ABSTRACT
In a passage in Cogitations Bion reports a patient's dream in which the dreamer's arm falls off when he tries to signal the train he is on to stop. An arm falling off is better than a tragic train accident. Bion's patient's dream arm fell off by itself. In the arm falling off dream, the recalcitrant arm may have accomplished the patient's purpose after all. Perhaps the train stopped in light of this situation, the rebellious arm causing a delay. Bion brings out a link between helping and harming ourselves and others. God definitely seems mean and envious, attacking human co-operation, frustrating achievement, in analogy with the individual's dream arm falling. What Bion brings out in the arm falling off dream and Babel remarks is that a tendency to destroy our own products exists within us and has its due.
