Intuition and we-ness in Bion and post-Bionian field theory

Abstract

ABSTRACT “Intuition” is probably the most frequently used term in all Bion’s writings. However, in order to understand its role in his thought it is essential to give it the clearest possible definition. The thesis of this article is that by intuition Bion means a “specific” psychoanalytic concept. It is thus possible to extract intuition from the vague and mystifying reading of it by some authors, whic runs the risk of falling into an empty “intuitionism”. For Bion, intuition is a psychoanalytic function of the analyst, the principal factors of which are the various expressions of dream-thought and insight. Furthermore, within the frame of the post-Bionian theory of the analytic field, the author suggests adding to these factors the use of the “we” vertex (or we-ness), i.e. to regard virtually every fact of analysis as co-created. The aim is to make the very concept of “field” more accessible. Compared with the metaphor of the analytic field, the concept of we-ness has both greater clinical versatility and greater pregnancy on the metapsychological plane. Indeed, it more directly reflects a radically social conception of human subjectivity: what is known in contemporary speculative thought – in J-L. Nancy, for example – as the “ontology of we”.