ABSTRACT
A combination of detailed, precise clinical observation and work and a broad sweep of general ideas and conclusions based on this work is a rare combination and a mark of a truly great and creative psycho-analyst.This combination of rare qualities was characteristic of Wilfred Bion from the very beginning. His membership paper ‘The imaginary twin’208 offers at least two original ideas which proved seminal – the idea of the breast as the infant’s first imaginary twin through projective identification; and the particular link between the ocular development and the Oedipus complex.This was the germ of what became so important in Bion’s work – the crucial role of curiosity in the Oedipus complex and indeed the whole development of the mental apparatus.
