Wilfred R. Bion

Bio: Wilfred R. Bion is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Psychoanalytic theory & Memoir. The author has an hindex of 36, co-authored 55 publications receiving 15781 citations.

All My Sins Remembered: Another Part of a Life and the Other Side of Genius - Family Letters

Abstract: All My Sins Remembered is the continuation of Wilfred Bion's autobiography, The Long Week-end. Although it is by no means a full account of his thirty years following the First World War - and he wrote no more - his memories of that period contrast vividly with the impression we gain of the following thirty years of his life through his letters. The Other Side of Genius gives us a glimpse of this remarkable man as his family knew him: those who met him only through his professional work will find here the same characteristic threads of humour, concern for truth, and flashes of insight that were the hallmark of his work in psycho-analysis.OXFORD: 'Thus opened for me a period of unparalleled opportunities to which I remained obstinately blind. I was overwhelmed before I started by the aura of intellectual brilliance with which Oxford was surrounded'.'I had a marvelous time, but did not realize that was because Oxford was a marvelous university where I had the chance of meeting and forming friendships with people of an age and outlook which could change me for ever'.M EDICAL SCHOOL: 'I did not regard my acceptance by the medical school with any enthusiasm; I cannot now understand the solidity of the foundation of self-satisfaction and complacency that carried me through a period of failure and a prospect of even worse to come. I remained dangerously unaware of the universe in which I continued to live'.'University College, London made me feel at home. I did not like its long echoing corridors . Nevertheless I felt that here in this part of London I was more nearly in my Class'.WORLD WAR II: 'the stink of the corpse of Imperial Germany mingled with the stink of decay from Imperial Britain was what the athletic perfume of post-war Oxford had failed to disguise in 1919. This was twenty years later and I still could not get the smell of Glory out of my hair'.'I cannot remember being awarded a Victory medal but I am sure that a grateful establishment would have inflicted one on my completion of so many years of undetected nothingness, the ribbon designed in lavish colors of a nightmare of a morning after the night before'.L ETTERS I: 'How much you mean to me I cannot say: I want to feel that I shall be able to go on trying to find ways of saying it through the years."I feel the one thing that can make all things possible already exists, and that it is that between you and me there is already an enduring love that cannot be easily shaken even in this uncertain and painful world'.'I hope you will feel blessed in your family as a source of deep joy and happiness that nothing can take away from you no matter what anxieties and troubles may be in store'.LETTERS II: 'Imagination is very valuable. Without it you cannot see your way, but it must not become a substitute for real life'.'The discovery that you have a MIND is always a shock because you never know what the strange object is going to turn out to be'.'Depression and failure are a part of every life even the most happy and successful - I might say especially of the most happy and successful; it is the price you pay for joy and success if they come your way. But the price you pay for trying to evade failure and depression is ten times worse."The path of true love is punctuated with divorce as well as marriage; the problem is, when? Before, after or during? It is a decision which is made by two people, both-oddly and painfully enough-in isolation."Life is a kind of Hoffman's orchestra - if you have a bit of hosepipe and can use it as a French horn it is useful.'

Brazilian Lectures: 1973, Sao Paulo; 1974, Rio de Janeiro/Sao Paulo

Abstract: These lectures, delivered in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro during 1973 and 1974, reveal Bion in his most vital and challenging mode both in respect of the material he presents, and in his responses to the questions from his audience.

War memoirs, 1917-1919

Abstract: Paperback version. The first section consists of the entire text of the diaries which Bion wrote as a young man to record his experiences on the Western Front, including his photographs and diagrams. The second section comprises two essays in which he reflects on his war time experiences.

Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work

Abstract: This study began with the premise that people can use varying degrees of their selves, physically, cognitively, and emotionally, in work role performances, which has implications for both their wor...

Developmental sequence in small groups.

Abstract: 50 articles dealing with stages of group development over time are separated by group setting: therapy-group studies, T-group studies, and natural- and laboratory-group studies. The stages identified in these articles are separated into those descriptive of social or interpersonal group activities a

An Assessment of the Scientific Merits of Action Research.

Abstract: December 1978, volume 23 This article describes the deficiencies of positivist science for generating knowledge for use in solving problems that members of organizations face. Action research is introduced as a method for correcting these deficiencies. When action research is tested against the criteria of positivist science, action research is found not to meet its critical tests. The appropriateness of positivist science is questioned as a basis for judging the scientific merits of action research. Action research can base its legitimacy as science in philosophical traditions that are different from those which legitimate positivist science. Criteria and methods of science appropriate to action research are offered.

Time and Transition in Work Teams: Toward a New Model of Group Development

Abstract: This study of the complete life-spans of eight naturally-ocurring teams began with the unexpected finding that several project groups, studied for another purpose, did not accomplish their work by progressing gradually through a universal series of stages, as traditional group development models would predict. Instead, teams progressed in a pattern of “punctuated equilibrium,” through alternating inertia and revolution in the behaviors and themes through which they approached their work. The findings also suggested that groups' progress was triggered more by members' awareness of time and deadlines than by completion of an absolute amount of work in a specific developmental stage. The paper proposes a new model of group development that encompasses the timing and mechanisms of change as well as groups' dynamic relations with their contexts. Implications for theory, research, and practice are drawn.