Wilfred R. Bion:—The Man, the Psychoanalyst, the Mystic a Perspective on his Life and Work4

WILFRED RUPRECHT BION'S DEATH ON November 8, 1979 has thrust upon us the task of re-evaluating the impact he and his work have had on psychoanalysis in our generation. All those who have been in his presence, whether briefly or lengthy, swear—almost to a person—to the enormity of his vitality, to the power of his presence, to the humor of his dry wit, to the incisiveness of his thinking, and to the (sadly) anachronistic gentleness of his politeness and respect for people. His life story, such as I know of it, touches at many points onto the scroll of the Age of Heroes in which so many of our childhoods were so passionately spent vicariously. Bion may very well qualify as a modern equivalent of a classical hero, not only by virtue of his remote birth and his World War I exploits but also because of his being such a fearless champion of our Innocence (at least, for those of us who were his analysands) who grappled so handily with our dragons and enabled us to get through Blake's Forest of Experience onto the road to Higher Innocence. Yet from another perspective, one cannot read Bion's later works, particularly those which refer to the genius, the mystic, or the messiah, without applying that designation to him. What is a genius? To Bion it is one who is able to experience Truth ("O") without having to think about it (falsify it). To me it is someone who can see the mysterious in the commonplace, inquire into it,