Bion, Intuition and the Expansion of Psychoanalytic Theory

Introduction 

Antònia Grimalt

First Part

PART 1: Intuition... beyond 

1. Tribute to Pere Folch 

Antònia Grimalt

2. A philosopher's perspective on intuition: "intuition and the Chinese room" 

Simona Morini

3. Music. Deep unconscious and intuition 

Jaume Aguilar i Matas

PART 2: Wanderer there is no path... the path is made by walking

4. Intuition in a spectral model of the mind: on caesuras, bridges, and other crossings 

Renato Trachtenberg

5. Apocalypse - revelation. The ways of intuition 

Alessandro Bruni

6. Psychoanalytic intuition in dream and waking life. Their relations to caesura, imagination, and language of achievement 

Arnaldo Chuster

PART 3: Intuition... a matter of two 

7. Intuition and science 

Robert Caper

8. Mystic intuition and the language of dreams 

Annie Reiner

9. A thought without a thinker: intuition, negative capability, and psychoanalytic function of the personality: intuition: a memoir of the future? 

Lia Pistiner De Cortiñas

Second Part

10. Intuition, construction and representation 

Howard B. Levine

11. Intuition in Bion. Between search for invariants and creative emergence 

Goriano Rugi

12. Bion and the infinite unconscious - an intuitive science 

Ignacio Gerber　

13. Observation and intuition in psychoanalysis 

Carmen C. Mion

14. Intuition in Bion's colloquial words (supervisions in Brazil, 1973-1978)

João Carlos Braga and Gisèle de Mattos Brito

15. What is your name? The realm of Minus, half a century later

Paulo Cesar Sandler

Biography

Antònia Grimalt, M.D., is a training and supervising analyst for the Spanish Society (SEP-IPA) and the Spanish Federation of Associations of Psychotherapists (FEAP), as well as a child and adolescent training analyst for the former Hans Groen Prakken Institute (EPI). She is former Chair of the Forum for Child Psychoanalysis (FEP) and is a member of the Ed. Monografies de Psicoanàlisi i Psicoteràpia. She has taught on the works of Klein and Bion at multiple universities and has edited works on Bion, Pere Folch, Matte Blanco and Ricardo Lombardi in both Spanish and Catalan. In 2020, she chaired the International Bion Meeting in Barcelona.

'This book sheds light on the phenomenon of intuition, so essential in psychoanalysis, but sometimes so forgotten. Through several individual articles, intuition is studied in numerous vertices that form a precious whole, a real gold mine where one glimpses precious nuggets to be collected. All this raises intuition to its true epistemological stature in the construction of knowledge about the unconscious mind and in science in general.'

Ruggero Levy, SPPA - Porto Alegre, Brazil

'In this brilliant and wide-ranging collection of papers, Bion’s concept of intuition functions as a portal to the infinite and emergent aspects of human experience. Drawing on philosophy, music, poetry, dreaming, and neuroscience, these essays elaborate Bion’s most enigmatic concepts – the language of achievement, the mystic, caesura, and negative capability – yet ground these theoretical discussions in sensitively described personal and clinical moments of transformation and becoming. This collection repositions psychoanalysis once again as a revolutionary endeavor, one that traverses the splits between the group and the individual, the self and the other, the known and unknowable. Enigmatic, allusive, and yet profoundly intuitive of what it means to be human and to feel and think in the face of the terror of the unknown and always changing, this collection is itself a memoir of the future of psychoanalysis.'

Thomas P. Helscher, Ph.D. FIPA , Training and Supervising Analyst, Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS), USA

'Bion, Intuition and the Expansion of Psychoanalytic Theory brings together some of the most influential international scholars of Wilfred Bion's thought. At the centre of the book is the concept of 'intuition', around which revolves a sophisticated theoretical and clinical elaboration. But readers will find that this new valuable contribution deals with several other exciting topics that are changing the landscape of contemporary psychoanalysis. I can only recommend it to all psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and scholars of human sciences.'

Giuseppe Civitarese, author of Sublime Subjects. Aesthetic Experience and Intersubjectivity in Psychoanalysis (2017), Routledge, and Training Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (IPA), Italy.  

'Intuition is of paramount importance in Bion’s early and late work. He gave it a different place in clinical practice 　　according to the evolution of his ideas on psychic functioning and technique. This book explores the phenomenon of intuition in relation with Bion’s approach and does this from many angles: psychoanalytic practice, metapsychology, philosophy , poetry, science, music, supervision… All authors are distinguished analysts from different psychoanalytic cultures, having published widely about Bion’s work. It is wonderful to experience how Bion’s notions on intuition open up a large spectrum of experiences and idea’s, enriching clinical practice.'

Rudi Vermote, training analyst and past president of the Belgian Society. Author of Reading Bion  (Routledge, 2019). Member of the Editorial Board and College of the IJPA and of the ING committee of the IPA.