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The Enlightenment of Evidence and the Leap in the Dark
Author(s) -
Oelsner Robert
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/bjp.12353
Subject(s) - intuition , psychology , enlightenment , loyalty , psychoanalysis , cognitive psychology , epistemology , social psychology , cognitive science , philosophy , theology
This article is a free inspiration following R.D. Hinshelwood's ‘Intuition from beginning to end?’. The author tries to show Bion's Kleinian skill to listen to every detail of the clinical hour, picking up clues and putting them together to render meanings and presenting them to the patient. While doing so, Bion created a richness of concepts for analysts to try out as tools for observation and understanding of their patients’ mental functioning. Several of these concepts along with the clinical inspirations are described here. The author believes, therefore, that even during his ‘loyalty to Klein’ period, Bion was also extremely creative though inspired by Klein. When it comes to intuition, the author prefers to be modest, listen to the patient's free associations and allow intuitions to mate with concepts before getting back to the patient.