Introducing the Clinical Work of Wilfred Bion

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Introducing the Clinical Work of Wilfred Bion takes a fresh approach to this much revered analyst, focusing on the unique contributions to be found in his analytical and supervisorial work and developing of received Kleinian theory. Starting from his childhood in India and his schooldays, through his experience in the Great War and later life, this book considers the way in which Bion’s personal experience informed his later work as an analyst. Aguayo looks at how Bion’s loyalty to Kleinian theory, especially in his work on psychosis, and how the subsequent in-fighting rife within the psychoanalytic community impacted his approach. Aguayo also considers the epistemological work done by Bion in the early 1960s while President of the British Psychoanalytical Society, as well as his seminars from Los Angeles and Buenos Aires. The book concludes by proposing that the spate of recently published Clinical Seminars, fresh with new clinical examples from Bion’s analytic and supervisory work, now represent a potential for a ‘new wave’ of interest among analysts and scholars alike. Aguayo also engages the work of important contemporary specialists in Bion studies, such as: Ron Britton, Giuseppe Civitarese, James Grotstein, Robert Hinshelwood, Betty Joseph, John Steiner and Rudi Vermote. As Bion’s clinical work continues to inform contemporary psychoanalysts, this book will be essential reading to all analysts interested in Bion’s work and the legacy it holds in contemporary psychoanalysis. Cover Endorsements Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction: Orienting Towards Bion’s Clinical Work PART I: Beginnings: Forays into Groups and Psychoanalysis of Psychosis 1. Bion’s Early Life: India, Schooling in England, Soldiering in World War I and II, and Life as a Psychiatrist and Innovator of Group Methods of Psychotherapy 2. Prelude to Bion’s Papers on Psychosis, Melanie Klein’s Work on Psychosis and an Overview of his Papers on ‘Psychosis’ (1950–59) 3. A Portal into Psychosis: ‘The Imaginary Twin’ (1950) and ‘Notes on the Theory of Schizophrenia’ (1954) 4. Bion as an Uneasy Kleinian Psychoanalyst: ‘Development of Schizophrenic Thought’ (1956) and ‘Differentiation of Psychotic from Non-Psychotic Personalities’ (1957) 5. Further Clinical Contributions, Part I: ‘On Arrogance’ (1958a) and ‘On Hallucination’ (1958b) 6. Further Clinical Contributions, Part II: ‘Attacks on Linking’ (1959) PART II: Conceptualizing His Clinical Results 7. Bion’s Incursions into Metapsychology: ‘The Psychoanalytic Theory of Thinking’ (1962a) 8. Learning from Experience, Part I (1962b) 9. Learning from Experience, Part II (1962b) 10. Elements of Psychoanalysis (1963), Transformations (1965), and ‘Catastrophic Change’ (1966) PART III: The Distillation of Clinical Experience and Everyday Practices 11. Bion’s (1967) Seminars and Supervision in Los Angeles: ‘Notes on Memory and Desire’ (1967a) 12. Bion’s (1968) Seminars and Supervisions in Buenos Aires: The Continuing Case of the Stormy Borderline Patient 13. Clinical Work in Buenos Aires: Presentation of an Overly Agreeable Young Male Analysand 14. Attention and Interpretation (1970) 15. Bion’s Clinical Seminars: An Implicit Method of Clinical Inquiry (1967–78)—A New Wave of Bion Studies? References Index