Wilfred Bion

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wilfred R. Bion

Wilfred Ruprecht Bion (born September 8, 1897 in Mathura (Muttra), India, † November 8, 1979 in Oxford , England) was a British psychoanalyst . He was instrumental in the development of group analysis and made important contributions to the understanding of schizophrenic thought processes and their treatment.

Life

Bion as a World War II soldier in 1916

Bion was born in India to a British irrigation engineer. At the age of eight he went to an English boarding school, after which he never returned to India. During the First World War he was deployed in a tank unit, of which only the crew of his own tank returned alive after an attack against which he had fought as best he could - he was awarded for this attack. After the war he studied history at Oxford and proved to be an excellent swimmer and rugby player. After a short period of teaching he went on to study medicine in London. Bion studied a. a. with the brain surgeon Wilfred Trotter , whose workInstincts of the Herd in Peace and War (1916) influenced him.

In 1932 he started working at the Tavistock Clinic in London, which had been founded in 1920 as a charitable institution for the treatment of soldiers traumatized by the war. He treated there u. a. Samuel Beckett . In 1938 he began his first training analysis with John Rickman, which was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Rickman and Bion were now working together at the Northfield Military Hospital. Bion developed a group experiment to determine the participants' qualifications for an officer rank, which is used successfully worldwide to this day. At the same time he gained experience in group therapy treatment of traumatized soldiers, but this project was stopped after a short time.

Bion had married before the war. When his wife died shortly after giving birth to a daughter, he was released from military service in order to be able to care for the child. After the war, he returned to the Tavistock Clinic and became a member of the planning committee that organized the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations , an important part of the UK health system. From 1946 to 1952 he undertook a training analysis with Melanie Klein . From 1948 to 1951 he wrote several basic essays on group therapy , which appeared as a book in 1961 under the title Experiences in Groups . At the same time he met his second wife Francesca.

Both in his portrayal of group processes and in his later works, which deal with the thinking of the individual and the interaction of analyst and client in the therapeutic session, Bion emphasizes the role of psychotic processes, which he believes are ubiquitous. In the 1960s he developed a theory of thinking in three books ( Learning from Experience , Elements of Psycho-Analysis , Transformations ) in which he starts from a grid that categorizes the thought processes according to the extent to which they are integrated and how they are oriented towards action; The method of presentation is chosen in such a way that the reader has to carry out the integration process himself and is immediately exposed to all obstacles, without any guarantee that he will ultimately get through to understanding. - Bion published important preparatory essays on this theory of thinking, which are also more easily accessible, with a current comment in 1967 as Second Thoughts .

From 1962 to 1965, Bion was President of the British Psychoanalytical Society . From 1968 to 1979 he lived in Los Angeles, where his late work was created. From the rather mathematic language that he had developed in the writings of the sixties, he now turned away completely in order to “come as close as possible to a voice from within the unconscious” (Robert M. Young). The three volumes of A Memoir of the Future , written in the 1970s, are considered extremely difficult and inaccessible.

On his return to Oxford in 1979, Bion and his friend Donald Meltzer planned to set up their own psychoanalytic training. He died two months later.

Theory of thought

From Melanie Klein's psychoanalytic theory , Bion adopts the idea that the infant experiences the frustration of the absence of the good mother's breast as the presence of a bad breast. The infant associates this with the idea of ​​pursuing objects that he must excrete and keep away from himself.

According to Bion, the experience of the psychotic patient is shaped by such persecuting objects that owe themselves to experiences of unbearable frustration. The spiral of violence of the expulsion and experienced persecution and threat, which corresponds to one's own violence, has a self-reinforcing effect and creates fears of complete disintegration and annihilation.

Bion calls the unassimilated, expelled and persecuting objects, which are also the first elements of thought for him, beta elements . They are present in the everyday reality of everyone, they also manifest themselves regularly in group processes when these tend to split and the violent expulsion of members.

By absorbing the infant's expressions of displeasure in a dreamy manner - Bion speaks of rêverie - the mother or caregiver can help the infant to gradually transform the unbearable experience into a bearable one. A similar task is faced by the analyst in the treatment situation, who through his understanding of the mechanisms at work in the patient helps the patient to accept and endure them as his own.

For this function of receiving and "Morphing" unbearable psychological content in tolerable Bion uses the term Containing , which was central to the understanding of the processes involved in the psychotherapeutic treatment at school Melanie Klein.

