Four Discussions with W. R. Bion

These four discussions held by Wilfred Bion with a small group of psychiatrists and psychotherapists in Los Angeles in 1976 were first published in 1978, edited by Francesca Bion. Despite its brevity the book covers in a very accessible way the main features of Bion’s model of the mind and his view of the psychoanalyst at work, and therefore provides a useful introduction to his thinking, whilst the vitality of the exchanges demonstrates the creation and operation of a genuine ‘work group’. Topics touched upon include: emotional turbulence, prenatal life, nonverbal communication, the aesthetic experience of truth, transformations in O, the vertices of knowledge, and the psychoanalytic work-group. This edition includes an introduction and glossary by Meg Harris Williams.