4 Theory of function: see: Function, theory of.
5
6 Theory of observation: see: Psychoanalysis.
7
8 Theory of psychoanalysis: see: Psychoanalysis.
9
10 Theory of thinking: see: Thinking, theory of.
1
2 Thing-in-itself:59 Term taken by Kant from the Greek noumenon, the
3 past participle of νοειν, meaning to think, to conceive; used to
4 describe what the mind conceives beyond the phenomenon, but
5 cannot be perceived, that is, the thing in itself, the absolute reality
6 of which there is no empirical or sensible knowledge, but can be
711 known through intellectual intuition. Russell (1945) explains the
8 “thing-themselves” as
9
20 . . . the causes of our sensations, are unknowable; they are not in
1 space or time, they are not substances, nor can they be described by
2 any of those other general concepts which Kant calls categories.
3 [p. 707]
4
511 Bion correlates the thing-in-itself with two completely different
6 aspects: (a) with O or the ultimate unthinkable truth; (b) with mate-
7 rial that cannot be changed into thoughts or -elements, and can
8 only be used for evacuation through projective identifications. “It
9 is as if in one view man can never know the thing-in-itself, but only
311 secondary and primary qualities [he is referring to the analyst
1 listening during the analytical session]; whereas in the other view
2
3
4 59
Green (2000) quotes Shakespeare’s King Lear, the moment when Edgar,
5 disguised as a madman who has escaped from Bedlam, initiates a conversation
6 between the King, the Fool and Tom. The latter, so much impoverished, is
addressed by the King: “. . . Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the
7
sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! Here’s three on’s are sophisticated! Thou
8 are the thing itself” (King Lear, 3, 4, 106; my italics). Green concludes: “This was
911 long before Kant dreamt of these words” (p. 121).
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T 281

111 he can never “know” anything but the thing-in-itself [now referring
2 to the psychotic patient]” (1965, p. 40).
3 Bion differentiates between noumena and phenomena:
4
5 When the noumena, the things themselves, push forward so far that
6 they meet an object [a realization] which we can call a human mind,
711 there then comes into being the domain of phenomena. We can
guess, therefore, that corresponding to these phenomena, which are
8
something that we know about because they are us, is the thing
9
itself, the noumenon. The religious man would say, “there is, in
10
reality, God”. What Freud and psychoanalysis have investigated is
1 phenomena. (1974, p. 41)
2
3 The mind, says Bion, is an obstacle to appreciate the unknown, the
4 noumenon, which cannot be grasped unless it is exposed. He con-
5 tinues:
6
7 I would not be able to see a stream which was flowing smoothly
8 without any obstacle to disturb it because it could be so transpar-
9 ent. But if I create a turbulence by putting in a stick, then I can see
211 a stream which was flowing smoothly without any obstacle to dis-
1 turb it because it would be so transparent. [ibid.]
2
3 In 1962, when describing his theory of thinking, Bion said that,
4 “What should be a thought, a product of the juxtaposition of pre-
5 conception and negative realization becomes a bad object, indis-
6 tinguishable from a thing-in-itself, fit only for evacuation” (1967,
7 p. 112). And later on, in the same article:
8
If intolerance of frustration is dominant, steps are taken to evade
9
perception of the realization by destructive attacks. In so far as pre-
30 conception and realization are mated mathematical conceptions
1 [see: psychic mathematics] are formed . . . as if indistinguishable
2 from things-in-themselves and are evacuated at high speed as
3 missiles to annihilate space. [ibid., p. 113]
4
5 In other words, both O as the ineffable, and beta elements as
6 products of sense information, represent things-in-themselves; the
7 difference between them, however, is related to hope and to the out-
8 come that can be expected from each of them, while O can be
911 grasped (OK) and because of enlightening, -elements are only

281
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282 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 good for evacuation through projective identifications. The concept

2 of the thing-in-itself is similar to the Platonic notion of idea (see:
3 Platonic forms). For instance, the idea of a book does not have
4 sensory form, however it is a possibility present in all books, but
5 only one book in particular, let us say book X, can change into a
6 “phenomenon” and be recognized by the senses as book X, which
7 will represent a realization. In the same way, O can be conceived by
8 the senses as a possibility within an individual, but can only be for-
9 mulated once it is touched by a special event, a realization. See:
10 -space, noösphere.
1
2 Thinking, apparatus for: Bion considers that thinking depends on
3 the success of two mental developments: the development of
4 thoughts and the development of an apparatus he will provision-
5 ally call “thinking” which is forced to exist in order to deal with
6 thoughts, and not the other way around. “This” says Bion “differs
711 from any [other] theory of thought” (1967, pp. 110–111). He presents
8 two phases of increasing complexity in the setting up of the appa-
9 ratus for thinking: in the first part he assures us that thinking is
20 forced into an apparatus, which is not prepared to do this, that
1 develops as a result of external demands and must suffer changes
2 in order to adapt. The situation results in a need to change a non-
3 existing object or “no-breast” into a representation. Bion states:
4
511 As a “model” of thought I take a sensation of hunger that is asso-
6 ciated with a visual image of a breast that does not satisfy but is of
7 a kind that is needed. This needed object is a bad object. All objects
8 that are needed are bad objects because they tantalize. [1962, pp.
9 83–84]
311
1 If the capacity to tolerate frustration is adequate the internal
2 “no-breast” will transform into a thought and an apparatus for
3 thinking will be developed, which will make frustration more
4 bearable. But, if the capacity to deal with frustration is inadequate
5 the internal bad “no-breast” will pressure the mind towards eva-
6 sion of frustration and, instead of forming a thought, the no-breast
7 will transform into a bad object or a -element, indistinguishable
8 from the thing-in-itself, which will serve only to be evacuated. In
911 this case, instead of having an apparatus for thinking, the mind will
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T 283

111 be dominated by mechanisms of projective identification, used to

2 discharge the accumulation of bad objects (1967, pp. 111–112) (or
3 for acting-out). According to Bion, the apparatus for thinking
4 and the digestive apparatus have common origins, for it is the same
5 one that has originally dealt with sense impressions related to the
6 alimentary canal: milk and affect or the “good breast” arrive at the
711 same time (1962, p. 57).
8 The baby is conscious of the existence inside of him of a very
9 bad breast, that is, a non-existent breast which, because it is needed
10 and not present, produces painful feelings dealt with by evacuation
1 through the respiratory apparatus or through “swallowing” a satis-
2 fying breast. This breast is then indistinguishable from a “thought”
3 or even better, from a primitive thought or proto-thoughts (ibid.,
4 p. 84). On the other hand, the “swallowed” thought is independent
5 of the existence of an object that has really been put inside the
6 mouth; in this way, the breast or the “thing-in-itself” is equivalent
7 to the idea in the mind and reciprocally indistinguishable from the
8 “thing-in-itself” in the mouth.
9 (A) In the second part of the systematization of the apparatus
211 for thinking, Bion adds the concepts of container () and contained
1 () and does so by taking advantage of the “integrating reticules”,
2 a notion introduced by Elliot Jaques (1960), understood as a “com-
3 plex mental scheme” that enables the mind to achieve the notion of
4 a total object (1962, pp. 92–93). Bion uses this concept in order to
5 explain the complexity of successive growth that takes place
6 between container () and contained () in the achievement of
7 higher levels of abstraction that will allow one to learn from expe-
8 rience. This development is typical of what Bion calls a commensal
9 relationship between () and (). Theoretically this process will
30 begin at a moment when these elements () are organized in a
1 form previous to what Poincaré (1908) has called the selected fact.
2 The containers () represent doubts, questions or variables joined
3 by emotional experiences that successively add up inside the con-
4 tents () in a continuous series that can be represented as: n + n;
5 a process that at the end guarantees the successive growth of the
6 apparatus and the possibility of learning from experience. This
7 learning will depend on the capacity of n to integrate and to keep
8 open at the same time, free of rigidity and ready for further assim-
911 ilations. An individual in whom this mechanism operates will be
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284 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 capable of preserving knowledge and experience, and capable of

