Bion and C.G. Jung. How did the container-contained model find its thinker? The fate of a cryptomnesia

Abstract

This paper investigates the possible impact of C.G. Jung's Tavistock Lectures on Bion's concept of the living container. In the first part of the paper, the author offers clues pointing to such an essential impact, which can be found in text passages as well as in the facts of the Bion-Beckett case, up to and including Bion's first publication of 'The imaginary twin'. The author suggests that cryptomnesia is the result of repression targeting a highly cathected author's communication which functions like a deep interpretation for the recipient, whose new theory then is a return of the repressed content as well as a transformation of it. The second part of the paper investigates the fate of the assumed cryptomnesia. From this point of view Bion's concept of the container in itself appears to be the result of growth in the container-contained mode. Finally the author deals with the question whether cryptomnesia in psychoanalytical literature can frequently be seen as the result of psychic growth.

Keywords: Beckett; Bion; Conférences Tavistock; Kryptomnesie; Mots clés; Palabras clave; Parole chiave; Schlüsselwörter; Seminari Tavistock Lectures; Tavistock Lectures; container-contained; contenant-contenu; contenedor-contenido; contenitore-contenuto; criptomnesia; cryptomnesia; cryptomnésie; gemello immaginario; imaginary twin; imaginärer Zwilling; jumeau imaginaire; mellizo imaginario; Бекетт; Бион; Ключевые слова; Тэвистокские лекции; воображаемый второй; контейнер-контейнируемое; криптомнезия; 关键词:比翁,容器包容,塔维斯托克演讲,潜隐记忆,贝克特,想象的双胞胎关键词:比翁,容器包容,塔维斯托克演讲,潜隐记忆,贝克特,想象的双胞胎.