Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Bion's Caesura

This book investigates Bion's enigmatic concept of Caesura-the gap that connects in multiple realms of human existence. The authors respond to Bion's challenge for future analysts to explore its significance and bridge the theoretical limitations he identified in his generation's understanding.
The contributors of this volume honor Bion's legacy by expanding his notion of caesura, demonstrating its still-untapped potential for inspiring new thoughts and original perspectives on a variety of psychoanalytic concerns. Among other issues, they explore the caesuras of birth, trauma, the formation of thought, the question of truth, the connective tissue between body and psyche, the powerful linking force of myths, and the tension between the personal and the socio-political in the consulting room.
This book is ideal for psychoanalysts, scholars, and students seeking to explore the impact of caesural thought across psychoanalytic schools and disciplines. It appeals to those interested in post-Bionian field theories, relational thought, and existential psychoanalysis. Those who wish to explore the caesura between psychoanalysis and other fields of study, such as philosophy, modern medical outlook and Kabbalah research will find in this book a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue, and a creative tension between past traditions and contemporary paradigms.

Part 1: The Caesura of Birth 1. Breaks in Unity and Fear of Breakdown 2. The Spiritual Caesura of Birth in Kabbalah and Psychoanalysis Part 2: Across the Synapse Gap: The Caesura of Thinking 3. Moments of Shifts and Transformation in Analysis: The Allegory of the Cave Revisited 4. Caesuras and Aporias: Clinical Dialogues and the Impasses of Thinking Part 3: The Fabric of Our Body and the Fabric of a Dream: The Weaving of Caesural Connection 5. The Shahrazad Function: Telling a Story that is True as the Therapeutic Caesura between Ancient Catastrophe and Transformation 6. Fascia-Ego Part 4: Truth, Lie, Question and Answer 7. Refraction as the Life Force of Truth 8. Being Written in the Book of Life: Attention to Questions in Therapy 9. The Truth? The Whole Truth? Nothing But the Truth?: The Impressive Caesura of Lies Part 5: One Mind / Two Minds: Dreaming the Analytic Field 10. Binocular Vision as a Function of the Analytic Field 11. Dreaming the Analytic Session: A Clinical Essay Part 6: The Caesura of Trauma 12. The Contribution of Bion's Concept of Caesura to the Understanding and Treatment of Traumatic Experiences: Dissociation, Mourning and Hope 13. "Why can't I cough, Sir?": Traumas Past and Present, with Bion's Caesura as a Linking Cut Part 7: The Political and the Analytic Encounter 14. Bridging Caesuras: A Rhizomatic Approach to Politically-Sensitive Psychotherapy