2 using his past experiences as well as being receptive to new ones
3 (1962, pp.92–93). Therefore, the level of K will depend on this kind
4 of “commensal” relationship, for instance, the successive complex-
5 ity of new hypotheses that will form systems and later on deduc-
6 tive scientific systems. Bion also relates the apparatus for thinking
7 to I (Idea), assuring us that the material out of which the apparatus
8 is formed and has to deal with is I (1963, p.31). See: Thinking,
9 theory of, Thoughts, Verbal thoughts.
10
1 Thinking, theory of: Bion published a paper with this title in 1962,
2 where he depicted a theory about thinking, similar, according to
3 him, to a philosophical theory, because philosophers are also con-
4 cerned with the same matters, and yet different in that his theory
5 was created to be used in everyday practice, and its hypotheses to
6 be empirically validated by psychoanalysts. However, it can be
711 related to some philosophical theories in the same way that there is
8 a relationship between applied and pure mathematics. He believes
9
his theory has no diagnostic importance, although it can be helpful
20
when some psychological disturbance is suspected (1967, p. 110).
1
Thinking depends on the significant development of two significant
2
constructions: (a) thoughts; and (b) an apparatus for thinking,
3
absolutely necessary for the development of thoughts. This theory
4
would differ from others, because it defines thinking as a “develop-
511
ment forced on the psyche by the pressure of thoughts and not the
6
other way around” (ibid., p. 111). Thought disturbances might be
7
associated with breakdown of thoughts, the apparatus for thinking,
8
or both.
9
Following Freud (1911), the thoughts originated from ideation
311
and acquired special quality of action, something that provided the
1
2 apparatus for thinking with a capacity to discharge the mind from
3 accretion of stimuli, thorough the use of projective identifications.
4 Generally, this theory of thinking introduces the existence of an
5 omnipotent phantasy: that it is possible temporarily to split unde-
6 sirable aspects of the personality—sometimes valuable aspects—to
7 place them inside an object and force this object to experience those
8 emotions of which they wanted to free themselves. See: Thinking,
911 apparatus for, Thoughts, Verbal thoughts.
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T 285

111 Thoughts: They could be conceived as space occupied by no-

2 things, marked by signs and words, and used to solve problems in
3 the absence of the object (1965, p. 106). Different from conceptions,
4 which result from the mating of pre-conceptions with realizations,
5 thoughts, on the other hand, also represent the mating of pre-con-
6 ceptions, but with frustrations (1967, p. 111). In other words, the
711 realization of a wish will give place to a conception, but frustration
8 will produce thoughts. The model suggested by Bion is based on
9 the baby whose expectation of feeding is confronted with the real-
10 ization of an absent breast or no-breast. The next step will depend
1 on how the baby reacts, either to avoid frustration or to modify it.
2 If frustration tolerance is satisfactory, the internal no-breast will be
3 changed into thoughts, primitive thoughts or proto-thoughts (1962,
4 p. 84) and an apparatus for thinking that will allow the frustration
5 to be more tolerable. But if the capacity to deal with frustration is
6 insufficient, the internal no-breast will press the mind towards eva-
7 sion of frustration and instead of a thought being created, the no-
8 breast will become a bad object indistinguishable from a thing-
9 in-itself, good only to be evacuated by mechanisms of projective
211 identification. Thoughts could be classified according to their
1 historical development: (a) pre-conceptions; (b) conceptions; and
2 (c) concepts (1967, p. 111). Interchanges between paranoid–
3 schizoid and depressive positions are also related to the develop-
4 ment of thoughts and thinking. See: Thinking, apparatus for,
5 Thinking, theory of, Verbal thoughts.
6
Thoughts without a thinker: see: wild-thoughts
7
8 Three-kneed thing: Following Plutarch, Bion associates the
9 Oedipus myth with a triangle rectangle, where the sides of the right
30 angle represent both parents and the hypotenuse the child. But Bion
1 adds that
2
The Greek term [triangle] could be translated as, “a three-kneed
3
thing with equal legs”. R. B. Onians [1951] has shown—and he
4
cannot be accused of any tenderness to Freud’s theories of sexual-
5 ity—that the knees, in early Greek literature, are very frequently
6 associated with the genitalia. This has made me look at Euclid’s
7 Fifth Proposition in a new light. It also makes one inclined to
8 attempt a revaluation of the question traditionally attributed to the
911 Sphinx. [1992, pp. 201–202]
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286 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 See: Pythagoras, theorem of, Euclid, geometry of.

2
3 Tiger and the bear, dream of: see: Significant dreams.
4
5 Time: When satisfaction is not possible (no-breast), the future will
6 depend on how the ego tolerates frustration. According to Bion the
7 ego responds in different ways: (a) it could evade the situation with
8 the use of evacuatory thoughts or -elements, which are projected
9 inside internal or, more often, external objects; (b) it could modify
10 the situation; (c) it could establish a splitting between inanimate
1 (material) and animate (mental) objects; or (d) it could produce a
2 thought by mating a pre-conception with a negative realization of
3 an absent object.
4 Frustration tolerance implies consciousness of the period
5 elapsed between the presence and the absence of objects, that is,
6 what a developing personality would then recognize as “time”. It
711 is similar to the place where the object was, experienced as a “no-
8 breast” and analogous to the notion of space. The factors that
9 reduce the breast to a point, said Bion, also reduce time to “now”:
20
1 Time is denuded of past and future. The “now” is subjected to
2 attacks [extremely envious] similar to those delivered against
3 space, or more precisely, the point. [1965, p. 55]
4
511 If we say, for instance, “where the past used to be and is now a not-
6 present”, or in another form: “where the future used to be there is
7 now a not-present” (ibid., p. 100) we are referring to transference
8 and it represents an attack and a splitting of the present reduced to
9 a not-present. The no-thing is related to space in the same manner
311 that no-present is related to time. Such incapacity to discriminate
1 past from present and future is responsible for feelings of boredom,
2 of unending tautology or sameness frequently found in borderline
3 pathologies. See: Space, No-breast, Point, No-thing.
4
5 Tolerance or intolerance of frustration: see: Frustration, tolerance
6 and intolerance of.
7
8 Touch: The sense of touch is used as an “antidote” for the confusion
911 that might take place in a container–contained interaction, some-
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T 287

111 thing like to “touch” in order to distinguish, to differentiate

2 between the container and its content (1963, p. 95). Could also be
3 used to calm down, in that the skin can be used as barrier between
4 two objects, something like a “distant closeness” (see: Distance). It
5 would be different from other models using sense organs like sight,
6 hearing or smell, because all these, different from touch, can be
711 experienced from a distance; however, touch produces “the para-
8 doxical effect that the topographically closer relationship implied
9 by tactile contact is less intimate, i.e. confused, than the more dis-
10 tant relationship implied by the . . .” other models (ibid., p. 96).
1
2 Tower of Babel, myth of the: This is a myth that, according to Bion,
3 combines:
4
5 . . . the following components: a universal language; the building by
the group of a tower which is felt by the Deity to be a menace to his
6
position; a confounding of the universal language and a scattering
7
abroad of the people on the face of the earth. [1948b, pp. 186–187]
8
9 The idea that the tower will reach the sky introduces an element of
211 messianic hope, present in the “pairing group”; however, the
1 possibility that such a hope might become true, violates an impor-
2 tant canon of this basic assumption (ba): the norm that such a hope
3 could never be achieved; such a possibility, could make “the group
4 dissolve in schisms” (ibid., pp. 185–187).
5 In his autobiography, perhaps imitating Descartes, Bion states:
6
7 I am: therefore I question. It is the answer—the “yes, I know”—that
8 is the disease which kills;60 it is the Tree of Knowledge which kills.
9 Conversely, it is not the successful building of the Tower of Babel,
30 but the failure that gives life, initiates and nourishes the energy to
1 live, to grow, to flourish. The song the sirens sing, and always have
sung, is that the arrival at the inn—not the journey—is the reward,
2
the prize, the haven, the cure. [1985, p. 52]
3
4 The Tower of Babel can also be seen as God’s punishment
5 (superego) for men daring to reach his level, his knowledge; in this
6
7
8 60
Possibly Bion is referring to Maurice Blanchot’s expression: “La réponse est
911 le malheur de la question”, something he frequently quoted.
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288 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 sense Bion considers this myth similar to the Garden of Eden (to eat
2 from the “Tree of Wisdom”), and to the sphinx in Oedipus (that
3 destroys the one who knows). This interpretation, on the other
4 hand, seems to contradict his statement about Oedipus’ episte-
5 mophilic instinct, on how Oedipus is dominated by his desire to
6 know the truth regardless of its consequences, controlled by strong
7 feelings of omnipotent curiosity and arrogance, which change into
8 stupidity and tragedy. The myth in summary represents an attack
9 on the desire to reach heaven as a symbolism for knowledge,
10 wisdom, -function, links and language that makes co-operation
1 possible (1992, p. 241).
2 Following the Grid, it could be understood as follows: a group
3 of people express the definitory hypothesis of building a tower to
4 reach the sky (C1), looking for knowledge and integration (E3, E4),
5 a message received by a deity who feels threatened (D2) and ends
6 up punishing them all (A6). See: Basic assumption, Pairing group
711 (Pba), Myth, Oedipus myth, Arrogance, curiosity and stupidity.
8
9 Transference: About this concept Bion said:
20
1 The elements of the transference are to be found in that aspect of
2 the patient’s behaviour that betrays his awareness of the presence
3 of an object that is not himself. No aspect of his behaviour can be
4 disregarded . . . His greeting, or neglect of it, references to couch, or
furniture, or weather, all must be seen in that aspect of them that
511
relates to the presence of an object not himself. [1963, p. 69]
6
7
Applying psychic mathematics Bion represents the mind with the
8
equation (), where  would indicate the non-saturated aspect
9
that must be examined during each session to determine the degree
311
of saturation produced by the transference. From the vertex of
1
transformation theory, Bion represents transferential neurosis as:
2
T (patient)  (1965, p. 18):
3
4 This transformation involves little deformation: the term “transfer-
5 ence”, as Freud used it, implies a model of movement of feelings
6 and ideas from one sphere of applicability to another. I propose
7 therefore to describe this set of transformations as “rigid motions”.
8 The invariance of rigid motion must be contrasted with invariance
911 peculiar to projective transformation. [ibid., p. 19]
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T 289

