The ineffable

What is it about?

Bion often addresses the paradoxical nature of the relationship between language and truth whereby linguistic expression is the path by which truth can be glimpsed at, while at the same time it hides and distorts it. In a trance-like state, Bion seems to try and seize the multidimensional, elusive truth through the multitude of characters portrayed in his radical book the Memoir of the Future. Reading the Memoir is an emotional experience of capturing glimpses of an ineffable, hidden reality, and awakening the realm of noumena, the juxtaposition between psychoanalytic thinking and mysticism. In fact, Bion drew a parallel between psychoanalytical and mystical states of mind. Mystical thinking maintains that truth is hidden from the senses, from language and from thought. It is concerned with the unknown, concealed, and zero-ness. Bion borrows words such as God and Godhead, to try and depict an emotional truth, or ultimate reality, existing beyond the possibility of human knowledge and consciousness. Throughout the Memoir the characters of P.A. and PAUL/PRIEST (representing both religion and the mystical tradition) come to realize the affinity between them. The present paper explores this affinity, suggesting that the mutual work of analysis facilitates the development of an intuitive, mystical capacity in both analyst and analysand.

Featured Image