Author(s): Fin Egenfeldt and Karen Maclean

Psychotherapy

This book has four main chapters. Chapter One is a brief introduction to Bion himself, including material essential to the understanding of the work on which this book is centred. Chapter Two is an explication of the main thesis, demonstrating how Bion articulates his theories and systems of the transformation of the immaterial elements which constitute the psyche. Chapter Three elucidates both the author's and Bion's own views on therapeutic techniques. Touching on the routes available to those wishing to become therapists it also discusses the demands this may place on those in a position to help, be they teachers, supervisors or more experienced fellow therapists. Chapter Four has two parts: the first outlines Bion's conceptual framework for the constitution, capture and systematisation of psychic space and the elements hereof; the second details a series of classic, mythical attempts at similar processes exemplified in the stories of Oedipus, Original Sin, Palinurus, and the Tower of Babel. The implicit background of this book consists of the more optimistic approaches to creating mindforms that improve the conditions of humanity which derive from the legends of Christ and the Buddha and the experiences of mystics in both Eastern and Western cultures, as well as from psychoanalytic thought.