Esoteric Traces in Contemporary Psychoanalysis

Abstract

This essay explores the idea that traces of Western esoteric traditions continue to exist as active, albeit largely unacknowledged, influences within contemporary psychoanalysis through the writings of Wilfred Bion, James Grotstein, and Michael Eigen. After initial consideration of esoteric currents active at the inception of psychoanalysis, the essay examines the persistence of those currents within contemporary psychoanalysis in the work of the three analysts. The writings of Bion in particular have functioned as a conduit for the transmission of such currents.