ABSTRACT

Cogitations, the last of the posthumous publications, is a collection of occasional writings representing Bion's attempts to clarify and evaluate both his own ideas and those of others by casting them in written form and frequently addressing them to an imaginary audience. Covering a period between February 1958 and April 1979, Cogitations delves into a wide range of material - psychoanalysis and science, mathematics and logic, literature and semantics. Some form a background to Bion's theoretical development, showing the doubts and arguments leading to the ideas expressed in his books, others highlighting and detailing some of the more abstract points in them, and some exploring topics destined for books that were to remain unwritten.

chapter |1 pages

February 1958

Psychotic mechanisms

chapter |21 pages

10 January 1959

Scientific method

chapter |2 pages

16 May 1959

Common sense

chapter |1 pages

12 July 1959

chapter |3 pages

14 July 1959

chapter |2 pages

15 July 1959 (4.30 a.m. Blast it!)

chapter |2 pages

18 July 1959

chapter |1 pages

24 July 1959

chapter |3 pages

[Undated]

The tropisms

chapter |2 pages

25 July 1959

chapter |1 pages

[Undated]

chapter |3 pages

[Undated]

Schematic presentation of dreaming

chapter |1 pages

27 July 1959

chapter |3 pages

28 July 1959

The dream

chapter |1 pages

1 August 1959

chapter |2 pages

2 August 1959

chapter |1 pages

3 August 1959

chapter |2 pages

4 August 1959

chapter |2 pages

5 August 1959

α

chapter |3 pages

6 August 1959

α

chapter |2 pages

8 August 1959

chapter |2 pages

9 August 1959

Heisenberg: Physics and Philosophy

chapter |7 pages

10 August 1959

Dream-work-α

chapter |1 pages

11 August 1959

chapter |1 pages

21 August 1959

α

chapter |2 pages

8 September 1959

α

chapter |1 pages

12 September 1959

chapter |2 pages

13 September 1959

chapter |2 pages

19 September 1959

Scientific method

chapter |3 pages

26 September 1959

chapter |1 pages

27 September 1959

chapter |1 pages

29 September 1959

chapter |1 pages

2 October 1959

X

chapter |4 pages

4 October 1959

chapter |1 pages

6 October 1959

X

chapter |1 pages

7 October 1959

X

chapter |3 pages

11 October 1959

Resistance

chapter |2 pages

16 October 1959

Various forms of dream manifestation

chapter |4 pages

17 October 1959

The Dream

chapter |3 pages

25 October 1959

Truth—need for, and need to keep maladjustment in repair

chapter |1 pages

30 October 1959

X

chapter |4 pages

[Undated]

chapter |1 pages

[Undated]

No free associations

chapter |2 pages

[Undated]

The super-ego

chapter |3 pages

[Undated]

α

chapter |1 pages

January 1960

α and objects

chapter |6 pages

[Undated]

chapter |2 pages

[Undated]

Disorder of thought

chapter |1 pages

31 January/1 February 1960

Narcissism and social-ism

chapter |2 pages

6 February 1960

chapter |2 pages

11 February 1960

Compassion and truth

chapter |4 pages

12 February 1960

chapter |2 pages

14 February 1960

Fundamental, basic, inborn character disorder

chapter |2 pages

17 February 1960

Animism, destructive attacks and reality

chapter |1 pages

18 February 1960

α

chapter |1 pages

20 February 1960

Attacks on α

chapter |2 pages

February 1960

Displacement

chapter |2 pages

22 February 1960

chapter |4 pages

24 February 1960

α

chapter |1 pages

27 February 1960

Mathematics

chapter |1 pages

28 February 1960

chapter |4 pages

[Undated]

Need for a scientific method

chapter |6 pages

[Undated]

Need for study of scientific method

chapter |9 pages

[Undated]

Commentary on the scientific deductive system

chapter |1 pages

[Undated—1960]

Analytic technique

chapter |1 pages

27 March 1960

Technique: meaning and interpretation of associations

chapter |1 pages

[Undated—1960]

Scientific deductive system

chapter |1 pages

[Undated—1960]

The painful component

chapter |2 pages

[Undated—1960]

The synthesizing function of mathematics

chapter |12 pages

[Undated]

Communication

chapter |1 pages

August 1960

α

chapter |1 pages

[Undated—1960]

α and paranoid-schizoid position

chapter |2 pages

[Undated—1960]

Dream-work-α

chapter |1 pages

[Undated]

chapter |1 pages

[Undated]

The problem of perception: common sense and group polarity of instincts

chapter |2 pages

[Undated]

chapter |1 pages

[Undated]

Mental health

chapter |5 pages

[Undated]

chapter |5 pages

[Undated]

chapter |3 pages

[Undated]

The Oedipal chain

chapter |1 pages

[Undated]

Theorem of Pythagoras—Euclid I.47

chapter |1 pages

[Undated]

The relationship of Ps and D positions to the Oedipus complex

chapter |2 pages

[Undated]

The scientific deductive system and calculus via Euclid

chapter |2 pages

[Undated]

An interpretation

chapter |4 pages

[Undated]

Probability

chapter |6 pages

[Undated]

The attack on the analyst’s α-function

chapter |3 pages

[Undated]

chapter |1 pages

[Undated]

Curiosity, and fear of socialized super-ego

chapter |16 pages

[Undated]

Tower of Babel: possibility of using a racial myth

chapter |2 pages

[Undated]

chapter |12 pages

[Undated]

Metatheory

chapter |3 pages

[Undated]

chapter |3 pages

[Undated]

Theories for use in the psycho-analysis of disorders of thought

chapter |9 pages

[Undated]

Dispositions

chapter |3 pages

[Undated]

I know X = relationship

chapter |1 pages

[Undated]

Kinds of relatedness

chapter |4 pages

[Undated]

The cause and the selected fact

chapter |3 pages

[Undated]

chapter |2 pages

[Undated]

chapter |9 pages

March 1967

Reverence and awe

chapter |4 pages

[Undated]

chapter |2 pages

[Undated—1968]

Notes on ritual and magic

chapter |2 pages

[Undated—1968]

chapter |2 pages

[Undated—1969]

chapter |1 pages

[Undated—1969]

chapter |2 pages

[Undated—1969]

chapter |1 pages

2 March 1969

chapter |1 pages

21 March 1969

chapter |3 pages

[Undated—1969]

Determination of direction in a group

chapter |1 pages

August 1969

chapter |1 pages

March 1970

chapter |5 pages

May 1970

chapter |3 pages

February 1971

chapter |2 pages

[1971]

chapter |1 pages

10 July 1971

chapter |1 pages

14 July 1971

chapter |2 pages

15 July 1971

chapter |6 pages

July 1971

Predictive psycho-analysis and predictive psychopathology

chapter |1 pages

[Undated]

chapter |2 pages

September 1971

chapter |17 pages

1971

Psychiatry at a time of crisis, II

chapter |2 pages

1971

chapter |3 pages

[November/December 1973]

chapter |2 pages

[August 1975]

chapter |1 pages

[August 1975]

chapter |1 pages

[August 1975]

chapter |2 pages

August 1975

chapter |2 pages

[August 1976]

chapter |2 pages

[August 1978]

chapter |6 pages

8 August 1978

chapter |6 pages

[April 1979]