ABSTRACT
Though a Kleinian psychoanalyst, Bion stated that he tried to approach his experiences in groups free from the prejudices of individual analysis. Consequently, looking for analogies, he related his concept of basic assumptions to the functioning of social groups rather than to phases of individual development. In the case of a therapy group, the basic assumptions interfere with exploration by the group of the feelings and problems of individuals in it. While leaving open the question of how many basic assumption states there might be, Bion named three: dependence, fight/flight, and pairing. The three states, Bion suggested, are institutionalised respectively in the Church, the Army and Aristocracy. The Kleinian interpretation tends to reduce all psychological processes to their most primitive infantile origins. Bion traces the basic assumption states to defences against anxieties springing from an extremely early "primal scene", the archetypal provoker of feelings of exclusion.
