ABSTRACT
Bion’s contributions to psychoanalytic technique are complex, innovative, profound, and worthy of intense and repeated study. Psychoanalysis prior to Bion was, however, largely a left-hemisphere technique, in spite of Freud’s hints about unconscious-to-unconscious communication during analysis. As one reads Bion’s works, particularly his recommendations for the analyst’s stance in experiencing his patient, one gets the impression of the use of a mental counterpart to night-time vision. Bion’s suggestions on technique are interesting from another perspective. These ideas represent the quintessence of Bion’s technique: the analyst must have patience while he continues to observe and allow a mass of seemingly random or chaotic associations to settle in his mind. In studying psychotics, Bion found that they either did not dream or were afraid of dreaming. The terms “pre-conception” and “preconception” need clarification. The use of the Oedipus complex and assigning it to E4 is of interest.
