‘It Seemed to Have to do With Something Else …’: Henry James's What Maisie Knew and Bion's Theory of Thinking

This article argues that what Maisie knew, as conveyed to readers of James's novel, can fruitfully be considered and interpreted in terms of Bion's theory of thinking, and especially his concepts of K and -K and the container/contained relationship. It is shown that James describes a containing relationship that Maisie, the child protagonist, has with her nurse, and the gradual growth of such a relationship in Maisie's own psyche, leading to her capacity to learn from experience. James's text is shown to contain striking instances of the creation and the destruction of meaning (K and -K) by the adults close to Maisie. It is argued that Maisie's own choice to make links and to desire knowledge is made through her complex experience of the oedipal situation, which gives her opportunities to see herself in ‘the third position’ (Britton, 1998). Maisie's eventual decision about her life, made by herself in the absence of any adequate parent, is based on the unconscious knowledge that destruction of meaning poisons the mind, and she must do her best to avoid it.