Does it Appear to 'Resemble' Reality? on the Ethics of Psychoanalytic Writing.

This paper explores the intricate nexus of writing and psychoanalysis by addressing a key question: In what and how many directions should analytic writing be ethical? The author structures the argument across three axes. First, in an introduction, writing's role as a psychoanalytic invariant is emphasized. Then, an exploration ensues, delving into writing as praxis, navigating complex technical choices, from micro- to macro-perspectives in clinical vignettes, their autobiographical essence, their relevance as models for theory, self-revelation, etc. Lastly, a succinct epilogue considers the relationship between aesthetics and ethics in psychoanalytic writing.

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

"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".

Seawater physics and chemistry along the Med-SHIP transects in the Mediterranean Sea in 2016.

The Mediterranean Sea has been sampled irregularly by research vessels in the past, mostly by national expeditions in regional waters. To monitor the hydrographic, biogeochemical and circulation changes in the Mediterranean Sea, a systematic repeat oceanographic survey programme called Med-SHIP was recommended by the Mediterranean Science Commission (CIESM) in 2011, as part of the Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP). Med-SHIP consists of zonal and meridional surveys with different frequencies, where comprehensive physical and biogeochemical properties are measured with the highest international standards. The first zonal survey was done in 2011 and repeated in 2018. In addition, a network of meridional (and other key) hydrographic sections were designed: the first cycle of these sections was completed in 2016, with three cruises funded by the EU project EUROFLEETS2. This paper presents the physical and chemical data of the meridional and key transects in the Western and Eastern Mediterranean Sea collected during those cruises.

On Bion's Concept of Truth in an Extra-Moral Sense.

The paper explores the concept of truth in Bion's theory and in the post-Bionian context of the analytic field. Truth is addressed on three levels: epistemological, metapsychological, and clinical. Bion criticizes positivism in psychoanalysis, and the same vertex when it appears in psychoanalysis itself, stating that the search for truth at all costs is similar to the arrogance and stupidity of the psychotic part of the personality. He revolutionizes the analytic concept of truth by orienting it to the function of the emotional linking between analyst and patient rather than to content. Post-Bionian analytic theory further develops these concepts. In a field or radically intersubjective perspective, the author emphasizes the shift from an "I/you" perspective to a "we" perspective. The treatment is less about the abstract search for supposed truths and more about the truth being expressed in the process of emotional and affective attunement.

Intercorporeity, Un-Distancing, and Aura in Skype Analysis.

The Covid pandemic has forced analysts around the world, some more than others, to work using Zoom and Skype. The technical innovation is here to stay and raises questions on a theoretical level. Is online analysis 'real' analysis or not? What is lost from the analytical experience? What, if anything, is gained? The global health emergency, on the one hand, has made these questions inescapable; on the other, it has provided a kind of huge experimental field to deal with them. Here, the author argues that when viewed from the perspective of the concepts of intercorporeity (Merleau-Ponty), un-distancing (Heidegger), and aura (Benjamin), some of the issues of 'presence' in teleanalysis become clearer.

Invisible-visual hallucinations in Bion's "Attacks on Linking".

Writing Attacks on Linking, it is as if Bion had listened to his former analyst. In a lecture on technique given the year before, Klein expressed the wish that someone would write "a book about linking [...] one of the essential points in analysis". Later taken up and commented on in Second Thoughts, Attacks on Linking, has become perhaps Bion's most famous paper and, Freud aside, the fourth most cited article in the whole of psychoanalytic literature. In the short and scintillating essay Bion presents the enigmatic and fascinating concept of invisible-visual hallucinations, which subsequently seems never to have been taken up and discussed as such by other scholars. The author's proposal is therefore to reread Bion's text starting from this concept. To try to give a definition that is as clear and distinct as possible, a comparison is made with those of negative hallucination (Freud), dream screen (Lewin), and primitive agony (Winnicott). Finally, the hypothesis is formulated that IVH could give us the model of what stays at the origin of any representation; i.e. a micro-traumatic inscription of the trace of stimuli (but which may come to be actually traumatic) in the psychic fabric.

