Author Description

Bion, Dreamwork and the Oneiric Dimensions of the Mind allows readers to examine one of the most significant areas of clinical psychoanalytic thinking, focusing on Bion's idiom that dreaming is the central aspect of all emotional functioning and it is a full-time ongoing psychic activity. Including chapters from leading Bionian scholars and clinicians such as Nicola Abel-Hirsch, Rudi Vermote, Anne Alvarez, Giuseppe Civitarese and Howard Levine, this book elucidates Bion's theory of the oneiric dimension and shows its importance in the development of psychoanalytic understanding of dreams. The global cohort of contributors provide a thorough and varied exploration of dreamwork alpha, nighttime dreams, transformational dreamwork, alpha function, container/contained, their manifestations and implications in the treatment situation, psychic development, and the arts (Cezanne and Frida Kahlo) and cultural surroundings. This edited collection will be of interest and value to psychoanalysts and therapists of all orientations and levels of experience who want to understand dreaming and the oneiric dimensions of the mind.