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Is this yet another book about Bion's fifty-odd years-old ideas? In principle, yes. However, French and Simpson have put such a strong new twist on “old” knowledge that even self-professed “Bion experts” will find themselves unexpectedly enticed into rethinking their understanding of the traditional theory. Not only do the authors address the “usual” audience with their novel perspective, that is, scholars of the psychodynamic approach to groups, but they also include in the readership business practitioners by stressing the relevance of the subject matter to everyone who works in groups and organisations in general—this I feel, is one of the core strengths of the text. Those who are acquainted with Bion's thoughts will quickly recognise foundational concepts, even if they are “in disguise”. In addition, French and Simpson use straight forward language to decode Bion's complex ideas—without simplifying them and without being patronising—to capture the “untrained” audience from page one onwards. They have succeeded in introducing easy to comprehend examples of everyday life group situations that help the reader find a way “in” to the material immediately.
This contribution stands out from the crowd of Bion-based developments for another reason: while Bion himself concentrated largely on dysfunctional dynamics in groups, the authors' focus is fixed on “the way attention can help groups to work effectively on what they are meeting to do” (p. xvi). While most “Bionic” scholars tend to predominantly pay attention only to distraction in groups, French and Simpson turn their gaze on the creative potential of group work. Indeed, the concentrated historical focus on what can go wrong in groups is the authors' biggest critique of Bion: “The strength of this dominantly negative view has made it almost impossible even to see another side, that is … the potential delight to be had in cooperative activity” (p. 70). Hence an underlying fundamental idea is introduced in the preface