Bion and Intuition in the Clinical Setting

Antònia Grimalt, M.D., is a training and supervising analyst for the Spanish Society (SEP-IPA) and the Spanish Federation of Associations of Psychotherapists (FEAP), as well as a child and adolescent training analyst for the former Hans Groen Prakken Institute (EPI). She is former Chair of the Forum for Child Psychoanalysis (FEP) and is a member of the Ed. Monografies de Psicoanàlisi i Psicoteràpia. She has taught on the works of Klein and Bion at multiple universities, and has edited works on Bion, Pere Folch, Matte Blanco and Ricardo Lombardi in both Spanish and Catalan. In 2020, she chaired the International Bion Meeting in Barcelona.

'Of reading the papers in this book we could paraphrase Bion: ‘the object of such extra-sessional work is to provide practice, analogous to the musician’s scales and exercises, to sharpen and develop intuition’. A community of 400 analysts gathered in a warm Barcelona, from Europe and world wide. With them they brought considerable clinical experience, the testing and utilisation of which was sharpened by our "extra-sessional work" together at the conference, and now in the perhaps calmer waters of personal reading.'Nicola Abel-Hirsch, author of Bion: 365 Quotes (2019) and a training analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society, UK'In the evolving tradition of memorializing the findings of the bi-annual International Bion Congress, we have a solid contribution from the Bion in Barcelona Congress of 2020. Just like its predecessor, Alisobhani and Corstorphine's Explorations in Bion's 'O,' which commemorated the work of the Bion in Los Angeles Congress of 2014, Antonia Grimalt's editing of Bion and Intuition in the Clinical Setting, delivers exactly what is promised in its title: the work of analysts who have deployed Bion's various epistemological ideas in the analytic situation. Many contributions center on extrapolating the meaning of Bion's often quoted idea: the abandonment of memory and desire in the consulting room. Clearing one's mind of obstructive impediments to direct contact paves the way for the operation of intuition in all the many faceted ways demonstrated by a talented group of analyst.'Joseph Aguayo, member of The New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles; Guest Member of the British Psychoanalytical Society and member of The Psychoanalytic Center of California, Los Angeles, USA.'Trained intuition is one of the most important tools any analyst possesses. This collection of papers blends clinical intuition with the process of thinking and relating – something Bion felt each analyst could only do for themselves. These papers are stimulating and thought- provoking. Read together, they provide a rich collection of what our colleagues think and do enabling us to see ourselves and our patients more clearly in the session.'Judy K Eekhoff, PhD; IPA, board-certified supervising and training analyst, USA; author of Trauma & Primitive Mental States (Routledge,2019) and Bion & Primitive Mental States (Routledge,2022).

• Introduction 1. Negation as a method for intuiting psychoanalytic discoveries: Bion’s turning point in “notes on memory and desire” 2. The hidden side of the moon: understanding/misunderstanding. Bion, no memory, no desire 3. Group construction of intuition: fusionality and tenderness 4. Intuition, memory and desire 5. Intuitive: privileged tool to access the primordial mind 6. Intuitive comprehension and dreaming in child analysis 7. Intuition and analyst language: A language of emotion 8. The mystical experience in search of a session 9. Continuing to disturb the sleep of the world; Bion's intuitions on dreaming and reverie 10. Intuition and texture in reverie 11. Intuition: a place for intuition? 12. Infant observation with Esther Bick method: a privileged experience for the development of intuition 13. Interpretation and intuition: transmission of scientific contents and emotional contexts in psychotic fields