ABSTRACT
Today’s reader of the Bion–Beckett psychotherapeutic relationship encounters Bion’s direct voice only twice, each time during the discussion period following Jung’s first and second Tavistock lecture (Jung, 1968). Bion is first heard in a follow-up question to Jung, related to Dr Henry Dicks’ earlier question about affects and feelings. Jung describes an experiment participated in by Jung and a former professor at the Clinic. Knowing his colleague well, Jung enquired about a case he believed to be “hellishly disagreeable” to his chief. The immediate response was a “deluge of emotion”, disturbing what had, moments before, been his chief’s calm management of feeling. Following two questions by Dr Eric Howe, Wilfred Bion asks,
Do you think there is any significance in the fact that he knew you knew of the unpleasant experience in the second experiment and that this had some bearing on the difference of emotional reaction which he showed …?
(Jung, 1968, p. 30)