Facebook Twitter Email Pinterest linkedin
  • Home
  • Books
  • Journals
  • Authors
  • Blog & Podcast
Firing The Mind Firing The Mind
  • FAQs
  • CONTACT

    CONTACT US

    Whether you’re looking for answers, would like to solve a problem, or just want to let us know how we did, we are always happy to hear from you.

    POSTAL ADDRESS

    Phoenix Publishing House

    62 Bucknell Road, Bicester
    Oxfordshire OX26 2DS
    United Kingdom

    Email:  hello@firingthemind.com
    Phone:  +44 (0)20 8442 1376

    SAY HELLO

    SEND US A MESSAGE

      CONTACT INFORMATION

      62 Bucknell Road, Bicester
      Oxfordshire OX26 2DS
      United Kingdom

      +44 (0)20 8442 1376

      hello@firingthemind.com

      Whether you’re looking for answers, would like to solve a problem, or just want to let us know how we did, we are always happy to hear from you.

      Facebook Twitter Email Pinterest linkedin
    Login / Register
    0 Wishlist
    0 items / £0.00
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube linkedin
    Menu
    Firing The Mind Firing The Mind
    0 items / £0.00
    -10%
    Click to enlarge
    HomeCategoriesPsychoanalysis Bion: An Introduction
    Previous product
    London Kleinians in Los Angeles: Laying the Foundations of Object Relations Theory and Practice £16.19 – £23.99
    Back to products
    Next product
    Mutual Impact: At the Crossroads of Psychoanalysis and Literature £20.69 – £27.99

    Bion: An Introduction

    Author: Nicola Abel-Hirsch

    £13.49 – £19.99

    A clear, concise, and enjoyable introduction to the wide-ranging work of Wilfred R. Bion, a true pioneer in the psychoanalytic world. Nicola Abel-Hirsch’s encyclopaedic knowledge of her subject shines through in this easy-to-read primer. Perfect for students, academics, and professionals in the mental health, humanities, and social sciences fields, it also provides an overview of the whole of his work for people with some familiarity with his writings.

    View the full Introductions series.

    Due to be published in March 2023.

    Look inside!

    Author

    Nicola Abel-Hirsch

    Series

    Introductions

    ISBN

    9781912691838

    Format

    Paperback, e-Book, Print & e-Book

    Page Extent

    152

    Publication Date

    April 2023

    Subject Areas

    Bionian Psychoanalysis, Group Analysis, Kleinian Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalysis

    Clear

    — OR —

    Compare
    Add to wishlist
    Share
    Facebook Twitter Email Pinterest linkedin
    • Description
    • About the author
    • Contents
    Description

    Wilfred R. Bion’s life spanned key events in the twentieth century. Born in India in 1897, he came to boarding school in England aged 8 and at 18 fought in the tanks in World War One. He trained as a doctor between the wars and, in his World War Two work for the army, he was an innovator. After the war, he became a patient of Melanie Klein, qualified as a psychoanalyst, and was part of an extraordinary period in psychoanalysis of work with psychotic mechanisms in patients. In the late 1950s, he identified the configuration container/contained as being at the heart of human development. He looked outside of psychoanalysis to philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, and even theo-mystical thinkers. His work evolved radically throughout the 1960s and, at age 70 when many would be thinking of slowing down, he emigrated to California and began to travel internationally, giving lectures and supervisions across three continents. After Freud, Bion appears to be the most quoted psychoanalyst of our time and this book provides the opportunity, even for those familiar with his work, to gain insight into its sheer breadth, showcased so brilliantly in this slim volume.

    As author of Bion: 365 Quotes, Nicola Abel-Hirsch’s immersion in Bion’s vast œuvre has enabled a comprehensive introduction to Bion and his work. Her lightness of touch, whilst retaining the necessary depth, makes it a joy to read. Bion and his work can be somewhat enigmatic but Abel-Hirsch’s understanding offers the ideal introduction to the man and his work.

    About the author

    About the author

    Nicola Abel-Hirsch is a training analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and works in full-time psychoanalytical practice. She has given theoretical and clinical papers on Bion in the UK; Taiwan (annually 2005–2012); the USA; and Europe. From 2013 to 2015 she was the visiting professor at the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. She is the author of Bion: 365 Quotes (2019), and editor of Hanna Segal’s last book Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (2007). Under the auspices of Understanding Primitive Mental States NYC, she chairs an ongoing series of seminars on Bion’s later lectures, seminars and supervisions.

