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.
“Meaning is revealed by the pattern formed and the light thus trapped—not by the structure, the carved work itself”
Over the past forty years, Bion's work has influenced a number of thinkers—practitioners and non-practitioners alike—who are concerned with art and creativity. Since this book was first compiled, Bion studies have flourished, and there are now available a wealth of books and articles in English and other languages. For example: Symington & Symington (1996); Sandler (2005); Bleandonu (1994). Jacobus (2005) is one of the few who have explored the connection between Bion's ideas and philosophical aesthetics. This chapter will look at Bion's development of Freud's and Klein's metapsychology and the impact of his ideas on current aesthetic debate, largely developed through the work of Donald Meltzer and his step-daughter, Meg Harris Williams.
The evolution of Bion's work begins with his early papers on schizophrenia in the 1950s, which were the basis of the elaboration of a more sophisticated “theory of thinking”, developed in 1962.