The W.R. Bion Tradition: Lines of Development―Evolution of Theory and Practice over the Decades (The Lines of Development) - Softcover

'This book is a wonderful achievement.. It shows how vital and expansive is Bion's thinking, it gathers high-quality papers from the most influential analytic centres, written by the best-known Bion scholars, and it provides stimulating new insights into this most creative of analytic authors. I recommend this book with enthusiasm and admiration, because it shows vividly how a tradition is able to continuously renew itself, and stimulate new paths for thinking and dreaming.'- Claudio Laks Eizirik, former President of the International Psychoanalytical Association'Bion once wrote to his children that with certain books, one does not simply "read" them, one has to have the emotional experience of reading them, adding that it is hard to give oneself the conditions necessary for such an experience, the chief one being time. This is such a book. Requiring a particular openness in the reader for involvement with each of its chapters, its authors allow the reader to witness the unfolding of their thinking as they investigate and apply Bion's ideas in their own individual ways. In carrying forward this project, the editors and authors show how much fertile life there is in making use of Bion's conceptions. While this is a challenging text, it repays richly the emotional engagement necessary to read it closely and succeeds amply in its intention to inspire Bion's generativity.'- Chris Mawson, Training and Supervising Analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and Editor of The Complete Works of W. R. Bion

This book engages a truly international group of distinguished Bion scholars, offering a wide variety of contemporary clinical and theoretical explorations and extensions of the seminal work of Wilfred Bion. Readers will discover personal accounts of contacts with Bion and his ideas, including an extensive report of an analysis with Bion, as well as previously unpublished supervisions that Bion conducted in Brazil in the 1970s, with commentaries by contemporary analysts. The book also includes detailed case reports and theoretical discussions on a wide variety of topics including autism, psychosomatics, representation, field theory, psychosis and truth; and essays on Sense, Myth and Passion, the late papers, groups and aesthetics.For both experienced analysts and candidates, for those already familiar with Bion and for neophytes, The Bion Tradition should serve as an essential and up-to-date resource for study, thought and exploration.