Bion, Intuition and the Expansion of Psychoanalytic Theory illuminates how Bion’s work on intuition has changed the landscape of contemporary psychoanalysis through his understanding of its supra-scientific and non-sub-scientific condition. Based on the work of the biannual Bion conference, this book includes contributions from the most eminent voices on Bion’s work. The global cohort of contributors in this volume examine topics such as dream work, the Infinite Unconscious, the Spectral model of the mind, the realm of the minus and observation and intuition. Each chapter explores different elements arising from Bion’s insistence on learning from experience and establishing the difference between knowing and becoming as an experiential process of the mind as a container in relation to its contents of sensations, feelings, dreams and thoughts. This book will be of key interest to analysts and analytic therapists of all schools and is an essential resource for those that follow the work of Bion.

Bion, Intuition and the Expansion of Psychoanalytic Theory illuminates how Bion's work on intuition has changed the landscape of contemporary psychoanalysis through his understanding of its supra-scientific and non-sub-scientific condition. Based on the work of the biannual Bion conference, this book includes contributions from the most eminent voices on Bion's work. The global cohort of contributors in this volume examine topics such as dream work, the Infinite Unconscious, the Spectral model of the mind, the realm of the minus and observation and intuition. Each chapter explores different elements arising from Bion's insistence on learning from experience and establishing the difference between knowing and becoming as an experiential process of the mind as a container in relation to its contents of sensations, feelings, dreams and thoughts. This book will be of key interest to analysts and analytic therapists of all schools and is an essential resource for those that follow the work of Bion.

Bion’s unfashionable thought is a challenge for our times in which anaesthesia and mass thinking prevail. The themes this book addresses are time and the unconscious. In the present/past, the here and now reveals its relationship with the unredeemable time, which conditions our behaviour and is at the root of a state of hallucinosis in the form of a short-sighted view that is distorted by deep-seated wounds. This book also highlights the resonances with contemporary epistemology and physics that underlie the new paradigm of psychoanalytic field theory. The topic of the unconscious raises questions about its origin and the difference between the Bionian and the Freudian unconscious. In Bion we see an evolutionary, process character emerge, with a double movement of repetition and expansion within a single system in unstable equilibrium, for which there is no conscious feeling that does not also carry with it the shadow of the unconscious. Drawing on psychoanalytic and philosophical concepts this book is essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, philosophers and anyone who wishes to understand more fully what it means to be human.

Sigmund Freud and Oskar Pfister on Religion examines the dialogue between psychoanalysis and religion through the encounters of two men: the "unfaithful Jew" who founded psychoanalysis, and a pastor of profound religious faith and proven psychoanalytic conviction. Carlos Domínguez-Morano analyses the original encounters between Freud and Pfister and their respective positions, noting the incidences, impasses and progress of their discussions. The complex interactions between psychoanalysis and religion over time are considered, and Domínguez-Morano assesses the fundamental parameters of each perspective, with reference to Catholicism. The book explores the relationship between psychoanalysis and religion as a rich, ongoing, and unending dialogue and sheds new light on the origins of psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud and Oskar Pfister on Religion will be of great interest to academics and scholars of psychoanalytic studies, religion, the history of psychology, and the history of ideas.

There are an increasing number of publications concerned with the work of Wilfred Bion (1897-1979). Many have sought new ideas from his writing however, little attention has been paid to the intellectual context in which Bion wrote. Bion’s Sources traces where Bion’s new ideas came from, what job he required of them, how successfully he used his context and how that has fertilised psychoanalysis. Expert contributors provide chapters on areas of the intellectual context separate from or adjacent to clinical psychoanalysis in Britain which have clearly influenced the texts Bion left (those published in his life time, or subsequently). Chapters explore the influences deriving from Wilfred Trotter, Henri Bergson and process philosophy, Kurt Lewin and group dynamics, Immanuel Kant, R. B. Braithwaite and the philosophy of science, the mathematics of notation and transformation, as well as the work of psychoanalysts who have applied their theories to social science, psychosomatics, and literature and the humanities. By contextualising Bion in the wider culture of ideas, and removing him from the exclusive world of Psychoanalysis, Bion’s Sources aims to moderate his ‘genius’ by showing how it was shaped by very wide influences. This book will be of interest to psychoanalysts, clinicians and those interested in the history of psychoanalytic ideas.

