'Caesura' as Bion's discourse on method

The International Journal of Psycho-analysis
Guiseppe Civitarese

Abstract

The author contends that Caesura, one of Bion's last works, can be read as the equivalent of Descartes's Discourse on Method. In this compact and complex text, the dictate of 'methodical' and 'hyperbolic doubt'- so called because it is taken to the extreme form of application to the faculty of thought itself - which, for Descartes, represents the fundamental principle of philosophical and scientific research, is reflected in the formula of 'transcending the caesura'. Bion directs his attention successively to the pairs of opposing concepts that structure psychoanalytic discourse and demonstrates their paradoxical and non-separative logic. The binary system of producing meaning is deconstructed through the systematic use of non-pathological - i.e. not static but dynamic - reversible perspective. A viewpoint that appears natural, self-evident and primary is plunged into crisis and proves to be founded on what the punctuation mark of the slash excludes. Yet the new point of view does not supplant its predecessor, but supplements it. The conceptual opposition is not overturned, but merely destabilized in such a way as to maintain a creative tension that generates new thoughts. By this technique of wrong-footing the reader, Bion ach...Continue Reading

References

Jun 29, 2002·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Antonino Ferro
Nov 1, 1963·The Biochemical Journal·W R GRAY, B S HARTLEY
Jul 13, 2005·Reproduction in Domestic Animals = Zuchthygiene·W R Allen
Sep 22, 2005·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Antonino Ferro
Sep 22, 2005·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Giuseppe Civitarese
Jul 21, 2006·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Giuseppe Civitarese
Apr 15, 2008·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Giuseppe Civitarese

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Citations

Aug 9, 2013·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Avner Bergstein
Jul 10, 2012·The Psychoanalytic Quarterly·Anna Ferruta
Mar 19, 2019·Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association·Adrienne Harris
Oct 10, 2018·Psychoanalytic Review·Yaakov Roitman
Jan 14, 2021·Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association·Francisco J González
Jun 1, 2018·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Adrienne Harris
Feb 1, 2018·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Mauro Manica
Jun 29, 2021·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Giuseppe Civitarese

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