Experiences in Groups as a Key to “Late” Bion

In order to understand the ‘late’ Bion, i.e. his production from Learning from Experience onwards, the most difficult and controversial, it is worth re-reading not only the essays in Second Thoughts, but also Experiences in Groups. The hypothesis of this work is that Bion spent his life as a scholar - probably without even being fully aware of it, since he never talks about it - to transpose his theory of groups into his theory of individual psycho-analysis. To illustrate this thesis, the author systematically compares some of the principles of both. Going back to Experiences in Groups, then, is also useful for another reason. Bion revolutionises theory but still works as a Kleinian. Despite brilliant suggestions, he does not fully develop a new technique. To have a tool box that anyone can use, we have to wait the analytic field theory, which is an original development of his thought. In this model the analyst sees in the analytical pair not two isolated subjects that interact, but a group. There is no ‘fact’ of analysis that cannot be heard as unconsciously co-created. Here then, highlighting the group inspiration of late Bion's helps us to grasp the meaning of this technical principle, so easily misunderstood, and vice versa.