Valency

Valency is Bion's term, borrowed from chemistry, for an individual's readiness to combine spontaneously and instinctively with others in forming and acting on a basic assumption. In Experiences in Groups he describes it as a capacity everyone has, varying in degree and in kind from person to person: some combine most readily with dependency, others with fight-flight or with pairing. Valency works without thought or deliberate choice, below the level of the work group, and explains how a group can be gripped by a shared basic assumption that none of its members has stated or chosen.