A Critical Companion to Bion is an introduction to the extraordinary contributions of W.R. Bion, providing a close and detailed reading of his work, anchored in systematic critical expositions of the arguments in his four main theoretical studies (1962-1970). The complex reality of Bion’s texts and public talks is studied in depth, placing them in sharp contrast to the phenomena of Bion’s subsequent influence. Building on this analysis, the book goes on to explore the reasons for the striking gap between what Bion said and what professional psychoanalysis tends to imagine he meant. The author argues that the psychoanalytic profession has cultivated the charismatic authority of Bion’s posthumous “psychoanalytic personality” in the service of both clinical innovation and conservative psychoanalytic identifications. A careful reading of the Bion opus provides essential insight into the history of psychoanalytic thought and the chronic institutional problems still facing the psychoanalytic movement. With a careful, detailed analysis of Bion’s work and a clear vision of how it can be applied to theoretical and clinical work, this is key reading for all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, and will also be of interest to cultural historians and critical theorists.
