Experiencing the shadow of the future

Abstract

This text was written for a panel with the ambitious title “With Bion to the future.” Can we tell something about the future? Can we apply this to the future of psychoanalysis? And are some of Bion's concepts of any help to such questions? Bion, following Freud, tells us that the caesura between present and future is not so great. The shadow of the future is present. So how can we read this shadow with Bion as a companion? We may see the future as consisting of many probable evolutions – like an infinite number of virtual lines, growth curves or probability lines only one of which is becoming real. Which lines will develop; which seeds will grow? And is our mind equipped to have an idea of this?

Keywords:

• Future
• Bion
• uncertainty
• psychoanalysis