Tales of COVID-19: Fear of Contagion and Need for Infection.

The pandemic has been such a dramatic experience that it has newly illuminated the factors that can transform Hegel's necessary "infection"-a permeability to the other and the intersubjective foundation of the ego-into a contagion that alienates the subject. The dialectic between these two kinds of otherness represents what is truly at stake in any encounter-i.e., mutual recognition. Therefore, despite the terrible load of concreteness and suffering that bears directly on psychoanalysis, the theater of analysis still stands, so that the "tales of COVID-19" should also be listened to as fictional, that is, as unconscious communications in the here and now.

Campo incorporado e reverie somático / Embedded field and somatic reverie / Campo incorporado y reverie somático / Le champ incorporé et la reverie somatique

Em análise, qualquer reverie (potencialmente) abre espaço para entrar em contato com o primeiro estágio do pensamento inconsciente - em que as sequências de elementos alfa são sintetizadas pela função alfa -, de onde então provêm as derivações narrativas do pensamento onírico acordado. Reverie, em outras palavras, é a capacidade de o analista entrar em contato com os pictogramas que adquirem vida durante o trabalho analítico e definem constantemente a posição do paciente e do analista e a qualidade emocional do vínculo entre eles, à maneira de um dispositivo de gps. Reveries não são apenas imagens e ideias, mas também sensações, sentimentos e ações. Neste artigo, o autor concentra-se nesse último tipo de reverie - que pode ser chamado de somático ou, em ressonância com o gestualismo [action painting] na arte, gestual - e apresenta algumas breves ilustrações clínicas. O importante é olhar para tais produções como enraizadas no campo, ou seja, como se estivessem no terceiro inconsciente, que nasce quando dois sujeitos se aproximam o suficiente um do outro. Visto que paciente e analista estão em comunicação constante, não só no nível consciente mas também no inconsciente, não há evento do campo analítico que não possa ser visto como uma cocriação de ambos.

In psychoanalysis any reverie (potentially) opens space for one to be in touch with the first stage of the unconscious thought - when the sequences of alpha elements are synthesized by the alpha function - where narrative derivation from dreamy awakened thoughts come from. Reverie, in other words, is the possibility for the analyst to be in touch with the pictograms that come alive during the analysis and constantly define the patient's position as well as the analyst's, besides the emotional level they have created, as a gps works. Reveries are not only images and ideas, but also sensations, feelings, and actions. This article focuses on this last type of reverie - which we can call "somatic" or, as action painting in art, "action reverie" - and it includes some clinical illustrations. It is important to see such illustrations as embedded in the field, that is, as if they were in the third unconscious (which starts when two people are close enough to each other). Considering that patient and analyst are constantly communicating, consciously and unconsciously, there is no event from the analytical field that may not be seen as both people's co-creation.

En análisis, cualquier reverie (potencialmente) abre espacio para contactar con la primera etapa del pensamiento inconsciente - donde las secuencias de elementos alfa son sintetizadas por la función alfa - de donde proceden las derivaciones narrativas del pensamiento onírico acordado. Reverie, en otras palabras, es la capacidad del analista en contactar con los pictogramas que adquieren vida durante el trabajo analítico y definen constantemente la posición del paciente y del analista y la calidad emocional del vínculo entre ellos, a la manera de un dispositivo gps. Reveries no son solamente imágenes e ideas, sino sensaciones, sentimientos y acciones. Este artículo enfoca ese último tipo de reverie - que podemos llamar de "reverie somático" o, en resonancia con el gestualismo [action painting] en el arte, "reverie gestual" - y presenta algunas breves ilustraciones clínicas. Lo importante es mirar para esas producciones como arraigadas en el campo, o sea, como si estuvieran en el tercer inconsciente (que nace cuando dos sujetos se acercan lo suficiente uno al otro). Ya que paciente y analista están en comunicación constante, no solo en el nivel consciente, como también en el inconsciente, no hay ningún evento del campo analítico que no pueda ser visto como una creación conjunta de ambos.