111 Bion states that the presence of the patient in the session shows
2 that he knows about the analyst’s existence, but such a fact is used,
3 conformably with column 2 of the Grid, to deny the absence. “He
4 reacts in the session as if I were absent . . . this behaviour is
5 intended to deny my presence”:
6
711 The model by which I represent his “vision” of me is that of an
8 absent breast, the place or position, that I, the breast, ought
9 to occupy but do not. The “ought” expresses moral violence and
omnipotence. The visual image of me can be represented by what
10
a geometer might call a point, a musician the staccato mark in a
1
musical score. [ibid., p. 53]
2
3 Transference has a strong and a weak point, which require dis-
4 tinction in order to avoid confusion. Its strength consists in that
5 “two people have a ‘fact’ available to both and therefore open for
6 discussion by both”; the weakness, on the other hand, lies in the fact
7 that the transference “is ineffable and cannot be discussed by
8 anyone else. The failure to recognize this simple fact has led to
9 confusion” (1992, p. 353). See: Transformations, Rigid motion trans-
211 formations, Projective transformations, Countertransference, No-
1 breast, Point, Line.
2
3 Transference interpretation: Bion explains that during the treat-
4 ment of patients presenting serious thought disorders, “opportuni-
5 ties for orthodox transference interpretation occurred and were
6 taken, but the patient often learned nothing from them. The stream
7 of disjointed associations continued” (1962, p. 20). Only after he
8 realised that the patient projected into the analyst his own sanity
9 or the “non-psychotic part of his personality” or -function, did
30 the situation change. He states:
1
2 The theory of functions offered a prospect of solving this problem
3 by assuming that I contained unknown functions of his personality
4 and from this to scrutinize the sessional experience for clues of what
5 these might be. I assumed that I was “consciousness”. [ibid., p. 21]
6
7 Bion concludes that only after he stopped using mechanisms ori-
8 ented towards the understanding of the transference, did he become
911 aware that the patient was dreaming awake with the immediate
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290 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 events in the session, or in other words, translating sense impres-

2 sions into -elements but in a wrong way: “I was witnessing an
3 inability to dream through lack of alpha-elements and therefore an
4 inability to sleep or wake, to be either conscious or unconscious”
5 (ibid.). See: Transference, Countertransference, Rigid motion trans-
6 formations.
7
8 Transformation of the analysis: Bion used this expression to refer
9 to the successive changes of “uses” in the elements that set out the
10 horizontal axis of the Grid. See: Grid, the, Horizontal axis, Trans-
1 formation, Psychoanalysis.
2
3 Transformations: From a general perspective Bion defines this con-
4 cept as the series of changes experienced by a group of elements
5 that vary from a previous to a subsequent stage, where the recog-
6 nition of the identity of these elements that have changed, would
711 depend on the existing invariants. Transformation seems to be
8 related to topology and to the classical concept of “psychoanalytic
9 process.”
20 The total development experienced in any transformation is rep-
1 resented with T, which covers two aspects: (a) the process of trans-
2 formation = T; (b) the final product of the transformation Bion
3 represents as T (1965, p. 10). For instance, the transformation (T)
4 experienced by a landscape (T), when it is painted on a canvas
511 (T) by an artist. Another example would be the transformation (T)
6 experienced by a patient’s hypochondriacal symptoms (T), when
7 they change into violence (T), after the patient has gone through a
8 psychotic crisis and the family, which has remained apparently
9 neutral, threatens to prosecute the analyst, who develops, because
311 of the situation, a state of anxiety. The whole catastrophic change,
1 now experienced by the group, can be equivalent to the hypochon-
2 driacal symptoms (invariants) the patient had suffered (T) before
3 the crisis. T (patient), in this case, would represent the whole
4 process of changes met by the patient, including T(patient) and
5 T(patient); while the transformation suffered by the analyst can be
6 represented: T(analyst), from T(analyst) to T(analyst) (ibid.,
7 pp. 7–11). Or: (a) in relation to the patient: T, Tp and Tp;
8 (b) in relation to the analyst: Ta, Ta and Ta (ibid., p. 24). From the
911 point of view of O, Bion states that transformation represents the
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T 291

111 “phenomenal counterpart of O” (1965, p. 40), that allows acting as

2 a constant conjunction to recognize a fact, an emotional state or a
3 representation (ibid., p. 68). The landscape, as well as the patient
4 and the analyst, for instance, represent a transformation that moved
5 from the unknown or the thing-in-itself to K, or knowledge of
6 O (O  K). O should be available to the analyst (Ta) as well as to
711 the patient (Tp). All these transformations, depending on the
8 assessment of the associations, can have a place on the Grid, for
9 instance A1 or C2 among many others (ibid., p. 13). Truth is another
10 important element Bion has considered:
1
2 If truth is not essential to all values of Ta, Ta must be regarded
3 as expressed in and by manipulations of the emotions of patient or
4 public and not in or by the interpretation; truth is essential for any
5 value of Ta in art or science. [ibid., p. 37]
6
7 Transformations in the patient as well as in the analyst (Tp and
8 Ta) are influenced by emotional links (L, H and K), although it
9 is expected that Ta and Ta should always be free from such influ-
211 ences, at least in an ideal analyst who never acts out his/her
1 countertransference. Obviously, the opposite can be expected from
2 the patient.
3 A model of transformation: In Chapters Ten and Twelve of his
4 book Transformations (1965), Bion used the word “cycle” to desig-
5 nate a “model of transformation”, which appears rather compli-
6 cated on first reading. He uses a series of trays filled with marbles
7 of assorted sizes and colours to represent different variables. The
8 trays correspond to successive time-space lapses of transformations
9 designed as “cycle 1, cycle 2 . . . cycle n”; while the marbles signify
30 dimensions or elements experimenting transformations. If we
1 apply this model to a psychoanalytic session, it becomes more com-
2 prehensible and easier to follow. In an “ideal” session we will have,
3 in the first place, the patient’s free association manifest discourse,
4 and at the same time, the analyst’s attentive listening without
5 memory, desire or understanding (corresponding to the trays in
6 Bion’s model). This situation, at the beginning of the session, which
7 undergoes a continuous process of transformation in both minds
8 (corresponding to marbles in Bion’s model), would be represented
911 as “cycle 1”; the process of transformation would be characterized
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292 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 as T, and the end of the process, as T, or Tp and Tp if effected
2 by the patient, or Ta and Ta if related to the analyst (see:
3 Transformations). In the mind of the analyst the transformation is
4 towards emergence of O, or “becoming or being O or being
5 ‘become’ by O” (1965, p. 163). Tp would be equal to O (Tp = O,
6 cycle 1). Transformation in O is followed by transformation of K
7 in the analyst’s mind, in order to start shaping the interpretation:
8 TaO  K or TO = TK, cycle 2; once the interpretation is formed
9 (TK) and phrased, cycle 2 is completed and cycle 3 starts as a
10 transformation taking place in the patient’s mind. And so on.
1 There is a further complication because, at the same time, Bion
2 attempts to place the results of different transformations on the
3 categories of the Grid; for instance, the interpretation represented
4 as TKb (cycle 1) could correspond to a definitory hypothesis such
5 as B1, or the patient’s association to the interpretation might be a
6 denial or resistance that could correspond to “Tp (cycle 2) in row
711 A2” of the Grid. See: Projective transformations, Transformations
8 in rigid movement, Invariants, Transformations of K, Transform-
9 ations of O, Transformations in O, Transformations in halluci-
20 nosis, Catastrophic change, Thing-in-itself, O, Grid, the.
1
2 Transformations in hallucinosis: Some psychotic patients (or the
3 psychotic part of the personality in borderline patients) experience
4 the omnipotence implicit in hallucinations—they are able to hallu-
511 cinate anything they might desire—as a method to reach indepen-
6 dence, a system they consider superior to psychoanalysis. In states
7 of hallucinosis, “circularity” and perpetuity is established as a need
8 to compensate for frustrations, but since hallucinations are des-
9 tined to fail, greed increments and the need for further hallucina-
311 tions increment as well (1970, p. 37). On the other hand, if there is
1 the feeling that the “magic” of hallucination is failing, the patient
2 could suspect that the analyst’s “envy” and “rivalry” are responsi-
3 ble for it. There is the belief that there are “superior” objects related
4 to independence and self-sufficiency, which are more efficient than
5 any other object, and are responsible for all actions, possibly occu-
6 pying the place of the father, mother, analyst, purpose, ambition,
7 interpretation or ideas. The relationship among these objects is
8 based only on a “superior–inferior” dimension, where it is better to
911 receive than to give. The patient, dominated by important feelings
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T 293