It is important to Bion that the analyst perceives the patient with his search for his own truth. For this he considers it necessary that the analyst even “forgets” his previous knowledge about the patient in order to be able to re-engage with the situation and the encounter every hour.

The striving for integration, which leads to a living experience and to symbolic thinking in a strict sense, is also opposed by opposing drives on the part of everyone, a part of the psychic apparatus that attacks relationships : that of the analyst in the therapeutic situation to understand attacks, but also in each individual case the ability to think coherently. On a larger scale, it is these attacks that try to break the group cohesion and try to divide it into “good” and “bad” parts.

Instead of an attack, a retreat to a position of not wanting to know can take place (in Bion's terminology minus K , from K = knowledge) if the knowledge required in a situation appears to be too threatening. Bion interprets Sophocles' drama King Oedipus in such a way that the seer Teiresias urges Oedipus not to want to know his story, because otherwise he foresaw the consequences. Oedipus' thirst for knowledge (the function K ) wins through.

Bion calls the "integrated" thinking objects associated with a positive or tolerable experience alpha elements . This first integration of experiences is followed by others that Bion systematized in his books in the sixties in a grid .

Works

German editions:

  • Experiences in groups and other writings , trans. HO Rieble, Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 3rd edition 2001, ISBN 3-608-94310-2
  • Learning through experience , transl. Erika Krejci, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1992, ISBN 3-518-29358-3
  • Elements of psychoanalysis , trans. Erika Krejci, Frankfurt am Main Suhrkamp 1992, ISBN 3-518-29358-3
  • Transformations , trans. Erika Krejci, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1997, ISBN 3-518-58238-0
  • Attention and Interpretation , Translator Elisabeth Vorspohl, Tübingen: Edition Diskord, 2006, ISBN 3-89295-765-7
  • The Tavistock Seminars , Tübingen: Edition Diskord, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89295-777-5
  • The Italian Seminars , Tübingen: Edition Diskord, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89295-778-2
  • Elizabeth Bott Spillius (ed.): Melanie Klein today. Developments in Theory and Practice, Vol. 1: Contributions to Theory, Vol. 2: Applications , Translator Elisabeth Vorspohl, Stuttgart, 3rd ed. 2002. This includes:
    • To distinguish between psychotic and non-psychotic personalities, in Vol. 1 , pp. 75-99
    • Attacks on Connections, in Vol. 1 , pp. 110-129
    • A Theory of Thought, in Vol. 1 , pp. 225-235
    • Notes on Memory and Desire, in Vol. 2 , pp. 22-28

English texts:

