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Chapter Two Part Two – Methodology - Page 54
Joseph, 1985; Klein, 1946; Kohut & Wolf, 1978; Matte-Blanco, 1988; Racker, 1957;
Stolorow, Brandschaft, & Attwood, 1987; Winnicott, 1971).
It was Klein (1946) who evolved the initial formulation of the concept of projective
identification (discussed above), but it was left to Bion (1962, 1967) to apply this
concept as a keystone in the understanding of group process. His later psychoanalytic
work, following his own analysis by Klein, is focussed almost entirely on the
psychoanalysis of individuals, but it is firmly built on his earlier work and contains
many concepts that are of immense value in the understanding of groups. For example,
his ‘Theory of Thinking’ (1962) describes a construction of the mind where thoughts
exist prior to the presence of a thinker, and in particular, of a mind to think them.
Hence, what Bion calls ‘beta elements’ (primitive mental contents) are transformed by
thinking (which, in Bion’s view, includes affective as well as cognitive processes, and
of which containment, described above, is a major component) into ‘alpha elements’.
These ‘alpha elements’ are then available to consciousness as dream material and
thoughts.
A further contribution of Bion’s is his use of his experiences and observations with
psychotic patients to describe the way in which deviations can occur from those
alignments of functions within the person which can otherwise enable learning and
thought (1959, 1962a). Bion’s notion of attacks on psychological and emotional linking
by disturbed individuals, both keen to gain assistance but profoundly threatened by the
provision of that assistance, can be used to understand how both groups and individuals
will at times feel hatred towards the prospect of learning from experience, and will seek
to destroy the opportunity to gain such learning.