111 of rivalry, tries to take over “the place” of the analyst and to divert
2 him from his analytical vertex, creating a dilemma in the analyst:
3 either to give up his technique, or to maintain the analysis and
4 demonstrate to the patient that he considers his acts and methods
5 superior. Any of these possibilities would probably give place to
6 rivalrous acting-out (1965, p. 136). The problem can be summarized
711 as the struggle between the virtues of either a transformation by
8 hallucinosis or a transformation by psychoanalysis. When this
9 dilemma is interpreted it can turn into an intrapsychic conflict
10 between different parts of the mind. From the point of view of con-
1 tainer–contained theory, Bion suggested the existence of a tendency
2 to “exaggerate”, that is, a condition characterized by a progressive
3 increment of a need for affection from the contained, and an incre-
4 ment of an evacuatory rejection from the container, a mechanism
5 Bion referred to as “hyperbole.”
6 The patient’s attitude would correspond to A6 and the analyst’s
7 to F1, F3 or F4, avoiding column 2. The analyst’s link with the
8 patient would correspond to K, but not to L or H. From the point
9 of view of the patient, the interpretation could be experienced as
211 A6, or elements to be evacuated, representing arguments used by
1 the analyst to prove the superiority of psychoanalysis (ibid., p. 143).
2 The general picture presented by these patients “is that of a per-
3 son anxious to demonstrate his independence of anything other
4 than his own creations” (ibid., p. 137), which are a product of their
5 supposed ability to use their senses as evacuatory organs to build a
6 background that encircles them. The main purpose of their senses
7 is to construct a perfect world, where any evidence of imperfection
8 is ipso facto experienced as a consequence of external hostile forces
9 that require evacuation. Thanks to this capacity, the patient feels
30 completely independent from everything except for his own prod-
1 ucts, feeling beyond any feelings of rivalry, envy, greed, threat, love
2 or hate; but just as any other psychotic defence, this mechanism
3 fails and threats of imperfection and dependency set in. Rivalry
4 with the analyst is an attempt to prove the superiority of the
5 methods used by the patient for whom the word “cure” is an
6 expression of victory (ibid., pp. 137–143).
7 Bion proposes the possibility of using mathematical elements to
8 represent the conflicts present in hallucinosis and he distinguishes
911 several formulae. In the first place, he tries to represent the normal
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294 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 situation where the absence of the breast and a high frustration
2 tolerance allows thoughts or K links to take place, an operation
3 that could correspond to transformation in rigid movement (ibid.,
4 pp. 133–136). He represents this normal condition as follows:
5
6 a1 The infant feels it is being satisfied by the breast: the breast dis-
7 appears and the satisfaction with it.
8 a2 1 breast + 0 breast = 0 breast
9
a3 1 + 0 = 0. [1965, p. 133]
10
1 But if frustration cannot be tolerated, as observed in psychotic
2 patients, we have to deal with a situation where absence of the
3 breast is experienced as a presence, the word becomes a thing and
4 the memory of satisfaction is used to deny the absence of satisfac-
5 tion; it corresponds to the mathematics of transformation in hallu-
6 cinosis:
711
8 (using b instead of a)
9
b2 1 breast + 0 breast = 1 breast
20
1 b3 1 + 0 = 1.
2
3 Furthermore, says Bion, under the dominion of hallucinosis, the
4 equation 0 – 0 = 1 is also possible: 0 + 0 = 00, “That is to say that if
511 noughtness is added to noughtness the noughtness is multiplied by
6 itself” (ibid., p. 134).
7
The ability of 0 to increase thus by parthenogenesis corresponds to
8
the characteristics of greed which is also able to grow and flourish
9 exceedingly by supplying itself with unrestricted supplies of
311 nothing . . . In hallucinosis nought denuded of its noughtness is
1 hostile envious and greedy and does not even exist as it is denuded
2 of its existence [ibid.]
3
4 Previously, Bion had represented this concept using arrows that
5 move in the opposite direction to the axes of the Grid and adding
6 a negative sign: . See: Transformations, Projective transfor-
7 mations, Transformations in rigid movement, Invariants, Trans-
8 formations of K, Transformations of O, Transformations in O,
911 Hallucinosis, Conscious awareness.
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T 295

111 Transformations in K are related to “knowing about” something,

2 whereas transformation in O is related to becoming or being O “or
3 to being “become” by O”. O evolves in different ways: (a) becom-
4 ing manifest or knowable; (b) becoming a “remainder” an “incar-
5 nation or embodiment or an incorporation” (here Bion is possibly
6 referring to the kind or relationship he described in the “God-
711 head”); (c) becoming TbO or, at-one-ment, as is expected to take
8 place during analytic listening (1965, p. 163).
9 There is a great difference between “being” O and having rival-
10 ries with O, because this last condition implies the presence of
1 important feelings of envy, hate, love, megalomania, and acting-
2 out; for instance the case of a thinker who is contained by an idea,
3 as observed in religious fanatics or paranoid dictators who become
4 megalomanic. Acting-out should be differentiated from action, as
5 considered in the horizontal axis of the Grid, because action helps
6 being O, but acting-out opposes it.
7 Although O is related to growth, their relationship is different
8 from other transformations, such as K, because K induces growth,
9 but O means “knowing about growth”. Religious or philosophical
211 transformations are closer to transformations in O than mathemat-
1 ical transformations (ibid., p. 156). There is an important aspect in
2
the relation of O with K, Bion has described as some kind of per-
3
verse defence, when a patient induces growth towards K in order
4
to obstruct transformations in O, as a sort of reversible perspective.
5
Bion said:
6
7 By agreeing with the interpretation it is hoped that the analyst will
8 be inveigled into a collusive relationship to preserve K without
9 being aware that he is doing so. If the manoeuvre is successful
30 transformations in K fulfil an F2 role preventing the inception of T
1  T = K  O (1965, p.160).
2
3 Transformations of the type TK TO, could induce resistances
4 manifested as fear or hatred, because of the emphasis placed on
5 “knowing” something instead of “becoming” something. It can be
6 observed in persons who try to find answers for their suffering in
7 popular self-taught books, or who identify analysis with a univer-
8 sity subject, or who idealize transference and expect to be “cured”
911 by the analyst (ibid., p. 163). The opposite transformation: TO  TK
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296 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 depends on the capacity of the analyst to listen free from memory
2 and desire (1970, p. 30).
3
4 Transformations in O: Because O is the unknowable, the ineffable,
5 and is always transcending and becoming, all qualities attributed to
6 O as well as links established with O are really transformations of
7 O. L, H and K are links and because of that, they are substitutes for
8 the ultimate relationship with O. They cannot reach O, but they are
9 appropriate for transformation in O; for instance, a feeling experi-
10 enced in the countertransference can help us to know about the
1 patient’s O, but such a feeling could also become a “counter-
2 acting”, a discrimination that according to Bion would demand a
3 good analytical training in the analyst.
4
5 Transformations in rigid movements: Concept borrowed from
6 projective geometry and used by Bion to describe a form of
711 transformations (T) that show little deformation between the
8 original object or thing-in-itself (T) and the end product of the
9 transformation (T). Transference is a good example of this form of
20 transformation, where the past is transferred to the analyst without
1 any deformation, something that gives this mechanism great credi-
2 bility as a reliable exponent of the truth (1965, p. 19). The rigidity of
3 the invariants in this form of transformation, different from pro-
4 jective transformation, eases the relationship between O and the
511 patient (Op) (ibid., p. 31) and facilitates understanding of the ses-
6 sion as well as the creation of the interpretation. A good example
7 of this kind of transformation can be seen in Bion’s case of the
8 weekend dream of the “tiger and the bear” (ibid., pp. 15–16). There
9 are, however, other cases where Op (the patient’s O) is so elusive
311 and opaque that the interpretation results are highly speculative,
1 corresponding then to “projective transformations.” See: Trans-
2 formations, Projective transformations, Transformation in hallu-
3 cinosis, Invariants, Transformations of K, Transformations of O,
4 Transformations in O, Significant dreams, Transference, O.
5
6 Transformations of K: Taken from the first letter of knowledge, K
7 represents one of the links, together with L (love) and H (hate).
8 Transformation of K is related to transformations towards growth
911 in the analyst, and eventually, in the patient too. Growth would not
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T 297

