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Presenter: The patient is a man of thirty-four who has been in analysis for about a year. He was born into a very poor family in a small town outside São Paulo. When he was about twenty he went to the city; he had no money and was starving. He met a girl whom he married six years later. He says he didn't want to get married but did so because of social conventions. He complains of being unhappy and says he has had a stomach ache for about three years. He has a theory that this ache is due to his unhappy marriage. They have no children. During the past seven years he has become extremely wealthy but has not told his wife. A month ago he left home.
I would like to present one recent session. He arrived, said “Good morning”, shook hands with me as he always does, and lay on the couch. He said, “This week I had no dreams. Today I was supposed to phone my wife at one o'clock but I didn't. I have no telephone so every day at lunch time I go to a friend's office. At ten past one my wife called me – I don't know how she discovered that I was there.”
Bion: I am puzzled. He is describing a situation in which his wife doesn't know he has the use of a telephone. So that's all right – there is no mechanical communication. The next thing you hear is that he doesn't know how she guesses where he is. What apparatus is she using to find out where he is? I am not asking the question to suggest anything about an interpretation, but to draw attention to the fact that this seems an extraordinary story. He becomes very wealthy; his wife doesn't know anything about it. What is this apparatus which is being used by which he doesn't let anybody know his whereabouts or whether he is rich or poor, and this same apparatus by which this is found out?
I would remain quiet about this, but I would like to know what is the clue to this system of communication which is also non-communication – but which seems to work.
P: He continued, “I went to the bank to talk to a girl who works there. I noticed sh