ABSTRACT
I put forth the question but have no definitive answer. The person who appeared in the interstices of analytic moments ran the range of being distant, withdrawn, disciplined, dedicated, empathic (extremely), personable, warm, interested, friendly—but measured! He did not socialize much to my knowledge with individuals here in Los Angeles, and, reading the accounts of others who worked with him in his “group” days, one gets the impression that his stalwartness and redoubtable individuality may have put people off in England. In public he was quietly but powerfully charismatic. I don’t see him as “one of the boys”. I have often wondered whether he had any close friends. I often wished that I could have known him post-analytically. The London Kleinians discredit “late Bion”: the one after Transformations and particularly the one who emigrated to Los Angeles. This pains me enormously, but I cannot help wondering what they knew that I did not; on the other hand, I rather feel that I, having had the benefit of an analytic experience with him, know something that they did not, and still do not, know. Bion did not reach out. One had to come to him. This is especially true of his writing. I believe that he was honest and trustworthy to a fault and was quietly adamant in his beliefs but was always the consummate gentleman.
