ABSTRACT
While Bion is referenced by Bionians as the psychoanalytic source of the term reverie and its meaning, the terms reverie and waking dreams, were actually first used by Breuer in describing his work with Anna O. Pre-Bion much of the literature on reverie revolved around other functions it may serve, and its similarities and differences to other psychic mechanisms. Though the difficulties of penetrating the adult mind in analysis are great they are less so than attempting to penetrate the infant’s by speculative hypothesis; investigation of reverie in the adult may afford us an entry into this problem. The basic function of reverie is described as changing beta elements into alpha elements as a result of alpha function. Alpha function is sometimes considered a function, and at others as a structure. One way of viewing the differences in how reverie is viewed by post-Bionians is that some view it as a function, and some as a structure.
