Reading Bions Transformations

Transformations continues the investigation of various aspects of psychoanalytic theory and practice which the author commenced with Learning from Experience (1962) and pursued in Elements of Psychoanalysis (1963). In this third work published in 1965, the author examines the ways in which the analyst's description of the original analytic experience, mediated by theory, necessarily transforms it in the course of effecting an interpretation.

Reading Bion's Transformations is an in-depth reading of Bion’s 1965 work, Transformations, and investigates the epistemological concept of "O" introduced by Bion. Throughout the book, Bion’s conceptual and unconventional text is discussed step-by-step, with a focus on the first three and last three chapters. The epistemological references are highlighted and analysed, allowing the reader insight into how to do a deconstructive psychoanalytic reading, acknowledging that Bion raised psychoanalytical thought and practice to new levels. The authors’ reading both de-focuses and re-focuses several theoretical statutes of O discussed by Bion in 1965. Reading Bion’s Transformations is an essential read for those approaching Bion’s work for the first time, as well as those seeking to better understand his theories and the metapsychological and epistemological impact of the concept of transformation within psychoanalysis.

Wilfred R. Bion is considered a ground-breaking psychoanalyst. His thinking is rooted in Freud and Klein from where it takes an original flight. Reading Bion shows the evolution of his seminal insights in psychic functioning and puts them in a wider context. Rudi Vermote integrates a chronological close reading and discussion of Bion’s texts, with a comprehensive approach of his major concepts. The book is divided in two main parts: Transformation in Knowledge: Bion’s odyssey to understand psychic processing or the mind Transformation in O: in which Bion reinterprets his former concepts from the dimension of the unknown and unknowable The running text is put against a background of biographical data and scientific, artistic and philosophical influences on his work, which are highlighted in boxes and separate chapters. Bion’s concepts are important for anyone dealing with the mind. His ideas have an ongoing deep impact on psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychopathology. His concepts help to understand psychic change, creativity, individual psychodynamics and small and large-group phenomena. The discovery of their value for studies on art, literature, sociology, religion, economics has just begun. Reading Bion starts from the very beginning so that it is instructive for people who are new to his work, but the close reading and background information make it a meaningful companion for experienced psychoanalysts and psychotherapists studying his work.

"Reading Bions Transformations is an in depth reading of Bion's 1965 work, Transformations, and investigates the epitemiological concept of 'O' introduced by Bion. Throughout the book, Bion's conceptual and unconventional text is discussed step by step, with a focus on the first three and last three chapters. The epistemological references are highlighted and analysed, allowing the reader insight into how to do a deconstructive psychoanalytic reading, acknowledging that Bion raised psychoanalytical thought and practice to new levels. The authors' reading both de-focuses and re-focuses several statutes theories of O discussed by Bion in 1965. Reading Bion's Transformations is an essential read for those approaching Bion's work for the first time, as well as those seeking to better understand his theories and the metapsychological and epistemological impact of the concept of transformation within psychoanalysis"--

Considers the concept of the container and the contained.

This book is a collection of articles written between 1992 and 2005 which attempts to bring two universes together - Bion's referential and autistic phenomena. The field of clinical work which the author uses is that of "learning from the emotional experience" (Bion, 1962) and the theory of Transformations (Bion, 1965), a method of observing mental phenomena within this field, which also encompasses the areas of neurosis and psychosis. The author makes use of Tustin's concept (1965) which proposes that the personality has, apart from the neurotic and psychotic parts, an autistic part in which prevails sensations in place of emotions. The author suggests adding an autistic area to the theory of Transformations, proposing a new type of transformation beyond those suggested by Bion: the autistic transformations. The merit of this proposal is to expand Bion's referential to the autistic area, an area dominated by sensations without representation in the mind.

