Explorations in Bion's 'O' Everything We Know Nothing About

Wilfred Bion described "O" as "the unknowable and the unreachable ultimate truth". In this fascinating collection, a range of authors offer their own theoretical, clinical and artistic approaches to exploring this enduring but mysterious idea. Drawn from contributions from the 8th International Bion Conference in 2014, the book examines how "O" can be experienced in all aspects of internal and external reality and within all relationships, from an individual relating to the mother to their emotional relationship with their self. It features insights into "O" drawn from the area of faith as well as its manifestations in clinical practice, while also included is a chapter exploring the links between Bion’s ideas and those of Winnicott, Lacan, Green and Freud. Featuring contributions from some of the world’s leading Bion scholars, this will be essential reading for any psychoanalyst interested in exploring the concept of "O", as well as scholars in philosophy and theology.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS INTRODUCTION SECTION I EVERYTHING WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT 1 BION CROSSES THE RUBICON - The Fateful Course - and Curse - of "O" in Psychoanalysis and the Furies Left in its Wake James Grostein 2 O - Bion’s Catch-22 Annie Reiner SECTION II BION’S JOURNEY TOWARD O 3 Wilfred Bion’s Los Angeles Seminars (9167): A Gateway to Contemporary Kleinian Technique Joseph Aguayo SECTION III TRANSFORMATION AND O 4 Between Emotion and Evolution Jeffrey Eaton 5 Authentic Pleasure Cecil José Rezze and João Carlos Braga 6 Writing and Transmission in Bion: Group Model, Pictorial Model and Transformation in "O" Model Adriana Salvitti 7 Tropisms At-one-ment and Mental Growth Lia Pistiner SECTION IV FAITH AND O 8 Reciprocal Kindling, Emergent Life: Bion's Faith in O, in Search of Emotional Truth Keri Cohen 9 Stormy Navigation With Our "Secret Companion" of Incredulity Towards Faith In "O" Monica Horovitz SECTION V CATASTROPHE, CATASTROPHIC CHANGE AND O 10 Beyond the Spectrum: Catastrophic Change, Fear of Breakdown and the Unrepressed Unconscious Avner Bergstein 11 The Girl Who Gave Me a Kiss on the Finger: How the Concrete and the Abstract Mix in Psychotic Symbolization Alessandro Bruni 12 Thinking, Knowing, not Knowing, No Mind Mary Sonntag 13 Dreams, Transformations and Hope Jani Santa María SECTION VI CEASURA AND O 14 Increased Hypnagogic States, Subthalamic Fears and Caesura Arnaldo Chuster 15 Careful Emptiness and Improvisational Listening in Psychoanalytic Education: Elements of Bion’s 1975 Recorded Caesura Lecture Not Contained in the Printed Vesion Julie McCaig 16 Caesuras and Dis-caesuras: Causality, Morality and Envy Renato Trachtenberg 17 Conjectures About Dreams, Memories and Caesuras Carmen Mion SECTION VII CREATIVITY AND O 18 On the Verge of ‘Madness’: Creativity and the Fear of Insanity Claudio Castello Filho 19 Induction of Numbing Deadening Narcosis by Primitive Superego Sources: A Method of Attacking Links by Severe Compromise of Attention Michael Paul 20 Being in The Thought-Flow: Authentic Movement and Bion’s "O" Debora Sherman 21 "The Analyst is Present": Viewing the Psychoanalytic Process as Performance Art Alan Karbelnig 22 A Memoir of the Future: Reading, Proof and Enactment Guelfo Margherita SECTION VIII FREUD, KLEIN, WINNICOTT, LACAN AND O 23 Not O and Not K. Then What is the Navel of the Truth? Andrea Boccochiola 24 The Primitive Somatopsychic Roots of Gender Formation, Intimacy and the Development of Psyche with Implications for Psychoanalytic Technique James Gooch 25 Lost to Repetition: Hysteria From Perspectives of Bion, Lacan and Green Avedis Panajian 26 Truth, Beauty, Reality Paulo Sandler 27 Regression in the Work of Bion and Winnicott, Rudi Vermoté 28 Was Freud a Bionian? Björn Salomonsson SECTION IX O IN THE CONSULTING ROOM 29 From Knowing to Becoming and from an Informed Mind to a Nourished Mind Darcy Portolese 30 Catastrophe and Faith in Anorexia Nervosa Tom Wooldridge 31 From a Talking Hole to a Container for Growth Majlis Salomonsson 32 Penelope’s Suitors: From Reality to Play Esther Hadassa Sandler 33 Understanding the Reversal of the Alpha Function Through a Case Annie Stümer SECTION X - EPILOGUE Avner Bergstein Gisele de Mattos Brito Alessandro Bruni Nanci Carter Monica Horovitz INDEX

Afsaneh K. Alisobhani (Psy.D.) is a training and supervising psychoanalyst, a faculty member and the past Vice President of Newport Psychoanalytic Institute, and a member of the New Center for Psychoanalysis. She is a member of the faculty at the University of California, Irvine, School of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and a member of the University of California/NCP Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic Consortium since 2002. She was the co-chair of the International Bion Conference in Los Angeles in 2014. She is the founding member, faculty and supervisor at Tehran Center for Psychoanalytic Studies (TCPS) in Tehran, Iran. She is a lecturer and supervisor in the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy program at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) and Ruzbeh Hospital in Tehran, Iran. She is also a supervisor and lecturer at China American Psychoanalytic Alliance. Glenda J. Corstorphine (Psy.D.) is a training and supervising analyst and faculty member and the past Vice President of Newport Psychoanalytic Institute. Prior to receiving her doctorate from NPI she received a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy and a Masters in Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. She is a former board member at NPI and former Director of NPI’s Pasadena campus. She was the co-chair of the International Bion Conference in Los Angeles, 2014. She has been in private practice in Pasadena, CA, for over 25 years.