ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates unintegrated phenomena in patients for whom the non-psychotic part of the personality predominates, and differentiates these phenomena from the autistic phenomena. It establishes a relationship between such phenomena and Bion's ideas of the primordial mind and describes a further conceptual category, that of unintegrated transformations. The chapter addresses the intense bodily manifestations that have not yet achieved representation in the minds of their patients and that are characteristic of unintegrated states. Bion showed a strong interest in the functioning of the embryonic mental states and in the manifestations of primordial phenomena. According to Winnicott, disintegration is a defense and can only occur after some degree of integration has already occurred. Unintegration, however, is caused by failure of containment, giving rise to terrifying anxieties. Unintegration is conceptualized as a feeling-state rather than a pathological development, occurring at the expense of normal mental and emotional growth.
