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In that extraordinarily difficult and in many ways unsuccessful book Transformations, Bion gave considerable space to the concept “point of view”, or “vertex” as he preferred to call it, as a parameter of perception and a creative aspect of thought. His ideas were further developed in Attention and Interpretation and illustrated in a kind of Shavian debate in A Memoir of the Future, particularly in the third volume, The Dawn of Oblivion. But before discussing his formulation of the concept and its diverse points of reference it would be useful to cite a clinical example for the sake of clarity and vividness.
A woman in her forties, five years in analysis and anticipating its termination, perhaps within the next year, had always filled the holiday gaps with interesting activities with her many professional friends all over the world. The phenomenon which appeared in the consulting room, quite against her intention and much to her own disappointment, was a closing down of the material and a diminution in the vibrancy of the contact for several weeks before a break. And so it also threatened to be now as this, perhaps ultimate, summer break approached.
To the Monday of the third week prior to the interruption she brought a listless mood and a poorly remembered dream, something about it being surprising that the tennis competition continued although the championships had already been decided. The doldrums were setting in again and she felt rather discouraged.
Tuesday brought a more determined mood and a puzzling dream: she was visiting one of the subsidiary companies of her group to arrange a shift of personnel. The supervisor was shooting her a depressed place in the floor where the previous employee had sat at the time of her nervous breakdown and the patient insisted that the replacement be given a different desk. A tall Japanese man was greeting her. To this she associated the wonderful performance of the translator in an interview between Malcolm Muggeridge and Solzen