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Psychoanalysts have been curiously reluctant to write about their own lives despite their abiding interest in personal narratives. Anyone who is interested in learning about Freud's life will be disappointed in his Autobiographical Study , which is devoid of personal details. Few of the early psychoanalytic pioneers chose to reveal their private selves, perhaps fearing that it would compromise their clinical authority. For this reason alone, the publication of W. R. Bion's War Memoirs takes on special importance, for it not only chronicles the early life of one of the major psychoanalytic theorists, but it also reminds us of the brutal nature of war—particularly the “war to end all wars.”
Wilfred Bion was born in India in 1897 and came to England when he was eight to attend school. A tank commander during World War I, he was awarded the DSO and the Legion of Honour. He studied medicine and psychoanalysis after the war and was associated with the Tavistock Clinic in London. Bion was President of the British Psychoanalytical Society from 1962 to 1965 and Chairman of the Melanie Klein Trust. Unlike many of his fellow