Wilfred R. Bion was one of the foremost psychoanalysts of his generation, whose work has shaped and enriched psychoanalysis and psychotherapy indelibly. Renowned for some highly original and sometimes cryptic ideas, such as the alpha function and theory of the grid, Learning from Experience is arguably his most important and enduring work. Bion brings knowledge into the psychoanalytic spotlight. What forces, he asks, interfere with knowledge? Crucially, Bion doesn't mean knowing only facts, but the lifelong process of understanding and coming to know things that is a consequence of the development of knowledge. However, Learning From Experience is perhaps best-known for its emphasis on the way emotion and knowledge are interwoven. Bion links the emotional capacity to develop and know to the capacity to tolerate frustration: if we can hold ourselves in check whilst we endure frustration, then we can come to know things. A remarkable and brilliant work by a fascinating psychoanalyst and thinker, Learning From Experience continues to inspire psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Robert Hinshelwood.

Elements of Psycho-Analysis is a 20-chapter text that describes the phenomena whose various aspects can be seen to fall within the grid categories of psycho-analysis. The elements of psycho-analysis are ideas and feelings as represented by their setting in a single grid-category. The opening chapters deal with the psychoanalytic objects, which are associations and interpretations with extensions in the domain of sense, myth, and passion. The remaining chapters are extensive discussions of the psychoanalytic phenomena, including ideas, feelings, pain, association and interpretation, conflicting pairs, and the two axes of grid. This book is directed primarily to psycho-analysts and psychiatrists.

The final book in the three-volume series, A Clinical Application of Bion's Concepts - a practical companion to the dictionary of concepts The Language of Bion - is divided in four main parts. Part I, through the aid of a transdisciplinary study between psycho-analysis, mathematics, and physics, proposes four expanded variations of Bion's epistemological tool, The Grid. This was construed around an Euclidean space represented graphically by two dimensions constantly conjoined: the dimension of Functions of the Ego with the dimension of Psycho-genetics of thought processes. Bion's tool, by its own design, allows possibilities of development with regards to its ability to scrutinize the 'truth-value' of statements issued both by patients and analysts in the space-time, or the 'here and now' of psycho-analytic sessions or groups of sessions. The proposal is made though three steps; each one adds a subsequent dimension to the earlier one considered. The first step constitutes a Tri-dimension Grid; the added dimension is the Intensity of phenomena observed though the aid of the two dimension, original Grid. From this is proposed a Four-dimension Grid, which examines the evolution of the session with another dimension, added to the three already mentioned: the dimension of Time. Developing out from this, is proposed the a Six-dimension Grid, with the aid of more recent developments which allow a more precise examination of the space-time unit as observed by mathematicians and physicians. Finally, in order to better illuminate the complexity of mental functioning, there is proposed a Multi-dimension Grid. There is a detailed clinical illustration to furnish an example of the use of the Grid.Part II is a study of the most elemental bearings of the psycho-analytic clinic - free associations and free floating attention - which evolves from the study of Dreams, under the contributions of Bion (presented in volume I), as well as from the study of the analytic function and the function of the analyst (presented in volume II). In Part III Sandler shows how the pursuit of truth can be seen as one of the purposes of the psycho-analytic investigation in the clinic; a transdisciplinary study is presented, to assist the practicing analyst, around epistemological issues. Freud and Bion's contributions to it are scrutinized under some lights hitherto unused in the psycho-analytic literature. Part IV presents Sandler's proposals for expanding the observational power of existing Bion's theories; in this part another basic assumption, based on the original three proposed by Bion, is described, in connection with his contributions to the study of hallucinosis.

Winner of the 2013 Sigourney Award! Psychoanalysis seen through Bion's eyes is a radical departure from all conceptualizations which preceded him. In this major contribution to the series Makers of Modern Psychotherapy, Joan and Neville Symington concentrate on understanding Bion's concepts in relation to clinical practice, but their book is also accessible to the educated reader who wishes to understand the main contours of Bion's thinking. Rather than following the chronological development of Bion's ideas, each chapter looks in depth at an important theme in his thinking and describes how this contributes to his revolutionary model of the mind.