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The re-publication of this book gives those of us who missed it first time around a welcome chance to add it to our libraries. Unlike the extremely difficult four volumes which constitute The Seven Servants, these lectures present Bion at his most articulate, that is to say, minus large numbers of references to The Grid and to his algebraic abbreviations. Coltart (1990) remarks that Bion is uniquely forthcoming in these lectures. We can only speculate that the fact of having to talk through an interpreter encouraged him to explain himself more than was his usual custom.
There is no given subject or topic to the lectures. ‘Lectures’ also seems to imply the presenter reading a pre-written paper. This is not the case here. ‘Seminar’ comes closer as a description but even this has its limitations. The only two things which bind these ‘Lectures’ are the. place, two cities in Brazil, and the time, that they occurred between 1973-74. The reason why I have questioned the term ‘lectures’ is that ‘free associations’ might be a better description. Bion freely associates to a certain audience in Brazil in 1973-73. The audience, interestingly, respond in kind. (Even the ugly painting on the book cover, called Improvisation, mirrors this theme of free association.)
The tone of this approach to the lecture is set right at the beginning with Bion's evocative use of the grave robbers of the Royal Cemetery at Ur as a metaphor for therapy, whereby both client and therapist need to experience fear in response to the unknown which faces them. Like all metaphors this breaks down if examined too closely; therapy after all is not about theft of the self, but this metaphor serves to set the mood of the lectures, namely that Bion and his audience are embarking on unknown territory.
How much Bion and his audience are communicating at an unconscious level is quite striking. In one lecture, number 6 in Rio de Janeiro (pp. 123-132), a member of the audience gives a clinical example of a client who