A Beam of Intense Darkness: Wilfred Bion's Legacy to Psychoanalysis (Routledge Mental Health Classic Editions)

Written by pioneering analyst and creative thinker, James Grotstein, A Beam of Intense Darkness offers a thorough overview and illuminating insight into the often complex work of W. R. Bion. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Introduction To Classic Edition Acknowledgements and Sources of Information About the Author Prelude and prologue 1 An Introduction 2 What Kind of Analyst was Bion? 3 What kind of Person was Bion? 4 Bion’s Vision 5 Bion’s Legacy 6 Bion’s Metatheory 7 Bion on Technique 8 Clinical Vignette Encompassing Bion’s Technical Ideas 9 Bion, the Mathematician, the Mystic, the Psychoanalyst 10 The “Language of Achievement” 11 Bion’s Discovery of O 12 The Concept of the “Transcendent Position” 13 The Quest for the Truth, Part A: The “Truth Drive” as the Hidden Order of Bion’s Metatheory for Psychoanalysis 14 The Quest for the Truth, Part B: Curiosity about the Truth as the “Seventh Servant” 15 Lies, “Lies”, and Falsehoods 16 The Container and the Contained 17 “Projective Transidentification”: An Extension of the Concept of Projective Identification 18 Bion’s Work with Groups 19 Bion’s Studies in Psychosis 20 Transformations 21 Psychoanalytic Functions and Elements 22 Points, Lines, and Circles 23 The Grid 24 Fetal Mental life and its Caesura with Postnatal Mental Life 25 What does it Mean to Dream? Bion’s Theory of Dreaming 26 Dreaming, Phantasying, and the “Truth Instinct” 27 “Become” 28 P-S ↔ D 29 L, H, and K and Passion 30 Faith 31 Bion’s Discovery of Zero (“No-thing”) Epilogue W. R. Bion Bibliography References and Bibliography Index 1. This book introduces Bion's work in a reader-friendly manner, while also introducing key ideas developed by Grotstein, such as transidentification; 2. Includes an extensive dialogue between Grotstein and Bion, giving directly insight into Bion's thinking and development of his complex theories; 3