Imaginative Literature and Bion’s Intersubjective Theory of Thinking

Abstract

The author applies Bion’s intersubjective theory of thinking to study the influence of imaginative literature on the development of the capacity for figurative or metaphorical thought in response to affect-laden experience. Using a selection from Emily Dickinson’s poetry and a soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Hamlet in a study group model to illustrate this application of Bion’s theory, he proposes that such literature may itself serve as a potential container/contained of unique affective power to promote maturation of the thinking apparatus and sustain the capacity for reverie and creative interpretive thought in the midst of intense emotional engagement.