ABSTRACT
Sometime in February 1959 while travelling on the London Underground, Bion fainted; his biographer Gerard Bleandonu (1994) diagnosed this as a return `to the depression that continued to haunt him'. Heart disease and diabetes were ruled out and he was put on a diet and given a period of convalescence during which he worked on a paper titled `Attacks on linking' (Bion 1959). Soon, however, he was beset with doubts about his work ± `I am at the moment feeling depressed about my paper, wondering if it's all just working around stalking a most majestic mare's nest' (Bion 1985, p. 129). This brings to mind Freud's similar bouts of depression about the quality of his work following dif®cult events in his life.
