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Bion wrote only one book concerning groups and what happens in them, Experiences in Groups, first published in 1961. It has had great influence on how groups as groups are understood by group practitioners, whether as psychotherapy or as conference tools. This collection, first published in 1985, is a recognition of this influence. It contains seventeen essays by a large variety of contributors, ranging in interest from his First World War experience, work with the War Office and at Northfield Hospital in the Second World War and his work with the Tavistock Clinic in the later 1940s to developments in Basic Assumption theory in the 1980s.
I greatly enjoyed the earlier essays by Trist, Sutherland and de Mare dealing with Bion's pioneering work in the Second World War with the War Office Selection Boards for officers, and his development of the Leaderless Groups for trainees. He challenged the class-basis of officer selection in the work as well as helping to introduce in the most democratic war that the UK had been engaged in, a degree of democracy concerning who should be put forward for training to commission status. In this, the rank and file members of a Scottish regiment were asked to nominate worthy persons from the ranks whom they thought would make good officer material; while the suitability of applicants for officer training remained roughly constant at about 60%, the number of applicants rose by 1500%. This resulted from Bion's doing and must have played an important part in the efficiency of the Army as it grew to be three million strong. However, while the generals were pleased with what he did, his fellow military psychiatrists were not and there seems to have been a professional conspiracy to check his rise to a position where he may have been overseeing all officer selection for the Army. That he continued working hard with the army shows his professionalism as both officer and analyst.
Yet the initial Northfield experiment was halted; the man who only