ABSTRACT
Wilfred Bion’s original definitions are most often elliptical, leading one to get a sense of something rather than a more specific characterization. Bion described beta-elements as sense-impressions related to emotional experience. Most analysts would include beta elements amongst more primitive states. “Clinically the bizarre object which is suffused with superego characteristics comes nearest to provide a realization to correspond with the concept of beta elements”. T. H. Ogden elaborated that Beta-elements cannot be linked with one another in the creation of meaning. They might very roughly be compared with ‘snow’ on a malfunctioning television screen in which no single visual scintillation or group of scintillations can be linked with other scintillations to form an image or even a meaningful pattern. Beta-elements are fit only for evacuation or for storage—not as memory but as psychic noise. Alpha function—The elliptical nature of Bion’s definitions is more obvious that in his definition of alpha function.
