ABSTRACT
Alpha-function combines the primary and secondary processes. The analyst must abandon memory and desire, the derivatives of sensation, so as not to be misled by images or symbols of the object, which, though they represent the object, are not the object. Eventually, the analyst sees a pattern in the material—that is, the pattern becomes the selected fact that allows the analyst to interpret it. The analyst’s function as container seamlessly blends with Bion’s notions of dreaming, thinking, a-function, the Grid, and the contact-barrier between the Systems Ucs. and Cs. Interpenetrating Bion’s ideas about the first and second forms of thinking is his notion of the contact-barrier or caesura and its flexible function of dividing and reuniting different elements. Dreams mediate and facilitate the acceptance of Truth in transformations initiated by what Bion was to call “a-function”.
