ABSTRACT

Wilfred Bion remains the most cited author in psychoanalytic literature after Sigmund Freud. His formulation of alpha function, waking dream thoughts, his theory of thinking and of the container/contained have proven seminal for the elaboration of psychoanalytic theory and practice, as well as the exploration of psychic functioning and the primordial mind.

Growth and Turbulence in the Container/Contained  is based on papers presented at the 2009 International Bion Conference held in Boston, Massachusetts. It represents the state of the art thinking of an outstanding international group of Bion scholars and experts. This book includes the most current trends in Bion scholarship, covering topics that range from the historical/biographical, to the clinical, the theoretical, the developmental, to the cultural and aesthetic. 

Proving a vital stimulus to further creative explorations in the field, Growth and Turbulence in the Container/Contained will be of particular interest to psychoanalytic practitioners, graduate psychoanalysts, analytic candidates, psychoanalytic therapists, advanced therapy trainees,and scholars of all schools. 

part 1|74 pages

Introduction and Historical Overview

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

chapter |30 pages

Editors' Introduction

The Traumatic Roots of Containment: The Evolution of Bion's Metapsychology

chapter |22 pages

Editors' Introduction

Wilfred Bion's “Caesura”: From Public Lecture to Published Text—(1975–1977)

part 2|102 pages

Clinical Process

chapter |26 pages

Editors' Introduction

Vicissitudes of the container—contained and Field theory

chapter |24 pages

Editors' Introduction

Dreaming as a “Curtain of Illusion”: Revisiting the “Royal Road” with Bion as Our Guide

chapter |19 pages

Editors' Introduction

Psychological turbulence in the analytic Situation

chapter |28 pages

Editors' Introduction

Reflections on Non-Dreams-for-Two, Enactment and the Analyst's Implicit Alpha-Function

part 3|66 pages

Pathological States

chapter |22 pages

Editors' Introduction

Primitive Conscience: A Glimpse of the Primordial Mind

chapter |15 pages

Editors' Introduction

Container-Contained Inverted Relationship-(♀♂): Developments and Applications of a Very Powerful Concept of Wilfred R. Bion

chapter |11 pages

Editors' Introduction

Romantic Perversion—A Pathological Organization Based on -L: Reflections on Containment and the Experience of Time

chapter |14 pages

Editors' Introduction

Caesura, Denial and Envy

part 4|40 pages

Infant and Child Analysis

chapter |17 pages

Editors' Introduction

Infant Observation: Catastrophic Change under a Microscope

chapter |20 pages

Editors' Introduction

The Threatening Character of Change: An Approach with Patients Who Experience Progress as Trauma

part 5|27 pages

Applied Studies

chapter |13 pages

Editors' Introduction

Meaning and Form: The Containing Function of Art

chapter |11 pages

Editors' Introduction

The Power of Form: The Shoah in Contemporary Hebrew Literature

part 6|8 pages

Final Thoughts

chapter 16|6 pages

Looking Back, Looking Ahead