ABSTRACT
Starting from the idea that “the narrative form is associated with the theory of causality”, and drawing on David Hume’s thought, Bion deconstructs the logical mechanisms which, due to a “constant conjunction” between two elements, determine the meaning (and direction) that a proposition of thought should have. There are many patients who consider this constant conjunction as a valid basis of causality. Their theory of causality is used for destroying rather than for deepening their contact with reality. Based on his knowledge of the work of Lewis Carroll, Bion not only called into question the temporality linked to discourse and the idea of a linear individual development, but also studied the disagreements that emerge between patients and analysts; he proposed to take into account the (psycho-)logical version of so-called psychotic patients to increase the analyst’s capacity for understanding the patient who is living in an “unlimited psychic reality” or an “infinite universe”. The idea of psychic growth, consisting of movements back and forth, concerns patient and analyst alike, on the condition that one accepts the supersession of morality which always limits the painful quest for truth linked to the sexual dimension of knowledge. Analytic temporality is not so much linear as subject to variations of orientation.
