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Preliminary explanation. A group of Dr. Bion's friends and disciples had planned to publish a book in his honour on the occasion of his 80th birthday, a Festschrift, as this type of work is usually called. I was invited to collaborate on this book and accepted with pleasure. I then wrote an essay of 80 reflections — one for each year of his life — each of which originated from some contribution of his. It, therefore, seemed appropriate to me to call the whole «Reflecting with Bion». Once this work was finished I sent it to Dr. James Grotstein, who was in charge of the book just mentioned, and also sent a copy to Dr. Bion. He replied with a beautiful handwritten letter which I keep as a treasure.
Various circumstances delayed the publication of the book and in the meantime Dr. Bion died. The already enterprise became, therefore, a posthumous homage from some of his disciples and friends. This book has just appeared in the U.S.A.(1)
I have chosen a few reflections from my paper, to present them at this meeting. I here shall keep the numbering assigned to them in the paper. I must warn the reader that unless he has some familiarity with my own efforts in the field of psycho-analysis he may find that whatever transparency I may have achieved in this study may appear to him dark and impenetrable. I hope this will not happen. Let us now broach the subject.