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This is a very interesting book on a topic of major significance for both clinical practice and sociological understanding.
In a previous book, entitled Catastrophic Change (1987), the authors introduced the concept of ‘fanatic use’ as a seventh column on the horizontal axis of Bion's grid.
The authors’ theoretical base is that of
Bion's notion of ‘Catastrophic change’. This was first introduced in Transformations (1965), where Bion connected catastrophic change with the idea of mental growth. Later, in A Memoir of the Future (1981), Bion affirms that catastrophic change initiates mental growth. From this theoretical foundation the authors attempt to study fanaticism as a phenomena that annuls catastrophic change and mental growth.
This book develops to the full the concept of ‘fanatic use’, adumbrated in Catastrophic Change. A further elaboration is to contrast ‘fanatic use’, which is characterised as ‘power without responsibility’ with the positive use of ‘power with responsibility’. It then logically follows that the grid should be divided into four areas, one with a positive and one with a negative side.
The authors indicate the inherent difficulty in trying to ‘think about’ a phenomenon that, by definition, annihilates reflective thinking and emotional meaning. To address this problem they make use of a literary style ranging from paradox, imaginary dialogues with Bion, humour and discussion (chapters one to five). The book ends with a formal exposition of their theoretical ideas (Chapter Six)
The authors investigation originates from two sets of observations.
A sociological one: Sor & Gazzano (both born in Argentina), comment that
we have been born in a country where fanaticism has strongly developed. Both from a historical and everyday life perspective we are often exposed to areas of fanaticism that are accepted without criticism or questions, as a national ‘way of being’, as it were. We found ourselves severe