ABSTRACT
Harris Williams expands Bion’s definition of negative capability as ability to tolerate pain and confusion of not knowing, rather than imposing ready-made answers, inappropriate certainties or other panacea, upon an ambiguous situation or emotional challenge. Negative capability has the useful benefit of being able to suggest ‘an appealing ambition’ rather than pathologize a norm of group dynamics, both in philosophical stance of the practitioner and in the way that they might describe it to their clients. This chapter describes the concept of negative capability to the group and connects it to work on Bohmian Dialogue, of which they have some experience in this organization. In this more reflective space they were ‘able to be in uncertainties, mysteries and doubts without any irritable reaching after fact or reason’. And perhaps for some to be in ‘uncertainties, mysteries and doubts’ required others to become more polarized in ‘irritable reaching after fact or reason’ – a necessary manifestation of our yin and yang.