111 correspond to L and H. Bion refers to a form of perverse defence,

2 where the patient might induce transformation towards K in order
3 to avoid transformation in O, similar to the concept of rationaliza-
4 tion. Transformation from O to K can only be established when the
5 analyst is free from memory and desire. Bion said:
6
711 By agreeing with the interpretation it is hoped that the analyst will
8 be inveigled into a collusive relationship to preserve K without
being aware that he is doing so. If the manoeuvre is successful
9
transformations in K fulfil an F2 role preventing the inception of T
10
 T = K  O. [1965, p.160]
1
2 See: Transformation, Transformation of O, Transformation in O,
3 Memory, Desire, Links.
4
5 Transformations of O: These describe the series of transformations
6 experienced by O. Such transformations take place because O is not
7 static, O is a truth and is continuously changing or becoming; in
8 other words, O is seriously affected by time as well as space. What
9 is true for this culture might not be true for a different one, what is
211 true today might not be true tomorrow; O from today’s session will
1 never be the same O in tomorrow’s session; this is why it is so dan-
2 gerous to remember. See: O, Transformations, Transformation in
3 O, Transformation of K, Truth, Memory, Desire, Godhead.
4
5 Trays: see: Transformations.
6
7 Tropism: Bion uses the term to describe an inclination towards cer-
8 tain kinds of object relation observed in psychotic patients or
9 related to the psychotic part of the personality, which makes use
30 of “intrusive” forms of projective identifications. It can be associ-
1 ated, although with certain cautiousness, with the classical notion
2 of instincts. The concept is portrayed in Cogitations (1992,
3 pp. 34–36) and although it is not dated, it probably coincided with
4 Bion’s work on “attack on links” and “maternal reverie”,
5 described in relation to his theory of thinking and written during
6 the fifties. Bion said:
7
8 Thus, considered individually, the tropisms are seen to issue in
911 seeking (1) an object to murder or be murdered by, (2) a parasite or
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298 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 a host, (3) an object to create or by which to be created. But taken

2 as a whole, and not individually, the action appropriate to the
3 tropisms in the patient who comes for treatment is a seeking for an
4 object with which projective identification is possible. [ibid.,
pp. 34–35]
5
6
On the other hand, an object, for example a breast (the mother), can
7
refuse to be used as a depository for a projective identification;
8
something Bion considers to be due to both persecutory anxiety and
9
hate, or to apathy. These two types of response (opposite to a reverie
10
condition) contribute to the environmental components that are
1
responsible for the development of the psychotic part of the person-
2
ality. The object’s refusal to accept projective identifications brings
3
about a re-introjection of these tropisms, now more virulent,
4
5 together with a primitive form of superego, hostile towards projec-
6 tive identifications, as a form of communication. According to Bion,
711 the tropism, not introjected by the refusing breast, or re-introjected
8 by the immature psyche, remains in between, enclosed within the
9 vehicle of communication itself, be that sound, sight or touch. “Thus
20 enclosed, the tropism and its envelope become persecuted and per-
1 secuting” (ibid., p. 35). See: Linking, attacks on, Maternal reverie,
2 Psychotic and non-psychotic parts of the personality, Projective
3 identification, Communication, Bizarre objects, Hallucinations,
4 Delusions.
511
6 Truth: Bion stated:
7
. . . healthy mental growth seems to depend on truth as the living
8
organism depends on food. If it is lacking or deficient the person-
9
ality deteriorates. [1965, p. 38]
311
1
There is a natural hunger for truth; perhaps because there is the
2
empirical knowledge that lies induce suffering (1992 p. 99).61
3
Originally Bion defined truth as opposed to falsehood and related
4
to transformations in K:
5
6
7 61
In Latin, mind (mentis) and lie (mentior) have the same root. Perhaps it
8 might be this hunger for truth that motivates patients to attend psychoanalyti-
911 cal treatment for years continuously.
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T 299

111 Thus “truth” is the name I give to the quality that I attribute to any
2 statement that is a hypothesis relating to phenomena with which I
3 have an “I know . . .” relationship. [ibid., p. 270]
4
5 Afterwards Bion related truth with transformations in O:
6
711 All thinking and all thoughts are true when there is no thinker. In
contrast to this, for lies and falsities a thinker is absolutely neces-
8
sary. In any situation where a thinker is present the thoughts when
9
formulated are expressions of falsities and lies. The only true
10
thought is one that has never found an individual to “contain” it.
1 [1970, p. 117]
2
3
To say that the “sky is blue”, does not need a thinker, although it
4
can be described. On the other hand, O represents the absolute
5
truth, which at a given moment is intercepted by a thinker, such as
6
the analyst, a mystic, or an artist; although the thinker and O exist
7
independently. The classical resistance of a patient in analysis can
8
be the expression of a thought in search of a thinker; usually this
9
could be his own, although this is not necessarily so. A transfor-
211
mation of O in K (O  K), for example, when an interpretation is
1
formulated, can be intuited and translated but not thought, and the
2
capacity to grasp it is achieved by means of an act of faith. Follow-
3
ing the container–contained theory, the relationship between a
4
thought and a thinker who contains it (or vice versa) can be com-
5
6 mensal, symbiotic or parasitic. In a commensal relationship all ele-
7 ments involved benefit from each other and grow with the relation,
8 like a thinker who invents something useful. However, in the para-
9 sitic relationship, the idea resulting is false and it will proliferate
30 until it becomes a lie.
1 In schizoid personalities, said Bion, the superego is formed
2 before the ego and it will assume its role generating not only an
3 imperfect development of the reality principle, but also an exalta-
4 tion of morals as well as little respect for the truth. What the ana-
5 lyst expresses should always be structured with truthful verbal
6 thoughts belonging to rows E and F, possibly D and G and always
7 within columns 1, 3 and 5 of the Grid. What the patient says, on the
8 other hand, can belong to any category because he does not have a
911 compromise with the truth, and can fall anywhere on the Grid.
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300 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 There is a natural need to be aware of emotional experiences,

2 similar to the need to be aware of concrete objects through the use
3 of sense impressions, because absence of such consciousness
4 implies a deprivation of truth, which is essential for mental health,
5 “its deprivation is analogous to the effect that physical hunger has
6 on the mind” (1962, p. 56).
7 The truth, similar to the Oedipus myth, has two faces, a private
8 one depending on a cause–effect relationship and organized
9 according to a constant conjunction, and another one, universal
10 and narrative related to common sense. See: Lies, O, Transform-
1 ation of O, Transformation in O, K, Transformation of K,
2 Container–contained, Commensal, Symbiotic and Parasitic.
3
4 Two-ness: It refers to the natural presence of pair elements: two
5 eyes, two hands, two ears, etc.; exactly as “decimal” originated
6 from ten-ness (Latin decem), like ten fingers or ten toes. Bion sug-
711 gests that the development of mathematical elements, as Aristotle
8 called them, is analogous to the development of conceptions, in
9 the sense that they are the result of mating a pre-conception (of the
20 breast, for instance) with a realization (sucking) for the creation of
1 a conception, or two-ness, like 1+1 = 2 (1967, p. 113). If a child, for
2 instance, has two marbles and later on finds two more, it will not
3 take long for him to figure out that now he has four. In this sense,
4 says Kant, all pure mathematical propositions exist a priori, similar
511 to Bion’s conception of the breast, or the statement that “God
6 created natural numbers”.
7 Tustin (1981) has stated that two-ness could represent an impor-
8 tant concept related to stages of early separation between the baby
9 and the breast:
311
1 . . . precocious awareness of bodily separateness and “two-ness”
brings the knowledge that the nipple is not part of his mouth and
2
that his movements do not always make for completeness and do
3
not produce benign hallucinations. [p. 192]
4
5 See: Intuition, noumenon, phenomenon, pre-conception, realiza-
6 tion and Psychological turbulence.
7
8
911
Lopez Corvo/1st correx 22/9/03 12:04 pm Page 301

