Wilfred R. Bion

Wilfred R. Bion (1897 -1979) was born in India and first came to England at the age of eight to receive his schooling. During the First World War he served in France as a tank commander and was awarded the DSO and the Legion of Honour. After reading history at Queen’s College, Oxford, he studied medicine at University College London, before a growing interest in psychoanalysis led him to undergo training analysis with John Rickman and, later, Melanie Klein. During the 1940s his attention was directed to the study of group processes. Abandoning his work in this field in favor of psychoanalytic practice, he subsequently rose to the position of Director of the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis (1956-62) and President of the British Psychoanalytical Society (1962-65). From 1968 he worked in Los Angeles, returning to England two months before his death in 1979. A pioneer in group dynamics, he was associated with the 'Tavistock group', the group of pioneering psychologists that founded the Tavistock Institute in 1946 on the basis of their shared wartime experiences. He later wrote the influential Experiences in Groups, in 1961, an important guide for the group psychotherapy and encounter group movements beginning in the 1960s, and which quickly became a touchstone work for applications of group theory in a wide variety of fields. Bion's training included an analysis with Melanie Klein following World War II. He was a leading member in the Kleinian school while in London, but his theories, which were always based in the phenomena of the analytic encounter, eventually revealed radical departures from both Kleinian and Freudian theory. While Bion is most well known outside of the psychoanalytic community for his work on group dynamics, the psychoanalytic conversation that explores his work is concerned with his theory of thinking and his model of the development of a capacity for thought.

Books by Wilfred R. Bion :

		All My Sins Remembered Another Part of a Life and the Other Side of Genius - Family Letters Wilfred R. Bion 252 pages, 6" x 9 1/4", October 2009 Paper, 978 1 85575 845 2, $48.95

		Attention and Interpretation Wilfred R. Bion 144 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1984 Paper, 978 0 946439 08 9, $41.95

		Bion in New York and Sao Paulo Wilfred R. Bion 128 pages, 5 5/16" x 8 3/8", May 1980 Cloth, 978 0 902965 13 3, $27.95

		Brazilian Lectures Parts 1 & 2 Wilfred R. Bion 224 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1990 Paper, 978 0 946439 78 2, $61.95

		Clinical Seminars & Other Works Wilfred R. Bion 352 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1994 Paper, 978 1 85575 061 6, $61.95

		Cogitations Wilfred R. Bion 424 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1991 Paper, 978 0 946439 98 0, $73.00

		Elements of Psychoanalysis Wilfred R. Bion 120 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1984 Paper, 978 0 946439 06 5, $41.95

		The Italian Seminars Wilfred R. Bion 130 pages, 5 3/4" x 8 3/4", July 2005 Paper, 978 1 85575 339 6, $27.95

		Learning from Experience Wilfred R. Bion 128 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1984 Paper, 978 0 946439 05 8, $41.95

		The Long Weekend 1897-1919 Part of a Life Wilfred R. Bion 292 pages, 6" x 9", May 1982 Paper, 978 1 85575 000 5, $48.95

		A Memoir of the Future Volumes I, II, & III Wilfred R. Bion 688 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1990 Paper, 978 0 946439 79 9, $85.00

		Second Thoughts Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis Wilfred R. Bion 192 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1984 Paper, 978 0 946439 04 1, $41.95

		Taming Wild Thoughts Wilfred R. Bion 72 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1997 Paper, 978 1 85575 168 2, $27.95

		The Tavistock Seminars Wilfred R. Bion 70 pages, 5 3/4" x 8 3/4", July 2005 Paper, 978 1 85575 344 0, $27.95

		Transformations Wilfred R. Bion 192 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1984 Paper, 978 0 946439 07 2, $41.95

		Two Papers Grid and Caesura Wilfred R. Bion 64 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1989 Paper, 978 0 946439 77 5, $29.95

		War Memoirs 1917 -- 1919 Wilfred R. Bion 321 pages, 5 3/4" x 9", May 1997 Paper, 978 1 85575 153 8, $59.95