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In following the evolution of Bion's thought it has gradually become apparent that he has been pursuing a vision of refining and extending the model of the mind, as drawn up explicitly by Freud and modified implicitly by Melanie Klein, so that it might be used as an instrument for investigating disturbances of thought. Such a vision of course includes the possibility of using the psycho-analytical method, so akin to the clinical medical method, for examining pathology for the sake of forming hypotheses about healthy structure and function. Added to this, peculiarly Bionic, one might say, is the interest in formulating matters of the mind in a way that will allow for precision of communication and ‘mere manipulation’ by ‘arbitrary rules’ in what he calls variously ‘meditative review’ and the ‘psycho-analytic game’, (pp. 99 and 101). This duality of aim makes the present work dual in its essential nature, half scientific, i.e. towards the construction of a scientific deductive system, and half philosophic, i.e. investigating the system as a thing-in-itself. It seems unlikely that this joy in ‘mere manipulation’ would be a widespread phenomenon among practising analysts and it may not be amiss if its discussion is rather neglected here in our critique of the ‘grid’, taking it as a method of exposition rather than an instrument meant for use.
Our task in this chapter must be mainly to investigate the grid as the periodic table of psycho-analytical elements and then to trace its implications for the comprehension of what Bion calls the ‘molecules’ of psycho-analysis, psycho-analytical objects and interpretations. Having already constructed an apparatus, mythical and empty, namely alpha-function, which can operate on the sense impressions of emotional experiences to produce thoughts which can be used for thinking, Bion must now turn his attention to constructing an equally mythic and empty apparatus for manipulating these thoughts in a manner worthy of the name ‘thinking’