ABSTRACT
This chapter provides definitions of the concepts of model and myth within Wilfred Bion's ideas, and a reference to the function of myths according to Plato. In Cogitations, Bion mentions the function of dreams to investigate problems or future emotional experiences, as their elements can be transformed into preconceptions. When Bion sets out in Cogitations to interpret what he names a racial myth (the myth of Babel), by which he means something that is a characteristic of mankind, he says he intends to use this tale in a similar way to scientists using a pre-existing mathematical formula to solve a new problem. Bion takes dream and dreaming as an instrument equivalent to algebra: it can be used to formulate and represent a problem, which is the precondition for finding a solution. He also realises the significance for psychoanalysis of the function of myths and dreams as tools to investigate emotional problems of the group and/or the individual's mental life.