En analyse, toute reverie ouvre (potentiellement) la voie pour que l'on se mette en contact avec le premier stage de la pensée inconsciente - où les séquences d'éléments alpha sont synthétisées par la fonction alpha - d'où proviennent alors les dérivations narratives de la pensée onirique réveillée. Reverie, en d'autres termes, c'est l'aptitude de l'analyste à se mettre en contact avec les pictogrammes qui deviennent vivants pendant le travail analytique et qui définissent constamment le point de vue du patient et celui de l'analyste, et encore la qualité émotionnelle du lien entre eux, à la façon d'un dispositif de gps. Reveries ne sont pas seulement des images et des idées, mais également des sensations, des sentiments et des actions. Cet article se concentre sur ce dernier genre de reverie - que l'on peut appeler « somatique ¼ ou selon la gestualité (action painting) dans l'art, « reverie gestuelle ¼ - et présente quelques illustrations cliniques brèves. L'important, c'est de regarder telles productions comme si elles étaient enracinées dans le champ, c'est-à-dire, comme si elles étaient dans le tiers inconscient (qui naît lorsque deux sujets s'approchent suffisamment l'un de l'autre). Vu que le patient et l'analyste sont en communication constante, non seulement dans le niveau conscient, mais également dans l'inconscient, il n'y a pas d'évènement analytique qui ne puisse être vu comme une cocréation des deux.

BION'S GRAPH OF "IN SEARCH OF EXISTENCE".

If we want to understand Bion's psychoanalysis and analytic field theory, its most creative development, there is one point we must always bear in mind. Bion conceives individual therapy as group therapy. Consequently, he invites the analyst to put the patient's past and related causal theories in the background. Rather she should focus on the emotional transformations that occur in the here and now. This is very different from observing the Freudian principles of oneiric and transference distortion, on the one hand, and the (re)construction of the patient's past history, on the other. It is also different from paying attention to so-called deep unconscious fantasies or enactments. Such a crucial aspect, though, is often misunderstood. Here the concepts of the grid and of the regression or "in search of existence" graph are employed as a way of clarifying it. Trying at any given moment to grasp the direction of the vector that represents the sum of the emotional turbulences affecting the field, whether regressive or progressive (in other words, whether reflecting the growth of the mind or its destruction), implies using a radical technique to achieve receptiveness to the unconscious. The analyst treats all narratives in the session as if they were the recounting of a dream dreamt by the analytic dyad or group of two. A few clinical vignettes are presented by way of illustration.

Experiences in Groups as a key to "late" Bion.

In order to understand the 'late' Bion, i.e. his production from Learning from Experience onwards, the most difficult and controversial, it is worth re-reading not only the essays in Second Thoughts, but also Experiences in Groups. The hypothesis of this work is that Bion spent his life as a scholar - probably without even being fully aware of it, since he never talks about it - to transpose his theory of groups into his theory of individual psycho-analysis. To illustrate this thesis, the author systematically compares some of the principles of both. Going back to Experiences in Groups, then, is also useful for another reason. Bion revolutionises theory but still works as a Kleinian. Despite brilliant suggestions, he does not fully develop a new technique. To have a tool box that anyone can use, we have to wait the analytic field theory, which is an original development of his thought. In this model the analyst sees in the analytical pair not two isolated subjects that interact, but a group. There is no 'fact' of analysis that cannot be heard as unconsciously co-created. Here then, highlighting the group inspiration of late Bion's helps us to grasp the meaning of this technical principle, so easily misunderstood, and vice versa.

The limits of interpretation. A reading of Bion's "On Arrogance".

