Concept
O
Bion's sign for the ultimate reality or truth of an emotional experience, which can never be known directly but only approached through the transformations it undergoes into thought and speech. In his later work the analyst is to move toward becoming O, being at one with the truth of the session, by setting aside memory, desire and understanding.
- Introduced by
- Wilfred Bion
- Key works
- 3
- Related
- Ontological psychoanalysis
introduced by
- Wilfred Bion 1965 Introduced in Transformations (1965); the stance of approaching O without memory or desire is set out in Attention and Interpretation (1970).
gave rise to
- Ontological psychoanalysis 2019 Ogden traced ontological psychoanalysis to the later Bion's turn from knowing about experience to becoming it, and to Winnicott's emphasis on being.