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This volume occupies a particular and arguably singular niche in the ever burgeoning field of Bion scholarship, clarifying, as the title promises, the many and myriad sources that Bion drew from in the course of his diverse professional and personal journeys. The editors, the well-known Bion scholar R.D. Hinshelwood along with Nuno Torres, note that there is growing interest in Bion studies around the world (2) and that «Much of this is expository, aiming to tell the reader what exactly Bion's ideas were» (ivi). These collected essays involve neither an introduction to, nor an overview of, Bion's complex work, as is clearly stated in the preface. Instead, «We want this book to reach into the penumbra of ideas and currents of opinions which form the context out of which Bion's ideas came» (ivi). Indeed, the editors presuppose that the reader has some established experience of Bion and has already devoted time to grappling with his thinking.
This work, albeit at times uneven, instead aims to clarify the multiple strands of thoughts Bion drew from, tracing them back to the contexts in which Bion encountered them, and while doing so, provides an unexpected intimacy with the man himself. Importantly, the authors are clear eyed and helpful in examining the many transformations, distortions and even errors that were part of Bion's relationship to his sources, neither obfuscating his errors in order to burnish his legend, nor minimizing his own creativity as they seek to better understand it.
The intimacy results from the unexpected impact of having access to Bion's library, though we learn in the conclusion that this access is actually limited (180) and to the framing of this volume as a continuation of his Bion's daughter's work. The book opens with a moving reference to Parthenope Bion, who before her sudden death in a car accident, was working on archiving and retracing her father's extensive library and understanding the varied sources of his inspiration. The authors ack