Teaching Bion’s theory in the context of child analysis: a case study

Abstract

Teaching Bion’s theory becomes vivid when we also use clinical material to illustrate the concepts in the arena of the here-and now in the analytic process. Many of his key concepts have been directly assimilated from Freud and Klein as projective identification, splitting, death instinct, paranoid -schizoid and depressive positions—but he used them in the service of a different outlook, a new metapsychology. In this paper I want to show how Bion’s key concepts such as the dynamic relationship between Ps–D, the container-contained, and the theory of thinking, have enriched our clinical understanding I also want to stress the fruitful thinking about transference and countertransference to experience how our patients act on us to feel things they have experienced earlier in their lives. In the analytic work with Patrick, a three years old boy, theses aspects will be elaborated.