111
2
3
4
5
6
711 U
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Ultimate reality: see: O, phenomena, noumena, Thing-in-itself,
1 Truth.
2
3 Unconscious phantasy: Bion does not speak spontaneously about
4 the classical concept of “unconscious phantasy”, neither does he
5 attempt to discriminate, as Klein did, between “fantasy” and
6 “phantasy”. During one conference, given in 1973 on his first visit
7 to São Paulo, when asked about including unconscious phantasy on
8 the Grid, he answered in a way rather elusive and difficult to grasp:
9
30 Suppose I played a game like “fathers and mothers”. That could be
described as a “conscious fantasy” at some stage. Then suppose I
1
became so frustrated because I could not be father or mother, that
2
I forgot it. I could say that the fantasy which was once conscious
3
had become unconscious. Today, when I am one of the parents, I
4 may again be unwilling to know anything about this unconscious
5 fantasy, for what is the use of knowing about “fathers and mothers”
6 when I am either too young to be one or too old to be able to do
7 anything about it now. I may say, “I don’t want to have anything
8 to do with these psycho-analysts. I do not want to be reminded of
911 these fantasies. The best place for them is the unconscious.” The

301
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302 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 answer to that might be “I don’t object to that, except that that
2 ‘unconscious fantasy’ of yours, as you call it, is horribly alive; it
3 may be obscured but active and powerful, though beyond the reach
4 of my ability unless psychoanalysis (or something better) can bring
it again within my scope.” [1974, pp. 55–56]
5
6
It seems that Bion disagreed with the concept of an “unconscious
7
phantasy” signifying the existence of a feeling that remains restless
8
and lying in continuous ambush waiting for any opportunity to
9
make itself present. However, unconscious phantasy can also be
10 understood as representing the actual state of the unconscious at a
1 given moment, like a cross section of its content, regardless of what
2 it might be, but different from an unconscious phantasy that con-
3 tinuously presses to make itself conscious.
4 Meltzer (1978) associated the concept of contact-barrier with
5 Klein’s concept of “unconscious phantasy” (pp. 41–42), although
6 the former also resembles the notion of “defence” in classical the-
711 ory, while unconscious phantasy, on the other hand, can be related
8 to the concept of O as introduced by Bion.
9
20 Unconscious thoughts: In 1911 Freud established that
1
2 It is probable that thinking was originally unconscious, in so far as
it went beyond mere ideational presentations and was directed to
3
the relations between impressions of objects, and that it did not
4
acquire further qualities, perceptible to consciousness, until it
511 became connected with verbal residues. [p. 221]
6
7 Based on such an hypothesis Bion established that, at the begin-
8 ning, there was some kind of thinking, perhaps in the form of visual
9 ideograms instead of words or phonemes, which depend at intro-
311 jection or projection on the object’s representations and afterwards
1 became conscious. Bion has referred to the product of these primi-
2 tive forms of thinking as proto-thoughts. This mechanism, present
3 in the non psychotic part of the personality, would allow, as Freud
4 stated, that introjected objects could progressively outline uncon-
5 scious thinking, something that would explain its association with
6 sensory impressions.
7
8 Universe of discourse: It refers to a specific entity the dictionary
911 (Webster’s New Collegiate) defines as “an inclusive call of entities
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U 303

111 that is tacitly implied or explicitly delineated as the subject of a

2 statement, discourse, or theory”, or—according to The American
3 Heritage, Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition)—”a
4 class containing all the entities referred to in a discourse or an argu-
5 ment.” Bion used it in his book Transformations when emphasiz-
6 ing the importance of the Grid in relation to the invariants,
711 variables, and parameters contained within the concept of “psycho-
8 analysis”, or universe of discourse, which, in order to reach
9 meaning, should be defined in such a way that could correspond to
10 a category in the Grid. He said:
1
2 There is opportunity for ambiguity if this is not recognized, the
term “variable” may describe something which, in a particular uni-
3
verse of discourse, is given a constant value and so qualifies for
4
description as a parameter (as in a mathematical formulation . . .).
5
[1965, p. 45]
6
7 Unsaturated–saturated elements: see: Saturated–unsaturated ele-
8 ments.
9
211 Ur, burial in: Attempting to compare differences between row A
1 of the Grid containing -elements and row B corresponding to
2 -elements, Bion uses as a paradigm the history of the death of Ur’s
3 king, possibly in the year 3500 BC, as well as his funeral accompa-
4 nied by all the court including the queen. They were all forced
5 under the effect of hashish to be buried alive with the king’s body.
6 Bion compares this scene with another one that took place 500 years
7 later, when robbers plunder the tomb. Bion asks if “ignorance”, as
8 a “drug” similar to hashish, could have dominated the mind of those
9 who accompanied the king to a certain death, contrasting with the
30 feeling that might have dominated the robbers who, fearless of
1 possible revenge from the spirits, were completely subjugated by
2 curiosity and greed. They might have represented the first scientists
3 who set off an investigation encouraged by curiosity; after all, said
4 Bion, archaeologists are also often dominated by cupidity.
5
6 How did the robbers come by the knowledge which enabled them,
7 five hundred years after the event, to sink the shafts into the earth
8 with such accuracy as to find the Queen’s Tomb? Was it luck?
911 Should we regard our religious hierarchy as spiritual descendants

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304 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 of the priests of Ur? Should we erect monuments to the plunderers

2 of the Royal Tombs as Pioneers of Science, as scientific as our
3 scientists? [1977a, p. 10]
4
While the mind of those who accompanied the king’s burial were
5
dominated by -elements placed in category A6, those who later
6
robbed the Royal Tomb could have represented a C6 category. Bion
7
insists on the systematic attack made on curiosity by many myths,
8
like the Garden of Eden, the Tower of Babel or the sphinx in
9
Oedipus.
10
1
Use axis: see: Grid, horizontal axis of the.
2
3
4
5
6
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8
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111
2
3
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6
711 V
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Valence: Concept borrowed from chemistry which Bion used to
1 represent the capacity for spontaneous and instinctive emotional
2 combination, between two individuals, or with the total group,
3 depending on the dominant basic assumption (ba) (1948a, pp. 153,
4 175). It might represent the expression of a “gregarious quality”
5 present in human beings. The capacity for combination could be
6 great or small, to which Bion referred as “high or low valence”,
7 respectively. This condition corresponds to the opposite of what
8 Bion has described as “co-operation”, present in the work group
9 (W). See Basic assumptions (ba), Work group (W), Pairing group
30 (Pba), Flight–fight group (Fba), Oscillations and Groups.
1
2 Verbal thoughts: Much of what will be expressed here has been
3 extracted from Bion’s article “Notes on the Theory of Schizo-
4 phrenia” (1967, pp. 26–35), which deals with the capacity to think,
5 synthesize and articulate sense impressions with words (ibid.,
6 p. 60). Since this condition depends on a disposition to integrate, it
7 coincides with the depressive position and the appearance of con-
8 sciousness of inner and outer realities. In 1957 Bion stated that nor-
911 mally, initial structuring of verbal thoughts would be established at

305
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306 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 very early stages during the paranoid–schizoid position; however,

2 psychotic patients as well as the psychotic part of the personality,
3 would continuously destroy thoughts with the use of splitting and
4 mechanisms of projective identification (ibid., pp. 48–49, 60). This
5 condition obstructed any possibility of peaceful projections and
6 introjections of sense impressions, necessary to build a strong basis
7 for the configuration of verbal thoughts. In these patients, the
8 depressive position can be experienced as something catastrophic,
9 because painful depressive feelings can induce the patient’s mind
10 to defend by increasing splitting and projection of verbal thoughts
1 inside the external objects, for example the analyst. Due to retalia-
2 tory anxiety, introjection (see projective identification in reverse)
3 and as a consequence, incorporation of the necessary basis to build
4 the good object where verbal thoughts are formed, is also altered.
5 Bion mentioned a psychotic patient who said that “tears were com-
6 ing out from his ears”, something Bion inferred represented an
711 incapacity to associate words properly. Parodying Freud (1915), he
8 interpreted that tears were bad objects that, when coming out from
9 his ears, would be similar to sweat coming out from the holes left
20 by the blackheads pulled out of his skin, or to the urine that came
1 out from the hole left by the penis once it was torn out. When the
2 patient said he couldn’t listen very well and afterwards, that he
3 couldn’t speak either, Bion interpreted the need to drown his inter-
4 pretations with bad tears that came out from his ears and that per-
511 haps he had also torn out his tongue. Such delusional thought
6 signified an attack on any form of communication, because split-
7 ting had destroyed his ability to think, something the patient
8 experienced as an expression of insanity (see madness, realization
9 of; perception, apparatus of). At the end, the dilemma was repre-
311 sented as a trap:
1
2 psychoanalysis was demanding that he should use thinking and a
verbal logic, something that terrified him because it was pushing
3
him to a condition of fear, depression and hopelessness, repre-
4
sented by the depressive position, which made the patient experi-
5 ence psychoanalysis as a true “prison”, as one of his patients
6 expressed it. [ibid., pp. 29–32]
7
8 Later on, in his book Transformations (1965), Bion said that
911 because psychoanalysts work with sophisticated verbal-thoughts,
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V 307

