Introduction

«… Should we not be mentally open to the communication of ideas? It is clear that this cannot be carried out by an individual; our lives are too short.

But the communication of these ideas from generation to generation seems important…»

This issue of the review, dedicated to Bion, bears direct witness to the way in which his work has been elaborated in Italy. Bion's thought influenced Italian psycho-analysis both deeply and rapidly, even in respect to Great Britain and the United States, where he lived.

There are many reasons for that influence; some lie in certain characteristics of Bion's research and method, particularly consonant with Italian cultural traditions. These characteristics are:

1. The historical aspect. In Bion, consideration of the «remains of the past» is never archaeological or memorial, but historical; that is, based on a constant effort to make the past vital for the present. This, holds true whether he deals with moments and structures that can be classified in ontogenetic (biogenetic, embryogenetic, neurogenetic) terms, or with realizations or events classifiable in anthropological, or cultural terms.

2. The mythical aspect and the corresponding exploitation of «mythical thought». Probably no analyst since Freud has been able

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   to draw attention to myth and its cognitive function as well as Bion; supplying at the same time equally efficient stimuli for enlarging that specific field of research. We refer to the in psycho-analysis introduction of the myths of Eden and the Tower of Babel; to his differentiation between private myth and collective myth; to his broader conception of the Oedipus myth; and to the analogic correlation he sets up between myth and the scientific deductive system.

3. The scientific, «Galilean» aspect. We intend by this the priority Bion grants to scrupulous, direct, specific observation of facts; the essentiality and conceptual rigour of his speculative hypotheses; the accurate use he makes of his means or models of research;