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Wilfred R. Bion (1897 -1979) was born in India and first came to England at the age of eight to receive his schooling. During the First World War he served in France as a tank commander and was awarded the DSO and the Legion of Honour. After reading history at Queen's College, Oxford, he studied medicine at University College London, before a growing interest in psychoanalysis led him to undergo training analysis with John Rickman and, later, Melanie Klein. During the 1940s his attention was directed to the study of group processes. Abandoning his work in this field in favor of psychoanalytic practice, he subsequently rose to the position of Director of the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis (1956-62) and President of the British Psychoanalytical Society (1962-65). From 1968 he worked in Los Angeles, returning to England two months before his death in 1979. A pioneer in group dynamics, he was associated with the 'Tavistock group', the group of pioneering psychologists that founded the Tavistock Institute in 1946 on the basis of their shared wartime experiences. He later wrote the influential 'Experiences in Groups', an important guide for the group psychotherapy and encounter group movements beginning in the 1960s, and which quickly became a touchstone work for applications of group theory in a wide variety of fields. Bion's training included an analysis with Melanie Klein following World War II. He was a leading member in the Kleinian school while in London, but his theories, which were always based in the phenomena of the analytic encounter, eventually revealed radical departures from both Kleinian and Freudian theory. While Bion is most well known outside of the psychoanalytic community for his work on group dynamics, the psychoanalytic conversation that explores his work is concerned with his theory of thinking and his model of the development of a capacity for thought. Joseph Aguayo is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of California in West Los Angeles. He is a Guest Member of the British Psychoanalytical Society in London, and holds UCLA doctorates in both Clinical Psychology and European History. His most recent projects are co-edited publications, including 'Wilfred Bion: Los Angeles Seminars and Supervision', (Karnac Books, 2013). He has a forthcoming full-length book review on Bion's' Complete Works' in the 'International Journal of Psychoanalysis'. Lia Pistiner de Cortinas is a psychoanalyst, full member and training analyst of the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytical Association (APDEBA), and fellow of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). She has a specialisation in child and adolescent psychoanalysis. She is also a psychologist (PhD) and a lawyer, having acquired degrees from Buenos Aires University. Agnes Regeczkey is a marriage and family therapist, and research coordinator at Reiss-Davis Graduate Center, Los Angeles. She holds a doctoral degree in psychology and is a candidate at the New Center for Psychoanalysis. As a co-author, she published the paper, 'Small Group Collaborators and Adversaries in the London Kleinian Development,' in 'Psychoanalytic Quarterly' (July 2016). Her academic research includes interfacing perspectives of neuroscience and psychoanalytic theories, and how psychoanalysis may be used as preventative treatment modality for young children. |