111 what they express can be located on the Grid on rows E and F,
2 possibly D and G, on columns 1, 2 and 5; while what patients
3 express, since it has no compromise with the truth, can fall any-
4 where on the Grid.
5
6 Vertex: From a mathematical perspective, this represents a point
711 where one or more lines, planes or angles coincide. Bion uses it as
8 a point of view, or a projection from a vertex, but with a mathe-
9 matical association instead of just a simple expression:
10
1 You cannot use terms like “from the point of view of smell” because
the patient will say “I don’t view things with my nose.” It sounds
2
as if the patient was trying to be difficult, but he is in fact being
3
extremely accurate; he cannot understand a phrase which is con-
4 versational language. It is, therefore, better to borrow a term from
5 mathematics like “vertex”. [1974, pp. 88–89]
6
7 Transformations depend on a change of vertex; the vertex held
8 by someone sleeping and dreaming is never the same as when
9 awake, or the vertex of the artist will diverge from that of the critic
211 of his work, or the multiple vertexes an analyst could use from one
1 moment to the other during the analytical session. A shift from a
2 vertex of one sense or system to another might prove to be useful
3 in order to improve understanding or explanation of something. A
4 vertex should not be too close or too far, for instance, a man and
5 a woman might not be compatible because they are either too
6 alike or too different: a similar situation could take place between a
7 patient and an analyst (1970, p. 93). In relation to different types of
8 vertexes, Bion suggests that the visual ones are capable of a greater
9 degree of freedom (they could “illuminate”), when compared with
30 others such as “digestive, respiratory, olfactory, auditory, etc.
1 (1965, pp. 90–92). He makes special mention of an “internal vertex”
2 he refers to as the “inner reproductory system”, described as a
3 counterpart of the “mental reproductory system”, equal to an
4 “inward eye” or mental counterpart of the visual system (ibid.,
5 p. 91). This internal vertex might be related to concepts such as
6 intuition, the thing-in-itself, O and an act of faith.
7 An individual makes a trip to city X, for example, as a mecha-
8 nism to placate an imaginary “castrator” who he thinks had
911 expected him to make such a trip. He could also make the trip of

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308 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 his own accord, without feeling impelled by the need to please the
2 “castrator”. The city and the trip might have been the same in both
3 cases, but the “inner” vertexes were different: one vertex authentic,
4 and the other inauthentic. See: Intuition, O, act of faith, Inner
5 reproductory system and Thing-in-itself.
6
7 View-point: see: Vertex.
8
9 Violence: Bion did not try to understand violence from the vertex
10 of instinct theory or from the relationship with the environment.
1 He considers: (a) in the first place the dependency of the psychic
2 apparatus on action as an important means for discharge; and (b)
3 the inability to discriminate between falsehood and truth and
4 between alive and inanimate things. It can be summarized in the
5 following expression: “if the tiger were to know about the suffering
6 of the gazelle, it could starve to death”. See: Frustration, tolerance
711 or intolerance, Animated and inanimate, Truth and Lie.
8
9
20
1
2
3
4
511
6
7
8
9
311
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
911
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111
2
3
4
5
6
711 W
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Wild thoughts: Bion established a difference between “stray
1 thoughts” and “wild thoughts”. The stray ones refer to thoughts
2 that can be found by someone who might try to domesticate them
3 if it is found that they have no owner, or that there is an owner but
4 they can be purloined, or could be so old that there is no proprietor.
5 For instance, Bion had said that truth, different from a lie, does not
6 need a thinker to contain it; however, much earlier than Bion, Latin
7 had provided the same basic root to mind (mentis) as well as lying
8 (mentior), perhaps meaning that “the mind lies”, similar to Bion’s
9 expression that “lies need a thinker”.
30 “Wild thoughts”, on the other hand, represent thoughts to
1 which “there is no possibility of being able to trace immediately any
2 kind of ownership or even any sort of way of being aware of
3 the genealogy of that particular thought” (1997, p. 27).62 A good
4 example could be dream-thoughts, or “intrauterine thoughts”, per-
5 haps linked to the Kantian concept of the thing-in-itself or
6 noumenon.
7
8
62
911 This note is dated May 28, 1977.

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310 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 If a thought without a thinker comes along, it may be what is a

2 “stray thought”, or it could be a thought with the owner’s name
3 and address upon it, or it could be a “wild thought”. The problem,
4 should such a thought come along, is what to do with it . . . if it is
wild, you might try to domesticate it . . . [ibid.]
5
6
See: Truth, Lie, Thing-in-itself, Intrauterine life.
7
8
Wish: see: Desire.
9
10
Without-ness: Bion uses this expression to describe a
1
container–contained () relationship controlled by envy, which
2
as a result would produce K. In such a condition the baby splits
3
and projects his fears inside the breast, together with feelings of
4
envy and hatred that preclude a commensal relationship. The
5
breast is also felt enviously to remove the good or valuable ele-
6
ments that could be used to neutralize the baby’s fear of dying and
711
in its place forces back into the infant worthless residues that will
8
change the fear of dying into a nameless dread or terror, which
9
Bion represents as K. Bion considers this as a very serious condi-
20
tion, because the breast not only does not neutralize the fear of
1
dying, but might also remove the wish to live. This is also repre-
2
sented as –(), something Bion qualifies as “without-ness”, and
3
later on in his book Transformations represents as , meaning:
4
511
. . . an internal object without an exterior. It is an alimentary canal
6 without a body. It is a super-ego that has hardly any of the charac-
7 teristics of the super-ego as understood in psychoanalysis: it is
8 “super” ego. It is an envious assertion of moral superiority without
9 any morals . . . The process of denudation continues till  
311 represent hardly more than an empty superiority–inferiority that it
1 in turn degenerates to nullity. [1962, p. 97]
2
3 See: Minus K (–K), Container–contained interaction, Commensal,
4 Conscious awareness.
5
6 Work group: Also called “sophisticated group”. It represents the
7 moment when a group is capable of establishing contact with real-
8 ity and recognizes the need to evolve, and to work together towards
911 a common aim away from the control of the basic assumptions. It
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W 311

111 is dominated by the tendency to deal with conflicts in a rather

2 “scientific” manner (1948b, p. 99), and it is equivalent to the ego
3 according with Freud’s postulates (1911) (ibid., p. 143). Organiza-
4 tion, structure, co-operation, and verbal communication are its
5 greatest weapons (ibid., p. 185). It represents the direction a group
6 would follow if it were not dominated by a basic assumption; this
711 is why, in order for any group to remain on a sophisticated level
8 (W) it has to deal with the emotions of the predominating ba
9 (ibid., p. 135). This group can last hours or months, depending on
10 the capacity of the group to solve the pressure of the emotions from
1 the latent ba that continuously attempts to dominate the group. The
2 leader of this kind of group has access to the external reality of
3 the group, different from the leader of the ba group who only has
4 contact with the internal reality of the specific ba (ibid., pp. 144–145).
5 Later on, in Attention and Interpretation (1970), Bion states that
6 this form of group, under a religious vertex, has to discriminate and
7 to maintain such discrimination between God and man, between
8 idealized superego and man himself, similar to the idealization
9 placed on Freud by the psychoanalytic group who followed him,
211 who made any criticism about his work something absolutely
1 unsustainable (p. 75). See: Group, Basic assumption, baD, baP,
2 baF, Valence, Duality.
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30
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2
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5
6
7
8
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6
711 X
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
211 Xi = : Greek letter which corresponds to “small x”. It is used by
1 Bion to represent a “mathematical object” (1970, p. 90), equivalent
2 to a non-saturated element or factor, similar to a pre-conception
3 that is open to any realization that comes near and saturates it. Bion
4 also used it to symbolize the mathematical aspect of an emotion,
5 and also as a factor that is part of a function, like: () or K().
6
7
8
9
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
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711 Z
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9
211 Zen Buddhism: Concepts such as O (Origin), transformation in O,
1 truth, act of faith and hallucinosis, among others, remind us of
2 some Zen conceptions, a Japanese sect of Mahayana Buddhism that
3 aims at enlightenment by direct intuition through meditation.
4 “[Men] is best awakened not by the study of scriptures, the practice
5 of good deeds, rites and ceremonies, or worship of images but by
6 sudden breaking through of the boundaries of common, everyday,
7 logical thought”.63 Although Bion never mentioned any form of
8 Buddhism, we should not forget that he was born, in a British
9 family, in India’s Punjab. Referring to O, Bion establishes:
30
1 Some consciously believe the curtain of illusion to be a protection
against truth which is essential to the survival of humanity . . . Even
2
those who consider such a view mistaken and truth essential con-
3
sider that the gap cannot be bridged because the nature of the
4
human being precludes knowledge of anything beyond phenom-
5 ena save conjecture. From this conviction of the inaccessibility of
6 absolute reality the mystics must be exempted . . . The belief that
7
8
911 63
The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 12, p. 905.

