Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

elements/function; or phenomena and noumena experienced as O; all required
transformation, and faith in the possibility of transformation to occur. An analyst requires
‘Faith in the creative responses of his own unconscious. It was also the hallmark of his
ultimate ontological epistemology, transformations in, from, and to “O”, the Absolute Truth
about an infinite impersonal, and ineffable Ultimate Reality’ (Grotstein 2007: 2). 177
Bion uses a landscape analogy to illustrate the forms of transformation that psychoanalysis
offered. A landscape gardener ‘works to transform the landscape itself’ while the painter
‘transforms the landscape into a painting’ (Bion 1965: 25). There is a correspondence
between what is experienced and seen in actuality and what is seen on canvas, ‘something
has remained unaltered and on this something recognition depends’ (Bion 1965: 1) which
Bion sees as a ‘representation of O’ (Bion 1965: 25).
Bion, O and the mystical
Bion’s concept of O divided psychoanalytic opinions, especially the British Kleinian world
of which he was part. While value was seen in his early work, his later philosophically and
mystically orientated ideas were rejected. By contrast his work was enthusiastically taken
up in Brazil and Los Angeles, where he lived for a period, vitally influencing Grotstein. 178
Bion’s concept of O is central to his later thinking and influenced psychoanalysts exploring
the religious and mystical dimensions of the unconscious, notably Eigen, Symington and
177 Similar statements are to be found in Eigen’s The psychoanalytic mystic (Eigen 1998). Safran adds ‘In an
evocative paper, Coltart (1992) builds upon Bion to argue for the fundamental ineffability of the analytic
process, and the role that the analyst’s faith must play in the face of this ineffability’ (Safran 1999: 5).
178 Grotstein was part of a small group of analysts, including James Gooch, who developed new
psychoanalytic ideas combining aspects of Klein and Bion that were resisted by the APsaA (Grotstein 2002a).
While in Los Angeles to interview Grotstein I also interviewed Gooch, who like Grotstein had been in analysis
with Bion. Gooch went on to make significant contributions to the APsaA and the IPA, as well as founding
the Psychoanalytic Center of California in 1983. Unfortunately the recording of the interview failed.
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