ABSTRACT
This commentary explores mindlessness in various forms, from hollow psychotic mindlessness to pleasant mindless states and creative emptiness. Mindlessness in psychosis often functions to help us avoid psychic pain. Two clinical examples are used as illustration. One person exhibits a vacancy of personality, a not-being-there blankness. A second person shows a combination of numbness, spinning confusion, and freezing up after the flooding impact of shock. This commentary examines full and empty aspects of self in the works of Bion and Winnicott. Whereas for Bion catastrophe is basic and can be a glue that cements personality together, for Winnicott a sense of continuity as going-on-being is essential for the formation of a healthy self. Benevolent states of mindlessness are experienced in deep dreamless sleep, in reverie, and in meditative emptiness. For Winnicott and Eigen there are boundless supportive “nothings” in the depth of our being. What Winnicott calls an incommunicado core Eigen describes as boundless unknown support. These sources of support help us meet catastrophe when combined with faith, a term that Bion and Eigen use to denote a radically open attitude.
