ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter Bion’s theory of thinking inspired a conceptualization of the cinema as a space of retreat in which, through an intimate engagement with the film, the binding process of K (knowledge) could take place, whereby thoughts that were based on the symbiotic projection and assimilation of emotional experiences were able to find a thinker to think them. It was important also to have shown the significance of the operation of the epistemophilic instinct in the development of the mind, and to recognize the role of this instinct in the capacity to tolerate unpleasure and pain. But as Bion developed his theory, he was able to address with more rigour the problem that he was already aware of when he conceived of the idea of thoughts without a thinker, an idea that could suggest the activity of resistance. In this second chapter I intend to take the work on the cinematic apparatus begun in the first chapter further, as well as to pursue more fully the issue of mental growth, by drawing on a relatively late aspect of Bion’s investigations: the concept of O. The exploration of this aspect of his work will contribute a critical response to the parallel that Jean-Louis Baudry draws between the cinema and Plato’s cave, in answer to the question that was posed early in Chapter 1: how can psychoanalysis further expose the implications and inadequacy of the analogy between Plato’s scheme and the cinema?
