Bion’s Vertices: On Truth and Lies is the inaugural book of the Contemporary Bion series. It raises many key questions, such as: What is the place of truth and lies in psychoanalytic discourse? What are the consequences in terms of collusion and communication? How can a ‘lie’ carry a meaning? The book features penetrating insights from Nicola Abel-Hirsch, Joseph Aguayo, David Bell, Avner Bergstein, Ronald Britton, Robert Caper, Roosevelt Cassorla, Maxine Dennis, Judy K. Eekhoff, Denis Flynn, Tomasz Fortuna, Antònia Grimalt, Alberto Hahn, R. D. Hinshelwood, Monica Horovitz, Dimitris J. Jackson, Paulo Cesar Sandler, Carlos Tabbia, and Margot Waddell. Their inspiration and starting point is Bion and his work but the vertices are dynamic and involve free expression of their personal perspectives, communication styles, and approaches, including Freudian, Kleinian, mathematical, philosophical, scientific, and poetic.
Their chapters are divided into three parts, which investigate the truth/lie domain, emotional change and growth, and creativity in relation to truth and lies. The wide-ranging discussions include chapters on aesthetic processes in poetry and psychoanalytic thought, the protective function of lying, misunderstandings, chaos, the analyst’s mind, knowledge, representation, perversions, propaganda, and racialisation in relational context. These powerful contributions are essential reading for practising clinicians, academics, and students.
Dr Tomasz Fortuna is a psychoanalyst with the British Psychoanalytical Society and a founding member of the Hanna Segal Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies. He worked as a psychiatrist in the NHS for sixteen years and is now at the Portman Clinic and in private psychoanalytic practice. He teaches and supervises at the Tavistock and Portman Clinics, Institute of Psychoanalysis, University College London, and abroad, and was a visiting professor in psychoanalysis at the psychiatry department of University Putra Malaysia. He was a member of the Bion in Marrakech seminar and taught Klein and Bion in the UK, China, and South Korean. His professional interests include the relationship between psychoanalysis and the arts, and the understanding of severe emotional disturbance and criminal behaviour. He has published several articles and chapters, co-authored with R. D. Hinshelwood, Melanie Klein: The Basics (Routledge, 2017) and co-edited with Ignes Sode, Mapping the Landscape: Explorations in Psychoanalysis, by Priscilla Roth (Routledge, 2025).
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