Editorial

The themes of containment, resilience and the search for a mind of one's own link the thought-provoking papers in this issue. From different perspectives these papers invite us to consider the growth of the thinking mind, and the myriad ways in which its presence or absence can be inferred. It is therefore no coincidence that a number of our authors refer to Bion's theories about the development of thought.

Graham Music offers us a refreshingly candid and heartfelt paper, ‘What has psychoanalysis got to do with happiness? Reclaiming the positive in psychoanalytic psychotherapy’, in which he considers the relation of psychoanalysis to happiness. He makes a strong case for counterbalancing the therapeutic value of focusing mainly on the uncovering of painful affects and destructive drives with work on the psyche's more positive and hopeful capacities. He suggests that this change of emphasis fosters the resilience that allows humans to thrive. Drawing on findings from behavioural research and neuroscience, he makes a fundamental distinction between managing unhappiness and experiencing happiness. His thinking is illustrated with two lively case examples, one of a child, the other of an adult patient. Both vividly demonstrate the therapeutic benefit of listening for underlying resilience and optimism which can be reflected back to the patient.

In the next fascinating paper, ‘The body speaks: Bion's protomental system at work’, Richard Morgan-Jones offers a coherent structure within which the encoded communication of the body can be deciphered. Morgan-Jones begins by exploring Bion's concept of ‘protomentality’ and its relation to group disease (Bion 1989, 1991). According to this concept the prototype for the idea of belonging to a larger body is the somatic experience of containment first within the womb and then within ‘the psycho-physical womb of mother's thoughtful care’. He suggests that psychoanalysis has hitherto primarily focused on the somatic in intimate relati