ABSTRACT
In 1946 Wilfred Bion wrote to John Rickman about his starting in analysis with Melanie Klein. After qualification, Bion quickly progressed to membership. His membership paper, “The Imaginary Twin”, was presented to the Society on 1 November 1950, and a quote from the published paper is included. Bion’s papers of the 1950s were presented to the International Psychoanalytical Congresses, and the Scientific Meetings of the British Psychoanalytical Society. Citing Sigmund Freud’s tentative suggestion in Civilization and Its Discontents of the importance of the conflict between life and death instincts, Bion thought that in relation to psychosis there is always a preponderance of innate destructiveness. Following Klein’s introduction of the concept of projective identification, it was being explored by Bion as well as by others. Bion was asked by Los Angeles psychoanalyst James Gooch what he would recommend for a training course.
