Reading Bion Together

Service Description

…engaging with it slowly, line by line… We are engaging with select Bion texts, reading them slowly, attending to all they evoke. Bion has a remarkable capacity to facilitate an encounter with fragmentary spaces, with collapsed or infinitely expanded psychic landscapes. At times, his writings may seem quite abstract, quite apart. When encountered more fully, however, their striking particularity and aliveness begins to reveal itself. Bion introduces us to a form of practice–to the experience of “alpha process” and to bearing its absence. Our reflections on the coming into being or fragmenting of mind arise, we might say, from inside our encounter with these states. What might Bion be suggesting when he says “the psychoanalytic vertex is O,” the “unknown and unknowable”? How might considering such a question help us develop a more fully alive psychoanalytic perspective? A context for our reading will be provided by links to other contemplative traditions, such as to Buddhist emptiness practice and to the Western mystical thinkers with whom Bion explicitly aligns himself. Readings from more contemporary analysts in the Klein/Bion tradition will be used to frame our consideration of clinical implications. Each group session begins with a brief period of silent meditation. The group is appropriate for newcomers to Bion as well as older hands. New members are welcome as space permits.

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