In this lucid and stimulating volume the authors synthesize Bion's concepts as they have developed over his thirty years of contributions to psychoanalytic theory. The reader must be acquainted with classical approaches to evaluate Bion's innovative formulations critically. Widely accepted by now are his concepts on small groups—basic assumption groups and work groups. His conceptualization of the psychotic personality is also discussed and made clear for the reader.

For Bion, 'psychotic personality' is not a psychiatric diagnosis but a mode of mental functioning, the manifestations of which become evident in behavior and language and in their effect upon the observer. The individual with a psychotic personality uses pathological projective identification mechanisms, and his object relations are characterized by the formation of bizarre objects. These bizarre objects are composed of forms of primary process thinking, which Bion calls beta elements, as well as remnants of ego, self-ego, and external objects. Projection of