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Psychoanalysis, Epistemology and Intersubjectivity

Theories of Wilfred Bion

University of Sydney

Rachael M. Henry

University of Wollongong

The inference to other minds by analogy with one's own is unconvincing, yet all our social interactions assume we can identify others' beliefs and intentions. The problem is acute for psychoanalysis as it is especially concerned with unconscious mental processes. W.R. Bion offered recommendations for true psychoanalytic knowledge, and concepts such as projective identification and counter-transference are related. Bion's special study was of psychotic thought. His explanation of its underlying mechanism was in terms of a breakdown in cognitive processing at the transition from sensory impressions to conceptual thought, an epistemology familiar in academic processing theories. Conceptual difficulties in such theories are discussed. It is argued that realistic epistemology escapes them and can embrace psychotic thought.

Theory & Psychology, Vol. 6, No. 3, 401-421 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/0959354396063004


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