When re-read today, "On arrogance", a very brief paper Bion wrote in 1958, reveals its extraordinary topicality. We can think of it both as a commentary on Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and as an essay on the "disease" of psychoanalysis. In both cases, lying at its centre is the triad of curiosity-stupidity-arrogance that drives us to know the truth "at any cost". In this paper Bion redefines the crime of Oedipus (and therefore of psychoanalysis) around epistemic instinct and no longer around sexuality; he unveils the objectifying attitude of the analyst he revolutionizes the understanding of negative therapeutic reactions. The analyst's "psychosis" (or that of psychoanalysis) finds expression in the phenomena of wanting to become a psychoanalyst, of aspiring to be "scientific" (as opposed to gaining a hermeneutical understanding), of wanting to tell the patient what he believes to be the truth, and finally of looking "down upon" his patients and colleagues. Anticipating the themes of Transformations and A Memory of the Future, "On arrogance" lays the groundwork for a cogent criticism of the ideology of psychoanalysis and an effective ethical re-foundation of the discipline.

Intersubjectivity And Analytic Field Theory.

Intersubjectivity is the central concept of the relational paradigm, the most widely employed in contemporary psychoanalysis. Yet we do not have a clear definition of it. Usually it is synonymous with "the interpersonal" and thus indicates the interaction that takes place between two already constituted subjects. In this sense it has little to do with the radical social theory of subjectivation suggested by the term, at least originally, in Husserl's philosophy. In the original meaning of intersubjectivity, as handed down by Husserl and later developed by Merleau-Ponty, the binary opposition between subjectivity and intersubjectivity is dissolved and transformed into a dialectic relationship. To formulate a clear and distinct, but above all specific, definition of intersubjectivity, we need to reclaim this intuition and translate it into coherent principles of technique. It is also essential to verify whether the models of psychoanalysis proffered as intersubjective actually satisfy this parameter. On the basis of these two simple principles, the variants of psychoanalysis that are labeled intersubjective can be placed along a continuum. Examples are given of "weak" and "strong" intersubjectivity. Paradigmatic of the latter pole is the post-Bionian theory of the analytic field.

Alucinose, hipérbole e a diferenciação neurose/psicose no pensamento de Bion e na teoria do campo analítico / Hallucinosis, hyperbole, and the differentiation neurosis/psychosis in Bion's thinking and in the analytic field theory / Alucinosis, hipérbole y diferenciación de neurosis/psicosis en el pensamiento de Bion y en la teoría del campo analítico

O autor retoma a diferenciação efetuada por Bion entre personalidades neuróticas e psicóticas, discutindo-a à luz dos desenvolvimentos sucessivos do seu pensamento. A hipótese deste trabalho é que Bion tenha mitigado cada vez mais a distinção entre neurose e psicose, uma vez que esta distinção não funciona mais como escudo em relação à busca do desconhecido na psicanálise, mas induz a adotar, de forma apressada, teorias causais. Para demonstrar tal hipótese, o autor enfoca os conceitos de transformação em alucinose como um dos meios ­ assim escreveu Bion ­ das transformações em movimento rígido (neuróticas) e das transformações projetivas (psicóticas). De modo especial, este trabalho põe em destaque o plano metateórico de Transformações: desconstruir as oposições clássicas é tanto uma maneira de tratar o paciente na sala de análise quanto uma forma de tratar a doença da psicanálise (AU)

The author re-approaches the differentiation made by Bion between neurotic and psychotic personalities, discussing them under the light of the subsequent developments of his thoughts. The hypothesis of this paper is that Bion progressively mitigated the distinction between neurosis and psychosis, since this distinction no longer works as a shield for the search for the unknown in psychoanalysis, instead leading to the hurried adoption of causal theories. In order to demonstrate such hypothesis, the author approaches the concepts of transformation in hallucinosis as one of the media, this is how Bion wrote it, for the transformations into rigid motion (neurotic) and into projective transformations (psychotic). Above all, this paper highlights the meta-theoretical role of Transformations: deconstruct the classic oppositions is a way of treating the patient in the analytic space as much as a way of treating the disease of psychoanalysis (AU)

