ABSTRACT

This collection illuminates the legacy of Wilfred R. Bion in Brazil, illustrating Bion’s continued influence on the work of the São Paulo Psychoanalytic Society (SBPSP), how Bionian ideas are applied in contemporary psychoanalysis, and how current practice has evolved over time.

Evelise de Souza Marra and Cecil José Rezze bring together theoretical and clinical approaches to provide a thorough perspective on Bionian work in Brazil. The book includes chapters by senior analysts, well-respected teachers and analytic clinicians in contemporary Brazilian psychoanalysis, each of which explores a topic central to Bion’s formulations. With discussion of key themes including turbulence, emotional experience, transference, caesura and mental pain, this book demonstrates how Wilfred R. Bion’s thought has been developed, transformed and applied in Brazil since his visits there in the 1970s.

Bions Legacy in São Paulo will be of great interest to psychoanalysts in practice and in training, particularly those looking to understand Bion’s influence in more depth, and for anyone interested in the practice of psychoanalysis in Latin America.

chapter 4|6 pages

ɑ‑Function

Catastrophic anxiety – panic – container with reverie

chapter 5|13 pages

Learning from emotional experience and the Grid

Theory and practice 1

chapter 7|14 pages

Clinical use of myths in psychoanalysis

Myth, psychoanalysis and psychic reality

chapter 9|7 pages

ɑ‑Function ↔ Psychoanalysis

An investigation process (on the quality of presence in analytical session models)

chapter 13|9 pages

Interpretation

Limits and ruptures of a concept and a practice

chapter 14|14 pages

The “squabble” (prise de bec) between Beckett and Bion

The “experimental” insight in the glaring darkness