    Contents

    Contents

    Prologue
    About the author
    Five opening thoughts

    1. Bion’s war
    The Battle of Cambrai
    Tanks
    War languages
    Amiens
    Turning the guns round

    2. Oxford, medicine, Samuel Beckett
    The 1920s and 1930s
    Some detail
    Bion and Samuel Beckett

    3. What groups do
    The 1940s
    Starting to ask questions again
    World War Two work: including Northfield
    The Tavistock groups: including Bion the observer, basic assumptions
    An eyewitness account of Bion’s group-work
    (From an occasion when Bion took a group in 1964 for about four months)

    4. A time of membership
    Late 1940s/1950s
    Analysis with Klein and Klein’s group of 4
    The Imaginary Twin
    ‘Verbal thinking’ in the 50s papers
    Bion and Winnicott

    5. A breakthrough
    And then Bion made a breakthrough
    On Arrogance (1958)
    Attacks on Linking (1959)
    Braithwaite and Frege
    The beginning of Bion’s ‘cogitations’

    6. Going back to beginnings
    India
    Bishop Stortford School

    7. Thinking
    The Theory of Thinking
    Hume and Kant

    8. Opening up his own thinking: Learning from Experience (1962)
    The “name givers”
    Alpha-function
    Beta elements
    Container/contained
    Bion’s own clinical work in this period
    Galileo and Poincaré

    9. A new instrument: Elements of Psychoanalysis (1963)
    The Grid
    Reversible Perspective
    An eyewitness account of Bion’s clinical work in the 1960s

    10. Going as far as possible: Transformations: Change from Learning to Growth (1965)
    Transformations and Invariants
    Bion’s own clinical work in this period
    The emergence of ’O’: the last chapter of Transformations
    Plato and Milton

    11. Talking about his findings
    Memory and Desire 1965
    Catastrophic Change 1966
    The Commentary to Second Thoughts: Selected Papers on Psycho-Analysis 1967

    12. Los Angeles 1967
    Spectrum
    Dispute with Greenson

    13. Elaborations: Attention and Interpretation: A Scientific Approach to Insight in Psycho-Analysis and Groups (1970)
    Container/contained
    Suffering
    Intuition and ‘F’[Faith]
    Bion’s own clinical work in this period
    An eyewitness account of Bion’s clinical work in the 1970s

    14. International lectures, seminars and supervisions
    The Brazilian Lectures
    The Brazilian Clinical Seminars
    The Tavistock Seminars
    The Italian Seminars

    15. Autobiography and A Memoir of the Future
    Bion’s autobiography
    A Memoir of the Future

    Five closing thoughts
    Brief glossary
    Bibliography

    3 reviews for Bion: An Introduction

    1. Lawrence J. Brown, author of ‘Transformational Processes in Clinical Psychoanalysis: Dreaming, Emotions and the Present Moment’ and ‘On Freud’s “Moses and Monotheism”’ – 10/11/2022

      ‘Nicola Abel-Hirsch is a masterful teacher of Bion’s works; knowledgeable of his history as an individual and a psychoanalyst. Like the best of teachers, she knows her subject intimately and explains even the most obscure concepts clearly. Her new book, Bion: An Introduction, displays her deep appreciation and knowledge of the work of Bion. I highly recommend Bion: An Introduction to all clinicians and psychoanalysts who want to understand Bion’s life and work in depth.’

    2. Jani Santamaría, co-editor of ‘Autistic Phenomena and Unrepresented States: Explorations in the Emergence of Self’ – 18/01/2023

      ‘Underpinned by six opening thoughts and six closing thoughts as pointers, Bion: An Introduction is a masterpiece that captures the heart of Bion’s life and works brilliantly. Nicola Abel-Hirsch’s intimate knowledge of the thinking of W. R. Bion, combined with her deep capacity to dialogue with disciplines such as mathematics, philosophy, literature, the arts, and science, enables her to tackle a wide range of topics in a high-quality, original work. Bion: An Introduction is an essential, up-to-date, scholarly book for the study and exploration of Bion which intelligently stimulates new paths for thinking and dreaming.’

    3. Ignês Sodré, author of ‘Imaginary Existences: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Phantasy, Fiction, Dreams and Daydreams’ – 18/01/2023

      ‘Nicola Abel Hirsch has written a short, comprehensive new book on Bion, encompassing and interweaving his life and the progression of his work from the first to the final books and papers. Her extensive knowledge and profound understanding of Bion’s immense contribution to psychoanalysis makes her the ideal author for this book. The book is a pleasure to read; we feel her deeply engaged presence throughout, as if in a vivid dialogue with Bion in which she is always trying to understand him better. The compactness of the format consistently avoids over-simplification; one is left with an experience of fluidity and integration, and a sense of satisfaction for having been offered an accomplished, lively portrait of Bion the man and Bion the thinker.’

    Add a review Cancel reply

    You must be logged in to post a review.

    JOIN THE PHOENIX FAMILY

    Sign up to our newsletter today!
    Please wait...

    Thank you for subscribing!

    Our purpose is to stimulate debate, to open minds to new ways of working, to present opposing theories and above all to question everything.

    Email: hello@firingthemind.com
    Phoenix
    • About
    • Publishing with
    • Trade
    • Rights
    Useful links
    • Privacy Policy
    • Returns
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Shipping & Delivery
    More links
    • FAQs
    • Home
    2022 Firing the Mind. Powered by Bicester IT Hub

    Shopping cart

    close
    close
    Start typing to see products you are looking for.
    • Home
    • Books
    • Journals
    • Authors
    • Blog & Podcast
    • Wishlist
    • Login / Register

    Sign in

    close

    Lost your password?
    No account yet? Create an Account
    Scroll To Top