ABSTRACT

Wilfred Bion’s idea of O, variously described as ‘the thing in itself’, ‘ultimate reality’, ‘the Godhead’ and ‘otherness’, makes a valuable bridge between spirituality and psychoanalysis, though it is also controversial for both. This chapter focuses on some experience of ongoing spiritual direction, which typically involves seeing a directee around once a month in a more open-ended arrangement. Bion draws a number of key concepts from Klein, who is best known for her work with small children. She took Freud’s idea of the Oedipus complex to a much earlier stage of life and talks in terms of two basic layers of mental functioning, which she terms the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions, which are formed in early childhood and remain present under whatever else is going on throughout life. Bion’s benign and generous understanding of where the stuff of early childhood sits in relation to spirituality creates some rich possibilities.