The Language of Bion: A Dictionary of Concepts

"I am convinced of the strength of the scientific position of psycho-analytic practice" --- Bion, Learning from ExperienceConsidering that introductory books cannot replace an author’s original writing, and that Bion’s concepts are widely misapprehended, this volume attempts to organize W.R. Bion’s psychoanalytic concepts into a dictionary. As Bion’s work is characterised by many as "obscure and difficult", a well-organized dictionary will be of significant help in understanding his main concepts.The general principles of this dictionary are faithfulness to the original text, generalizations and historicity. To build each entry, the author has performed an assembly of quotations and re-arrangement of Bion’s texts, in the manner of Laplanche and Pontalis’ "The Language of Psychoanalysis". The history and meaning of all Bion’s concepts are shown in the entries, as well as research into their historical origins. The author does not try to convey his own reading of Bion’s work but rather tries to present Bion’s work as it is. However, Dr Sandler does include his own insightful comments in-between entries in order to clarify certain issues. This dictionary will be indispensable in improving apprehension of Bion’s highly compacted style of writing.