  • The War of Nerves, in: Miller and Crichton-Miller (eds.), The Neuroses in War , London 1940, pp. 180-200
  • Intra-Group Tensions in Therapy, in: Lancet 2 (1943), also in: Experiences in Groups , London 1961
  • Leaderless Group Project, in: Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic 10 (1946), pp. 77-81.
  • Psychiatry in a Time of Crisis, in: British Journal of Medical Psychology 21 (1948)
  • Experiences in Groups, in: Human Relations , 4 vol., 1948–1951, also in: Experiences in Groups , London 1961
  • The Imaginary Twin, Read to the British Psychoanalytical Society, Nov. 1, 1950, in: Second Thoughts , London 1967
  • Group Dynamics: a Review, in: International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 33 (1952), also in: M. Klein, P. Heimann and R. Money-Kyrle (eds.): New Directions in Psychoanalysis , London, 1955, p 440-477, also in: Experiences in Groups , London 1961
  • Notes on the Theory of Schizophrenia. Read in the Symposium "The Psychology of Schizophrenia" at the 18th International Psycho-Analytical Congress, London, 1953, in: International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 35 (1954), also in: Second Thoughts , London 1967
  • The Development of Schizophrenic Thought, in: International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 37 (1956), also in: Second Thoughts , London 1967
  • Language and the Schizophrenic, in: M. Klein, P. Heimann and R. Money-Kyrle (eds.): New Directions in Psychoanalysis , London 1955, pp. 220-239
  • The Differentiation of the Psychotic from the Non-Psychotic Personalities, in: International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 38 (1957), also in: Second Thoughts , London 1967
  • On Arrogance, 20th International Congress of Psycho-Analysis, Paris (1957), in: Second Thoughts , London 1967
  • On Hallucination, in: International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 39 (1958), also in: Second Thoughts , London 1967
  • Attacks on Linking, in: International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 40 (1959), also in: Second Thoughts , London 1967
  • Experiences in Groups , London 1961
  • A Theory of Thinking, in: International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 43 (1962), also in: Second Thoughts , London 1967
  • Learning from Experience , London 1961
  • Elements of Psycho-Analysis , London 1963
  • Transformations , London 1965
  • Catastrophic Change, Bulletin of The British Psychoanalytical Society 1966, No. 5
  • Second Thoughts , London 1967
  • Notes on Memory and Desire, in: Psycho-Analytic Forum Vol. 2 (1967) No. 3, pp. 271-280, also in: E. Bott Spillius (ed.): Melanie Klein Today Vol. 2: Mainly Practice , London 1988, pp. 17-21
  • Attention and Interpretation , London 1970
  • Bion's Brazilian Lectures 1, Rio de Janeiro 1973, also in 1 vol. London 1990
  • Bion's Brazilian Lectures 2, Rio de Janeiro 1974, also in 1 vol. London 1990
  • A Memoir of the Future, Book 1: The Dream , Rio de Janeiro 1975, Vols. 1 - 3 with The Key in 1 Vol. London 1991
  • Evidence, in: Bulletin of the British Psycho-Analytical Society No. 8 (1976), also in: Clinical Seminars and Four Papers , Abingdon 1987
  • Interview with AG Banet jr., In: Group and Organization Studies 1 (1976) No. 3, pp. 268–285
  • A Memoir of the Future, Book 2: The Past Presented , Rio de Janeiro 1977 (see Vol. 1)
  • Two Papers: The Grid and Caesura , Rio de Janeiro 1977, also London 1989
  • On a Quotation from Freud, in: Borderline Personality Disorders , New York 1977, also in: Clinical Seminars and Four Papers , Abingdon 1987
  • Emotional Turbulence, in: Borderline Personality Disorders , New York 1977, also in: Clinical Seminars and Four Papers , Abingdon 1987
  • Four Discussions with WR Bion , Perthshire 1978, also in: Clinical Seminars and Other Works , London 1994
  • Making the Best of a Bad Job, in: Bulletin of the British Psycho-Analytical Society , Feb. 1979, also in: Clinical Seminars and Four Papers , Abingdon 1987
  • A Memoir of the Future, Book 3: The Dawn of Oblivion , Rio de Janeiro 1979 (see Vol. 1)
  • Bion in New York and São Paulo , ed. Francesca Bion, Perthshire 1980
  • A Key to A Memoir of the Future , Ed. Francesca Bion, Perthshire 1981 (see Vol. 1)
  • The Long Weekend: 1897-1919 (Part of a Life) , ed. Francesca Bion, Abingdon 1982
  • All My Sins Remembered (Another Part of a Life) and The Other Side of Genius: Family Letters , ed. Francesca Bion, Abingdon 1985
  • Seminari Italiani , Ed. Francesca Bion, Rome 1985
  • Clinical Seminars and Four Papers , Ed. Francesca Bion, Abingdon 1987
  • Cogitations , Ed. Francesca Bion, London 1992
  • Taming Wild Thoughts , Ed. Francesca Bion, London 1997
  • War memoirs 1917-1919 , Ed. Francesca Bion, London 1997
  • Seminar Held in Paris, July 10th 1978 , recorded by Francesca Bion

Secondary literature

  • Gérard Bléandonu: Wilfred Bion: His Life and Works, 1897-1979 , London: Free Association Books, 1994.-XII, 303 pp. ISBN 1-85343-330-6
  • Tim Darmstädter, Origins of the Psychic: Wilfred R. Bion's Formulations of a Psychoanalytic Epistemology , Tübingen: Edition diskord, 2001
  • León Grinberg, Dario Sor, Elizabeth Tabak DeBianchedi: WR Bion: an introduction , Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1993
  • Robert D. Hinshelwood: Dictionary of Kleinian Psychoanalysis , Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 2nd edition 2004
  • Ursula Engel, Lilli Gast, Josef Bernd Gutmann (Ed.): Bion. Aspects of reception in Germany. Edition discord: Tübingen, 2000
  • Donald Meltzer: Studies on Extended Metapsychology. Bion's Thinking in Clinical Practice , Series Publ. of the small seminar Salzburg, vol. 13, Frankfurt am Main: Brandes & Apsel, 2009
  • Wolfgang Wiedemann, Wilfred Bion. Biography, theory and clinical practice of the mystic of psychoanalysis , Gießen: Psychosozial, 2007

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bion, Wilfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bion, Wilfred R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British psychoanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Mathura , India
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1979
Place of death Oxford , England