Bion's Vertices: On Truth and Lies [Paperback]

Bion's Vertices: On Truth and Lies is divided into three parts which investigate the truth/lie domain, emotional change and growth, and creativity in relation to truth and lies, and show its relevance in clinical practice. The wide-ranging discussions include chapters on aesthetic processes in poetry and psychoanalytic thought, knowledge, representation, misunderstandings, chaos, perversions, propaganda, the analyst's mind, the protective function of lying, and racialisation in relational context. This is a must-read book for all those with an interest in Bion and the application of his theory to contemporary thought and practice. 'Bion was, and is, a prophet, to a profession and beyond. Vertices are meeting-points of lines - where lines of thought interact, from where different points of view may be found. Like him, the writers in Bion's Vertices disturb and stretch us, question and dismantle old landmarks, and open us to new ones. Many of them also make the shock of Bion's poetic and metaphysical modes of conveying his thoughts and findings less discombobulating; they convey the shock of the (still-)new in more soberly symbolic prose. They help us experience the frustrations of being lost, and then, precariously and provisionally, found. They give us a sense of Bion's emphasis on both discipline and freedom. They celebrate his commitment to truth (and what we learn from lies, self-deceptions, and illusions, with their capacity for transformation), and his unique and radical contribution to our understanding of mind, creativity, and the potential lifelong growth of the self. As editor Tomasz Fortuna writes, they 'follow the avenues [Bion] opened up for us [in] developing the work of Freud, Klein, mathematicians, philosophers, scientists, and poets.'Michael Brearley, Distinguished Fellow, past President, British Psychoanalytical Society'Psychoanalysis owes one of its most profound and original moments to Bion. He conceives the mind as an expanding universe, evollÓÁ