Bion's Sources by Nuno Torres & R.D. Hinshelwood

Author:Nuno Torres & R.D. Hinshelwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Nowhere did Bion confront Freud so directly and in such detail as in the Re-View, which is basically a long, protracted debate with Freud. However, as this debate with Freud’s ideas was written after the theory had already been formed, it cannot count as influence although we can say that it is not possible that Bion did not have Freud’s ideas in mind as he made his observations in group dynamics, however much he tried to divest himself of all ‘memory and desire’.

Second Thoughts

Theory of Psychosis – Attacks on Thinking and Bizarre Objects

A look at the Appendix shows us that, throughout his work, Bion used the same Freud papers again and again. Amongst these papers Freud’s ‘Formulation of the two principles of mental functioning’ published in 1911, occupies a central position. One cannot overstate the influence that this paper had on Bion as it permeates his work and appears again and again either in an explicit or implicit way. It forms a kind of leitmotiv that constantly reminds us of Bion’s dedication to the reality principle and to scientific work.

The discussion of Freud’s paper in some detail introduces a new element into Bion’s work which had been up to that point based on Klein’s theories. The development of a ‘mental apparatus’ whose function is to apprehend, and work with, reality (both external and internal) makes its appearance first in Bion’s 1956 paper ‘Development of schizophrenic thought’ and in more detail in his 1957 paper ‘The differentiation of the psychotic from the non-psychotic personalities’. In this sense Freud’s influence begins here. The ‘reality principle’, and an ‘apparatus’ that has as its purpose the awareness of reality, enters a hitherto Kleinian framework and takes central stage. With this a new framework begins to develop, in which Freud and Klein come together in a new, characteristically Bionian way.

Freud’s paper delineates the two principles of mental life – the pleasure principle and the reality principle. Freud makes a clear distinction here between ‘the older, primary processes’ which aims at pursuing pleasure and avoiding unpleasure’, and the development of a new principle that aim at establishing what is real rather than what is pleasurable. With characteristic eloquence he writes:

A new principle of mental functioning was thus introduced; what was presented in the mind was no longer what was agreeable but what was real, even if it happened to be disagreeable. This setting-up of the reality principle proved to be a momentous step.

(1911a, p. 219. Italics in the original)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.