Chapter V. Alpha-Function and Beta-Elements

In the previous chapter we examined the approach to a theory of thinking that had been forced upon Bion from two directions, one coming from the torrent of new phenomena that he was observing in his application of the strict psycho-analytical method to the treatment of schizophrenic patients and the other coming from the manifest inadequacy of existing theory to cover these phenomena. By ‘cover’ it is not meant to convey ‘explain’ as much as ‘organize’ for the purpose of coherent description. As Bion says in ‘Learning from Experience’, (p. 14), ‘It appears that our rudimentary equipment for “thinking” thoughts is adequate when the problems are associated with the inanimate, but not when the object for investigation is the phenomenon of life itself. Confronted with the complexities of the human mind, the analyst must be circumspect in following even accepted scientific method; its weakness may be closer to the weakness of psychotic thinking than superficial scrutiny would admit’. This is very reminiscent of Freud's statement at the end of the Schreber case to the effect that there might be more similarity between his theories and Schreber's delusions than he would like to recognize.

The point about this inadequacy in our ability to think about mental phenomena is, by extension, applicable of course to the language in which it can be framed, which has, after all, been developed at the lexical level for describing the ‘world’ as objects in motion and in relationship, more or less as if they were purely mechanical in their principles of operation. This is the problem that Bion sets out to master in ‘Learning from Experience’ to implement the nine moves which he had made in the previous papers in preparation for a frontal assault, so to speak, on the task of framing a theory of thinking that could really be used in the analytical consulting room. These nine moves, you will recall, were the following: (1) extension of the concept of part-object to include mental functions;