El autor retoma la diferenciación hecha por Bion entre personalidades neuróticas y psicóticas para discutir a la luz de los desarrollos posteriores de su pensamiento. La hipótesis de trabajo es que Bion ha desdibujado cada vez más la distinción entre neurosis y psicosis porque termina funcionando como escudo con relación a la búsqueda de lo desconocido en el psicoanálisis y, en cambio, induce a adoptar precipitadamente teorías causales. Para demostrar la hipótesis, el autor enfoca los conceptos de transformación en alucinosis como uno de los medios, escribe Bion, de transformaciones de movimiento rígido (neurótico) y transformaciones proyectivas (psicótico). Sobre todo, subraya el plan metateórico de Transformaciones: la deconstrucción de las oposiciones clásicas es una forma tanto de tratar al paciente en la sala de análisis como de curar la enfermedad del psicoanálisis (AU)

Experimental evidence of long-term oceanic circulation reversals without wind influence in the North Ionian Sea.

Under the emerging features of interannual-to-decadal ocean variability, the periodical reversals of the North Ionian Gyre (NIG), driven mostly by the mechanism named Adriatic-Ionian Bimodal Oscillating System (BiOS), are known as impacting on marine physics and biogeochemistry and potentially influencing short-term regional climate predictability in the Eastern Mediterranean. Whilst it has been suggested that local wind forcing cannot explain such variability, aspects of the alternative hypothesis indicating that NIG reversals mainly arises from an internal ocean feedback mechanism alone remain largely debated. Here we demonstrate, using the results of physical experiments, performed in the world's largest rotating tank and numerical simulations, that the main observed feature of BiOS, i.e., the switch of polarity of the near-surface circulation in the NIG, can be induced by a mere injection of dense water on a sloping bottom. Hence, BiOS is a truly oceanic mode of variability and abrupt polarity changes in circulation can arise solely from extreme dense water formation events.

The concept of time in Bion's "A Theory of Thinking".

A complex and subtle theory of time is at the heart of Bion's 1962 text "A Theory of Thinking." The central point is the differentiation of "conception" and "thought," psychic elements that in the infant are born respectively from experiences of satisfaction and frustration. These mnestic inscriptions should be understood as in dialectic relation with each other. From this matrix, within which originary temporality is established, lived time derives, but only when it is inserted in the symbolic order through the function of language, which gives access to the "concept." Our feeling of time is therefore based on the rhythm of presentation of the breast and thus on the primary relationship with the object, as well as on a broader symbolic network. The meeting of a preconception of the breast with the mere absence of the breast is not able to generate a "thought" and establish time. That is why Bion distinguishes between absence of breast or non-breast and nothing (noughtness), a state of nameless dread. Bion's concept of time provides an empirical idea, i.e. based on clinical cases where the destruction of time is observed, both of the origin of time and of what Heidegger called-as opposed to "linear" or objective conceptions of time-the ontological structure of temporality. An accurate and orderly critical reading of Bion's article is essential to reach these conclusions.

Masochism and its Rhythm.

Over five years, from 1919 to 1924, Freud dealt with masochism in three texts written in close proximity: "A Child Is Being Beaten," Beyond the Pleasure Principle, and "The Economic Problem of Masochism." Initially Freud explains masochism as incestuous fixation on the father and regression to pregenital, sadistic ways of loving. Subsequently he considers it primarily as subservient to the death drive. This paper starts from an idea present in two of the three texts, but not developed by Freud, in which he refers to the role that the "qualitative" element of rhythm could play in the occurrence of pleasure in masochism. By means of this element traumatic aspects of the primary relationship with the object could be stored as fantasies in the body. In any staged masochistic fantasies of being beaten or in masochistic perversion, the pleasure of pain would lie in the attempt to "dream" the trauma not only in the imagination but also, "aesthetically," in the body.