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This paper aims to emphasize the pertinence of psychoanalytic work in the context of communitary mental health. The theoretical orientations for this are based on the concept of Social Defence Systems, as introduced by Jaques and developed by Menzies, and the intervention method used is Work Discussion, an original and applicable approach designed and consolidated at the Tavistock Clinic. With this contributions, we are able to consider the ways in which Institution´s malfunctioning relates to ways in which it´s work implies a defensive activity with which its participants, workers and patients, can be unconsciously colluded. After describing this method and the mentality behind it, this work describes in detail its application in the context of a Communitary Mental Health Centre in Santiago, Chile. Some clinical examples are included, together with some thoughts about the value that this intervention has for the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author reflects on the analyst's attempt to approach the unknowable, ultimate reality of the psychoanalytic experience, and the unrepressed unconscious. Drawing on both Freud's conception of 'attention' and Bion's emphasis on the power of observation, the paper explores the clinical implications of the notion of intuition as a primary tool in this endeavour. Intuition is often associated with Bion's thinking about the apprehension of psychic reality. At the same time, Bion's emphasis on the need to suspend sensuous aspects of reality on the way to encountering non-sensuous experience has given rise to much confusion. With the aid of detailed clinical material, the paper portrays intuition as a paradoxical, receptive state of mind oriented towards invariant, ultimate reality, and yet perpetually flickering between both sensuous and psychic aspects of reality. Moreover, since emotional truth is always in flux, intuition is seen as a capacity to apprehend reality in transience. In following the path of Bion's evolving thinking about the analyst's intuition, the author illustrates the continuity between the so-called 'early Bion' and the one referred to as 'late Bion'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents evidence that Bion's epistemological contributions drew on the work of R. B. Braithwaite, a British philosopher of science, more than has generally been acknowledged. Braithwaite introduced the "scientific deductive system", a term Bion adopted. It proposed that empirical scientific methods could be applied to immaterial subjects of study, including "unconscious mental processes" (Braithwaite 1953, ix). Bion's private work journal, collected in Cogitations, documents Braithwaite's direct influence throughout its entries, particularly in one dated 10 January 1959, entitled "Scientific method" (Bion 1959b). This paper reviews relevant elements of Braithwaite's work, and examines Bion's "Scientific method" and samples from his epistemological work to argue that one of Bion's goals was to bring an empirically based scientific model to psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. More than a matter of academic interest, Braithwaite's work lends pragmatically useful context to understand Bion's theoretical and clinical intentions in greater depth. It also suggests the main reasons why his project did not come fully to fruition, which led Bion to turn from the scientific deductive system towards his later developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]