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Bion’s Vertices: On Truth and Lies

Editor: Tomasz Fortuna

£25.19 – £36.99

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? These questions, and many more, are explored in the inaugural book of the new Contemporary Bion series from Karnac. A stellar line-up of contributors examine these notions from a variety of perspectives with reference to Bion.

Featuring Nicola Abel-Hirsch, Joseph Aguayo, David Bell, Ron Britton, Robert Caper, Roosevelt Cassorla, Maxine Dennis, Judy Eekhoff, Tomasz Fortuna, Denis Flynn, Antonia Grimalt, Alberto Hahn, R. D. Hinshelwood, Monica Horovitz, Dimitris-James Jackson, Carlos Tabbia, and Margot Waddell. With a Foreword from P. C. Sandler.

Due to be published in July 2025.

Editor

Tomasz Fortuna
ISBN

9781800132115
Format

Paperback, e-Book, Print & e-Book
Page Extent

392
Publication Date

July 2025
Subject Areas

Bionian Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalysis
Series

Contemporary Bion
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Description

Bion’s Vertices: On Truth and Lies is divided into three parts which investigate the truth/lie domain, emotional change and growth, and creativity in relation to truth and lies, and show its relevance in clinical practice. The wide-ranging discussions include chapters on aesthetic processes in poetry and psychoanalytic thought, knowledge, representation, misunderstandings, chaos, perversions, propaganda, the analyst’s mind, the protective function of lying, and racialisation in relational context.

This is a must-read book for all those with an interest in Bion and the application of his theory to contemporary thought and practice.

About the editor

About the editor

Dr Tomasz Fortuna trained as a psychoanalyst at the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London. He is a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society and Hanna Segal Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies. He had worked as a psychiatrist in the NHS for sixteen years and, currently, he works at the Portman Clinic and is in private psychoanalytic practice. At the Portman Clinic he conducts individual forensic psychotherapy as well as group work and assessments. He offers consultations and reflective practice to prison staff.

He is a Visiting Professor at the psychiatry department of the Universiti Putra Malaysia.

He teaches and supervises in the UK and abroad (including Poland, Russia, China, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea). His professional interests include the relationship between psychoanalysis and the arts, understanding of severe emotional disturbance and criminal behaviour. He is interested in current developments in Bion’s thought and is a member of the Bion in Marrakech seminar.

Dr Fortuna is a Course Lead for the ‘Foundations in psychodynamic approaches to risk and complexity’, a one-year course offered at the Portman Clinic (Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust). In addition, he teaches courses at the Tavistock Clinic and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.

He co-authored a book Melanie Klein: The Basics and was a guest-editor of Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication.

Contents

Contents

Preface to the book series – Contemporary Bion
Tomasz Fortuna

Preface to first edition
Paulo Cesar Sandler

Introduction
Tomasz Fortuna

I. Enquiry into the truth/lie domain

CHAPTER ONE
The forms of things unknown: aesthetic processes in poetry and psychoanalytic thought
Margot Waddell

CHAPTER TWO
Knowledge and its pretenders: Bion’s contribution to knowledge and thought
David Bell

CHAPTER THREE
The psychoanalyst’s toolbox: an apprentice in the Bion’s and Meltzer’s ateliers
Carlos Tabbia

CHAPTER FOUR
Representation and truth
R. D. Hinshelwood

CHAPTER FIVE
Bion’s two principles of mental functioning
Robert Caper

II. Change, growth, creativity and their opposites

CHAPTER SIX
Chaos: destruction or creation?
Ron Britton

CHAPTER SEVEN
Catastrophic Change: container – contained ♀♂, the shape of what we experience … and beyond
Denis Flynn

CHAPTER EIGHT
Bion: Lies and Perversion of Truth
Dimitris-James Jackson

CHAPTER NINE
Reaching the ineffable
Tomasz Fortuna

CHAPTER TEN
Thinking about truth, lies and propaganda
Antonia Grimalt

III. Clinical context/dialogue

CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Truth shall spring out of the earth…”: The analyst as gatherer of sense impressions
Avner Bergstein

CHAPTER TWELVE
What might be in so close that as psychoanalysts we miss it?
Nicola Abel-Hirsch

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The analyst’s state of mind and growth in the psychoanalytic process
Alberto Hahn

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A story that could never be told
Monica Horovitz

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Truth and lies: perversion of truth and the disruption of passion
Judy Eekhoff

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A certain praise for lying
Roosevelt Cassorla

Index

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