ABSTRACT
Thirty-one years after the conclusion of his analytic work with Samuel Beckett, Wilfred Bion suggested that the analyst’s attitude toward the patient’s narrative should be free of constraining memory and desire. He wrote,
Do not remember past sessions. The greater the impulse to remember what has been said or done, the more the need to resist it. This impulse can present itself as a wish to remember something that has happened because it appears to have precipitated an emotional crisis: no crisis should be allowed to breach this rule. The supposed events must not be allowed to occupy the mind. Otherwise the evolution of the session will not be observed at the only time when it can be observed—while it is taking place. (1988, p. 16)