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316 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 reality is or could be known is mistaken because reality is not some-

2 thing which lends itself to being known. It is impossible to know
3 reality for the same reason that makes it impossible to sing pota-
4 toes; they may be grown, or pulled, or eaten, but not sung. Reality
has to be “been”: there should be a transitive verb “to be” expressly
5
for use with the term “reality”. [1965, pp. 147–148]
6
7 According to the Symingtons (1966), many British psychoana-
8 lysts considered that Bion had mentally deteriorated after leaving
9 England for Los Angeles, and they believed everything he wrote
10 afterwards, was “to be dismissed as the rambling of a senile man”,
1 and that some Kleinians, “were quick to dissociate themselves from
2 his thinking from that time onwards” (p. 10). The Symingtons
3 believed that Bion’s concept of O is “essentially a religious and
4 metaphysical concept” (ibid.), understanding for religious “. . . a
5 model of the human being as a creature with intentionality that
6 transcends immediate physical needs” (ibid., p 10n).
711 But interpreting O as a religious concept places serious doubt on
8 the understanding of its true nature and about what Bion had
9 attempted to express. I am unable to find any religious position in
20 any of his contributions; his understanding is always above the
1 human phenomenon, and even when he seems to defend the posi-
2 tion of the mystic, he is just appreciating the attitude behind the
3 human act, but not his beliefs. The sudden understanding of the
4 unconscious phantasy during the analytical session, or the swift
511 and religious illuminations of Meister Eckhart or Saint John of the
6 Cross, have, for Bion, a human correspondence in the act of at-one-
7 ment with their particular truth, or with O, as he had decided to
8 name it. Although, in Bion, both situations are the same from the
9 point of view of O, they diverge exactly on the “intentionality of
311 transcending immediate physical needs”: it might have been pre-
1 sent in Eckhart, but in the analyst, says Bion, if he wants to “listen”,
2 “memory, desire and understanding,” must be avoided.
3 About Zen, on the other hand, we can read directly from one of
4 its masters:
5
6 Every Master who practices an art molded by Zen is like a flash
7 of lightning from the cloud of all-encompassing Truth. This Truth
8 is present in “It,” as his own original and nameless essence. He
911 meets this essence over and over again as his own being’s utmost
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111 possibilities, so that the Truth assumes for him—and for others
2 through him—a thousand shapes and forms . . .64
3
4 And further on,
5
He must dare to leap into the Origin, so as to live by the Truth, like
6 one who has become one with it. He must become a pupil again, a
711 beginner; conquer the last and steepest stretch of the way, undergo
8 new transformations. If he survives its perils, then is his destiny ful-
9 filled; face to face he beholds the unbroken Truth, the Truth beyond
10 all truths, the formless Origin of origins, the Void which is the All;
1 is absorbed into it and from it emerges reborn. [Herrigel 1953,
2 pp. 80–81]
3
4 See: O, Act of faith, At-one-ment, Meister Eckhart, Godhead.
5
6
7
8
9
211
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 64
Taken from the Hagakure, written circa 1600, and quoted by Herrigel
911 (1953, pp. 80–81).
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6
711 REFERENCES
8
9
10 Articles by Wilfred Bion:
1 1940 The war of nerves. In: The Neurosis in War. E. Miller &
2 H. Crichton-Miller (Eds.), London: Macmillan.
3 1943 Intra-group tensions in therapy: their study as the task of
4 the group. The Lancet, 27th November.
5 1946 The leaderless group project. In: Bulletin of the Menninger
6 Clinic. May 10, pp. 77–81.
7 1948a Psychiatry at a time of crisis. British Journal of Medical
8 Psychology, 21, pp. 81–89..
9 1948b Experiences in Groups. London: Tavistock, 1961.
211 1950 The imaginary twin. In: Second Thoughts. London, Karnac
1 Books, 1993.
2 1952 Group dynamics: A re-view. In: M. Klein, P. Heimann &
3 R. Money-Kyrle (Eds.), New Directions in Psycho-Analysis.
4 London: Karnac Books, 1985.
5 1953 Notes on the theory of schizophrenia, in Second Thoughts.
6 London: Karnac Books, 1993.
7 1955 Language and the schizophrenic. In: M. Klein, P. Heimann
8 & R. Money-Kyrle (Eds.), New Directions in Psycho-Analysis.
9 London: Karnac Books, 1985.
30 1956 Development of schizophrenic thought. In: Second
1 Thoughts. London: Karnac Books, 1993.
2 1957 Differentiation of the psychotic from the non-psychotic per-
3 sonalities. In: Second Thoughts. London: Karnac Books, 1993.
4 1957a On arrogance. In: Second Thoughts. London: Karnac Books,
5 1993.
6 1958 On hallucination. In: Second Thoughts. London: Karnac
7 Books, 1993.
8 1959 Attacks on linking. In: Second Thoughts. London: Karnac
911 Books, 1993.

319
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320 DICTIONARY OF THE WORK OF W. R. BION

111 1962 Learning from Experience. London: Karnac Books, 1984.

2 1962a A theory of thinking. In: Second Thoughts. London: Karnac
3 Books, 1993.
4 1963 Elements of Psycho-Analysis. London: Karnac Books, 1984.
5 1965 Transformations. London: Karnac Books, 1984.
6 1966 Catastrophic change. In: Attention and Interpretation (Chap-
7 ter 12). London: Karnac Books 1970.
8 1967 Second Thoughts: Selected Papers on Psycho-Analysis. London:
9 Karnac Books, 1993.
10 1967a Notes on memory and desire. In: Cogitations. London:
1 Karnac Books, 1992.
2 1970 Attention and Interpretation. London: Karnac Books, 1984.
3 1974 Brazilian Lectures. São Paulo No 1. Río de Janeiro: Imago
4 Editora.
5 1974a Brazilian Lectures. Rio/São Paulo No 2. Río de Janeiro:
6 Imago Editora.
711 1975 A Memoir of the Future, Book One: The Dream. London:
8 Karnac Books, 1990 [reprinted as trilogy, London: Karnac Books,
9 1991].
20 1976 Emotional turbulence. In: Clinical Seminars and Other Works.
1 London: Karnac Books, 2000.
2 1976a On a quotation from Freud. In: Clinical Seminars and Four
3 Papers. Oxford: Fleetwood Press, 1987.
4 1976b Interview with Anthony G. Banet. The International Journal
511 for Group Facilitators: Group and Organization Studies 1 (3).
6 1977 Seven Servants, New York: Jason Aronson, 1977.
7 1977a Two papers: the Grid and Caesura. London: Karnac Books,
8 1989.
9 1977b A Memoir of the Future, Book Two: The Past Presented. Rio de
311 Janeiro: Imago Editora [reprinted as trilogy, London: Karnac
1 Books, 1991].
2 1978 Four discussions with W. R. Bion, Clinical Seminars and
3 Other Works. London: Karnac Books, 2000.
4 1979 A Memoir of the Future, Book Three: The Dawn of Oblivion.
5 London: Karnac Books, 1990 [reprinted as a trilogy, London:
6 Karnac Books, 1991].
7 1979a Making the best of a bad job. In: Clinical Seminars and Other
8 Works. London: Karnac Books.
911 1980 Bion in New York and São Paulo. London: Karnac Books.
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111 1981 A Key to A Memoir of the Future. [Reprinted in A Memoir of

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