Wilfred Bion, a neo-Kleinian, takes Freud’s dual drive theory for granted. However, he modifies its meaning in essential ways that elucidate some critical assumptions and meanings that elaborate on clinical applications of the Kleinian school of analysis. The primary assumption of Bion’s neo-Kleinian conception is the inherent relationality of the person. He expanded on Klein’s work by emphasizing the relational and developmental aspects of thinking. He viewed the capacity to think as arising from the containment of raw sensory and emotional experiences, which he termed beta-elements. A parent/analyst’s ability to receive, process, and transform these primitive sensations through reverie allows the infant to internalize these experiences in a thinkable form called alpha-elements. This transformation, facilitated by what Bion described as alpha-function, underscores the relational nature of thinking and the importance of processing emotional data into symbolic representations. Bion’s focus on containment and transformation challenges Freud’s drive-discharge model by emphasizing relational processes as central dynamics. Beyond Klein’s reliance on phantasy, Bion highlighted the role of thinking in digesting and managing emotional experiences, introducing the concept of negative capability—the capacity to tolerate ambiguity and frustration without rushing to premature resolutions (i.e., drive discharge).

In his 1959 paper Attacks on Linking, Bion further elucidates Freud’s dual instinct theory. His ‘theory of thinking’ takes us into embodied thought. His notion of linking is a binding force, parallel to Freud’s concept of libido. Freud’s metaphor of the ‘death drive’ can be compared to Bion’s notion that the ‘attack’ on a link—a bond—is driven by the destructive drive. Here, he conceptualized the aggressive energy as directed toward the external object (e.g., the Kleinian bad breast) and the linking function of thought itself. Bion postulates that the mind can attack itself in an act that amounts to self-envy. This concept, which stems directly from Kleinian thinking, changed the conceptualization of what kinds of patients were analyzable. Neo-Kleinians such as Bion made it possible to begin to understand some of the primitive aspects of experience in a way that Freud’s concept of ‘primary narcissism’—with its withdrawal of libido into the ego—could not quite reach. Primary narcissism does not do enough to explain the dynamics of the psyche in this state and how it comes from an active attack on the cathexes.

Both instincts—the binding and unbinding forces—combine to create psychic reality through forces of construction and destruction. As Freud says, “This interaction of the two fundamental instincts with and against each other gives rise to the whole variegation of the phenomena of life” (1940, p. 32). In his Elements of Psychoanalysis (1963), Bion theorizes this dynamic interplay with the formula PS <> D. This represents an oscillation between the splitting destruction of Klein’s paranoid-schizoid position and the binding/mourning force of her depressive position. The diamond between the two represents a dynamic movement back and forth between the mental positions, which happens all the time in both psychotic and neurotic individuals alike.

In his theory of thinking, Bion postulates that 'thinking' is both the discovery and the creation of psychic reality. This is an important point because what Bion calls 'thinking' breaks the cycle of endless repetition at the primary process level. Bion extended Klein's concept of projective identification into the realm of normal and healthy proto-communication. He says that 'reality' is processed for the infant by the mother first, and then this alpha function is gradually internalized as the infant's prototype of thinking. Alpha function is a mode of thinking whereby beta-elements of reality are brought into an alpha-organization within the mind. It is a way of making sense of raw, sensuous reality. It is the creation of 'psychic reality' out of the raw data of ‘external reality.' While there is never any complete escape from the conditioned nature of the mental apparatus, the possibility of thinking in this way makes awareness of previously unconscious thoughts—hence, learning from experience—possible.

Alpha function is also linked to another crucial Bionian concept: containment. Alpha function takes in the raw sensory external and internal data of proto-thoughts and contains them within a mind capable of knowing what is happening within itself. While it is a given that there can never be any complete knowledge of the processes of one's mind, there can be relative knowledge that can grow. What is to be known, according to Bion, is the primal affects. He calls these primal affects L (Love), H (Hate), and K (Knowledge/Curiosity). He follows Freud's instinctual model by bringing Love (Eros) and Hate (death instinct) into interaction with one another. According to Bion, the purpose of analysis—and thinking itself, for that matter—is to gain knowledge, which is 'justified true belief.' This kind of knowledge, or insight, frees a person momentarily from the compulsive repetition of the pleasure principle.

The conflict between the id, ego, and superego creates neurosis; the ego conflicting with reality itself creates psychosis. Any amount of turning away from reality aligns with the pleasure principle. Through facing reality, we become healthier. This requires a certain amount of self-honesty. However, the concept of the reality principle has its challenges. We run into epistemological problems when we question what 'reality' is. Reality is a helpful concept in orienting a person away from over-indulgence in id-based primary processes and narcissistic self-involvement. However, a concept like 'reality' is always conditioned based on several factors, some of which include culture, ideology, and history. Thus, 'coming to terms with reality' is tenuous at best. Even though we would do well to be cautious in our approach to such a concept, it is nevertheless invaluable in navigating the depths of the psyche.    

Subjective Critique and Implicit Alignments

I enjoy Bion's modification and expansion of Freudian and Kleinian analytic theory. I do not see Freud as necessarily wrong in his theorizing on drive theory and primary narcissism. However, I feel that Klein’s recontextualizing of analytic theory within a relational lens and Bion’s expansion on Klein’s technique are of utmost importance. My most considerable alignment is with Bion. Through his work, later analysts have been able to venture deeper into infantile (psychotic) states of mind than was thought possible before him. His exploration of the unformulated beta-element-laden experience of life enabled an illumination of primitive mental mechanisms and more direct work with the psychotic parts of the personality.

Contemporary Issues: Attacks on Linking

In Attention and Interpretation (1970), Bion writes: "The mind is dependent on truth for its growth; its need is as great as the need of the body for food” (p. 46). The attacks on linking describe how certain mental states—or even external societal forces—disrupt the mind’s capacity to process experiences and form coherent connections. This has profound implications for the modern problem of the deliberate spread of misinformation, destabilizing society’s shared reality and eroding individuals' capacity to distinguish fact from fiction.

The psychic attacks on linking described by Bion parallel what Hannah Arendt articulated in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951). Arendt warned that "The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist” (p. 474). The recent political environment of misinformation, where the constant assault on the credibility of information sources (i.e., ‘fake news’) has led to a pervasive disorientation. The psychological implications of this disorientation align with Bion’s depiction of the psyche under stress: unable to bear the complexity of reality, it retreats to a paranoid-schizoid position where fragmentation dominates.

References

Arendt, H. (1973). The Origins of Totalitarianism (New ed.). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Bion, W. R. (1959). Attacks on linking. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 40 (5-6), 308-315.

Bion, W.R. (1963). Elements of Psychoanalysis. London: Heinemann.

Bion, W. R. (1970). Attention and interpretation: A scientific approach to insight in psychoanalysis and groups. Tavistock Publications.