Wilfred Bion described "O" as "the unknowable and the unreachable ultimate truth". In this fascinating collection, a range of authors offer their own theoretical, clinical and artistic approaches to exploring this enduring but mysterious idea. Drawn from contributions from the 8th International Bion Conference in 2014, the book examines how "O" can be experienced in all aspects of internal and external reality and within all relationships, from an individual relating to the mother to their emotional relationship with their self. It features insights into "O" drawn from the area of faith as well as its manifestations in clinical practice, while also included is a chapter exploring the links between Bion’s ideas and those of Winnicott, Lacan, Green and Freud. Featuring contributions from some of the world’s leading Bion scholars, this will be essential reading for any psychoanalyst interested in exploring the concept of "O", as well as scholars in philosophy and theology.

Amid long-standing controversy on their causes, which most regard as neurological, and despite their increasing social impact, there has been scant progress in the therapy of the autistic spectrum disorders. Currently fashionable attempts at treatment through behavioural-cognitive focal approaches do not seek resolution, only re-education and rehabilitation. Contacting the Autistic Child explores the clinical process in the early psychoanalytic treatment of autistic children. Organised around five detailed clinical case studies, and drawing on the ideas of major clinicians in child analysis such as Tustin, Winnicott and Alvarez, this book sets out a clear programme for working with and understanding autistic children in a psychoanalytic setting, with a particular focus on issues of clinical technique but also conceptual matters. Working on the notion that autistic disorders come to be – as Winnicott and Tustin saw it – from an early rupture of the affective communication between baby and mother, this book aims at reinstating such communication in the child-analyst interaction. By way of detailed description of what goes on in the analytic link, the authors strive to make the reader share in what goes on in the clinical setting, evincing how, though at times excruciatingly hard on the therapist, resolution is attainable. Once the "primal dialogue" – to use René Spitz’s terms – is reinstated in a stable way in session, it flows by itself into the family ambience. The clinical accounts of this book make the argument that psychoanalysis, carried along Tustin’s technical lines, and subject to the proviso that treatment starts early, preferably in the first three years of life, is the treatment of choice for autistic spectrum disorders. The strong methodological narrative is important and notable in light of the doubts, criticism and uncertainty that have surrounded the psychoanalytic treatment of autism. This novel, highly detailed narrative of five successful early treatments aims to help dispel the pessimism pervading the field and help to redress the lives of many more children. Contacting the Autistic Child will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists endeavouring to obtain results in a major area lacking resolutive approaches.

A collection of papers on and about the work of Wilfred Bion and its continuing development. Most were presented at the International Centennial Conference on the work of Bion in Turin in 1997. Contributors include Francesca Bion, Andre Green, James Grotstein, and many others. “How are we to become wise when so much emphasis is placed on cleverness, on building increasingly complex substitutes for thought? Where does wisdom come on a scale measuring success?” So writes Francesca Bion, when considering her husband’s work. A fitting tribute to Bion would be a collection of papers containing passionate attempts at thinking, not substitutes for thought. In this book, concern with psychic life, far from being dead, reaches new places, takes deeper, more nuanced turns. Authors penetrate subtly into our lying ways and soundly appreciate the complexities of our hunger for truth and experience.

Winner of the 2010 Haskell Norman Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Psychoanalysis! This Art of Psychoanalysis offers a unique perspective on psychoanalysis that features a new way of conceptualizing the role of dreaming in human psychology.

Supervision of Music Therapy discusses the theoretical bases underlying approaches to supervision in music therapy, as well as focusing on the distinctive aspects of music therapy supervision from both clinical and conceptual perspectives. In this book, leading music therapy supervisors and researchers demonstrate how music therapy trainees and practising clinicians can be supported through supervision, allowing them to develop confidence and authenticity in their work. Contributors discuss supervision of clinical work with a variety of patients in a range of settings, from special education to forensic psychiatry, including work in schools, children’s services and a dedicated music therapy centre. A chapter on the academic supervision of music therapists undertaking doctoral research is provided, together with an overview of the history and continuing development of the field. Supervision of Music Therapy contributes to current debates about approaches to supervision in music therapy, and offers the reader fresh perspectives on the subject, making this a book of value to practising therapists, supervisors and students alike.