Abstract
Teaching Bion’s theory becomes vivid when we also use clinical material to illustrate the concepts in the arena of the here-and now in the analytic process. Many of his key concepts have been directly assimilated from Freud and Klein as projective identification, splitting, death instinct, paranoid -schizoid and depressive positions—but he used them in the service of a different outlook, a new metapsychology. In this paper I want to show how Bion’s key concepts such as the dynamic relationship between Ps–D, the container-contained, and the theory of thinking, have enriched our clinical understanding I also want to stress the fruitful thinking about transference and countertransference to experience how our patients act on us to feel things they have experienced earlier in their lives. In the analytic work with Patrick, a three years old boy, theses aspects will be elaborated.
Zusammenfassung
In meinem Beitrag möchte ich zeigen, wie Bions Schlüsselkonzepte unser klinisches Verstehen bereichert haben. Viele seiner Konzepte bauen auf Freuds und Melanie Kleins Theorien auf, wie der Projektiven Identifizierung, den Spaltungsprozessen, dem Todestrieb, der paranoid-schizoiden und der depressiven Position – aber er benützte sie in einer neuen Perspektive, einer neuen Metapsychologie. Zunächst sollen drei wesentliche theoretische Beiträge, nämlich die dynamische Beziehung zwischen P/S und D Position, das Container-Contained Modell und seine Theorie des Denkens kurz dargestellt werden. Diese werden mit Vignetten einer Kinderanalyse von Patrick, einem dreijährigen Kind, in Beziehung gesetzt. In der dramatischen Arena des Hier und Jetzt in der Analyse soll gezeigt werden, wie uns die Patienten benützen, um uns Rollen in ihrer inneren Welt einnehmen zu lassen, die sie früher in ihrem Leben erlebt haben. Die abstrakten Theorien werden im klinischen Kontext lebendig und besser verständlich.
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Notes
Some of Bion’s coined terms are explained in a glossary at the end of the paper.
Bion’s theories are elaborated in my book The Early Years of Life. Psychoanalytic Developmental Theory According to Freud, Klein and Bion” (2011).
I have also described the case of Patrick in my book Young Children and Their Parents (Diem-Wille 2015).
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Diem-Wille, G. Teaching Bion’s theory in the context of child analysis: a case study. Psychotherapie Forum 20, 128–135 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00729-015-0045-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00729-015-0045-4