Psychoanalysis is indebted to Bion for some of its most original moments. He took it to its limits, establishing a dialogue with other disciplines, arts and science. This dialogue generated innovating questions that transformed the psychoanalytical technique. Bion conceives the mind as a universe expanding, and psychoanalysis as a powerful, disruptive idea. His hypotheses transform psychoanalytical clinical practice through its transformative model of mental growth. Bion extends our understanding of protomental and pre-natal phenomena, the mysterious transformations in hallucinosis, and the role of psychoanalytical intuition. Psychoanalysis needs to include and incorporate emotional experiences that cannot immediately be apprehended by the senses, just as post-Newtonian physics has come to access infrasensorial phenomena. The Copernican revolution that Bion introduced is implied in his ideas of catastrophic change, transformations, and "at-one-ment", which imply a new conception of analysis--not only as a process towards knowing oneself, but also to be in at-one-ment with what one is becoming. The chapters containing theoretical and abstract notions are followed by discussions of contemporary film, used as clinical illustration. The final chapter, concerning the primitive mind in Bion, has an original approach with its elaboration of the concept of "tropisms". Reviews and Endorsements: "Psychoanalysis owes Bion some of its most original contributions. He conceives the mind as an expanding universe evolving towards mental growth or deterioration. The originality of his ideas and the new models he proposes demand an open-minded approach 'without memory, without desire, without understanding'. The inclusive amplitude of his ideas and intuition containing questions that went far beyond his time, without having a frame to contain them, made Bion a difficult author. Lia Pistiner de Cortiñas is internationally known as an author who conveys Bion’s ideas with a deep insight. She is revisiting Bion’s hypotheses and developing her original perspective on reverie, the function of “dreaming”, mental growth, and the transformations these ideas introduce in the psychoanalytic clinical practice." - Marta Lilliecreutz, psychoanalyst, psychologist, and member of the Colegio de Psicólogos de Buenos Aires Table of Contents: Acknowledgements About the Author Preface by Lawrence J. Brown Foreword by Arnaldo Chuster Introduction The ultrasensorial and infrasensorial spectrum: the extension of the psychoanalytical map of the mind 1) Bion: the thinker and his work 2) Differentiation between the psychotic and the non-psychotic parts of the personality 3) Projective identification: realistic, communicative, and hypertrophic modalities 4) An illustration of the ideas in Chapter Three used as clinical material through the film Pi 5) The origin and nature of thinking 6) Illustration of the ideas about the origin and nature of thought using the film Twelve Angry Men 7) Learning from Experience: alpha function and reverie 8) The matrix functions of thinking: myths, dreams, and models 9) The function of dreams and myths as instruments with which to investigate mental life 10) A theory of knowing–dreaming–thinking: emotional links and the container–contained relationship 11) Transformations 12) The difference between reparation and transformation 13) Tropisms and mental growth Note References Index About the Author: Lia Pistiner de Cortiñas is a psychoanalyst, full member and training analyst of the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytical Association (APDEBA) and fellow of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). She has a specialization in child and adolescent psychoanalysis. She is also a psychologist (PhD) and a lawyer, having acquired degrees from Buenos Aires University. |