Civitarese on O: Bion’s Pragmatic and “Aesthetic-Intersubjective” Theory of Truth, the Growth of the Mind, and Therapeutic Action: Discussion of “Bion’s O and His Pseudo-Mystical Path”

Abstract

In discussing Dr. Giuseppe Civitarese’s papers, “The Concepts of O: Is Bion a Mystic?” (2017) and “Bion’s O and His Pseudo-Mystical Path” (based on the former, in this issue), the author clarifies Civitarese’s claim that concept of O founds psychoanalysis on a pragmatic, intersubjective and aesthetic theory of truth and the growth of the mind. She explains how Civitarese uses Bion’s concepts of “at-one-ment” and “feeling together” as the basis of truth and knowledge more generally but also for how the mind grows developmentally and clinically. In addition, the author explicates how for Civitarese, this view of the concept of O moves our interest away from the infinite of the unknown of nature to the infinite of the unknown of human meaning. Finally, the author demonstrates how transformations in O seen in this way are manifested in the clinical encounter and gives an extended clinical example that highlights these points.

Notes

¹ I would like to acknowledge Patricia Marra for fine workmanship in helping me edit this discussion, and I would like to thank Michael Levin for his generous and inexhaustible help in understanding and thinking critically about Civitarese’s papers and the history of ideas more generally.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beth Steinberg

Beth Steinberg, Ph.D., is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. There she is also Chair of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Education Division and of the Curriculum Committee of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program, and Co-Chair of Outreach for Psychoanalytic Training. She is also on the faculty there as a well as at California Pacific Medical Center and Access institute for Psychological Services. She is a reviewer for Psychoanalytic Dialogues, and she is on the Teacher’s Academy and Fellowship Committees of the American Psychoanalytic Association. She teaches and supervises widely and has a private practice in San Francisco.