ABSTRACT
Bion used the term ‘element’ first in Experiences in Groups,256 but only in very general terms. In ‘A theory of thinking’257 Bion describes for the first time (except for an unpublished paper presented at a scientific meeting of the British Psycho-Analytical Society) the use of the concept of ‘alpha-function’ as a working tool in the analysis of disturbances of thought:
It seemed convenient to suppose an alpha-function to convert sense data into alpha-elements and thus provide the psyche with the material for dream thoughts and hence the capacity to wake up or go to sleep, to be conscious or unconscious.According to this theory consciousness depends on alpha-function and it is a logical necessity to suppose that such a function exists if we are to assume that the self is able to be conscious of itself in the sense of knowing itself from experience of itself.
