ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a comparison between Freud's and Bion's metapsychologies. This gives us a more accurate idea of how the mind comes into being than would be the case if we examined each separately. Thinking is nothing other than a process of abstraction or simplification that clearly traces the path along which the anatomy of the brain is organized according to the principle of 'neurological condensation'. The idea of proto-sensoriality as something that first becomes an image and later a symbol is what Bion expresses through the concept of transformation from beta to alpha. It is as if with the theory of alpha function he were taking Freud's metaphor of the poetry of the mind literally. Bion tries to overcome the ambiguities of Freud's drive theory and puts emotion at the centre as the non-contingent but necessary element that acts as an intermediary between the body and the mind.
