You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
I have two reactions to this book. The more important is that it is an impressively clear and thoughtful description of Bion's clinical thinking; the other is a disturbing irritation at what appears to be a sub-plot, an attempt to claim ownership of those very ideas. I shall deal with these two reactions separately.
I am not a Bion scholar, although I feel that I have been very influenced by his work and ideas; consequently I am not in a position to argue with the Symingtons’ presentation when they are explaining his concepts and how these concepts connect and link together. They approach in an extraordinary way the problem of presenting ideas which many find obscure and complex, and yet they pull it off. They begin with the Grid. There must be very few of us who feel that we can explain what the Grid is all about, because it seems to be very abstract and quasi-mathematical. It is the part of Bion that most of us try not to notice, because it seems even more obscure than his writing. And yet, by beginning with this, Joan & Neville Symington manage to bring together all of Bion's later thinking in a cohesive and interesting way. We are helped by clear and simple clinical material to understand that this Grid represents a way of defining what is going on in the psychoanalytical work, the way that statements by either analyst or patient can be understood as either blocking or developing that work. The vertical axis represents the increasing development of thinking, while the horizontal axis is about the attitude or intention of the participant.
With continuous reference to the Grid, which becomes more and more understandable, we are taken on a journey, the journey of psychic development as conceived by Bion. It would not be appropriate or sensible in this short piece to