Negative Hallucinosis in Wilfred Bion’s Theory of Transformations: On Finding One’s Ghost

In this illuminating volume, Rodrigo Barahona takes up the question of transformations in hallucinosis in Wilfred Bion’s work.

The book discusses how the analyst’s functioning, his receptivity and ability to make sense out of what is unconsciously occurring between himself and the patient, and the ability to find words to represent it — the basic psychoanalytic task — is enhanced when the distinction between two basic types of transformations in hallucinosis can be borne in mind: transformations in positive hallucinosis and transformations in negative hallucinosis. In the the psychoanalytic literature, this distinction has not been formally established, with the general term “transformations in hallucinosis” used for both processes. This book cuts a clearer distinction between the two, describing their distinct though overlapping metapsychologies, and charts the clinical implications. In making these distinctions, the book draws on André Green’s work, arguing for a continuity between Green’s negative hallucination and Bion’s theory of thinking and transformations in negative hallucinosis. The clinical implications of working with this concept are discussed in relation to the work of contemporary psychoanalytic authors such as Civitarese, Cassorla, Mawson, and Meltzer.

By drawing comparisons and making specific connections between the work of Bion and Green, and extending these connections to the clinical and metapsychological writings of leading contemporary analysts, Negative Hallucinosis in Wilfred Bion’s Theory of Transformations will be of great interest to practitioners and scholars at all levels interested in the work of Wilfred Bion and this extension to his theory of transformations.