Table Of Content‘Wynter-Vincent has written a luminous and deeply compelling book that
will appeal to anyone with an interest in creativity, literature and
psychoanalysis. It is both a wonderfully clear introduction to Wilfred
Bion’s work, and a series of enthralling encounters that puts his thinking
in contact with Freud, Stevie Smith, B.S. Johnson, Jean Rhys, J.G. Ballard
and other writers, to remarkably illuminating effect.’
Nicholas Royle, Professor of English, University of Sussex
‘This book will change how you think about thinking. Naomi Wynter-
Vincent’s tremendously enlivening study draws on significant, conse-
quential affinities between Bion’s ideas and the work of literary writers.
We come to understand how Bion thought and how he considered
thinking. In the process, we benefit from clear, searching accounts of his
idiosyncratic and highly influential psychoanalytic inventions (alpha-
function, beta-elements, bizarre objects, O, and the Grid, to name a
few). Wilfred Bion and Literary Criticism reminds us how exciting,
inventive, necessary and sometimes maddening thinking can be, and
how courageous and important a thinker Bion is for us today.’
Sarah Wood, Reader in English Literature and Literary Theory at the
University of Kent (retired); Psychoanalytic
Psychotherapist in private practice
Wilfred Bion and Literary
Criticism
Wilfred Bion and Literary Criticism introduces the work of the British
psychoanalyst, Wilfred Bion (1897–1979), and the immense potential of his
ideas for thinking about literature, creative process, and creative writing.
There is now renewed interest in Bion’s work following the publication of
his Complete Works but the complexities of his theory and his distinctive style
can be forbidding. Less well-known than Freud or Lacan, the work of Wilfred
Bion nevertheless offers new insights for psychoanalytic literary criticism and
creative writing. For newer readers of his work, this book offers an engaging
introduction to several of Bion’s key ideas, including his theory of thinking
(the ‘thought without a thinker’), the container/contained relationship, alpha-
function; alpha-elements, beta-elements, and bizarre objects; K and -K; the
Grid, O, and the caesura. It also offers a way in to Bion’s astonishing and
challenging experimental work, A Memoir of the Future, and explores the
impact of his devastating personal experiences as an officer during the First
World War. Each chapter of Wilfred Bion and Literary Criticism draws on one or
more specific aspects of Bion’s theory in relation to creative texts by Sigmund
Freud, Stevie Smith, B.S. Johnson, Mary Butts, Jean Rhys, Nicholas Royle,
J.G. Ballard, and Wilfred Bion himself.
The first full-length study to explore the potential of Bion’s ideas for literary
criticism, Wilfred Bion and Literary Criticism introduces his complex and
extensive work for a new audience in an accessible and engaging way, and
will be of great interest to scholars of creative writing, literary criticism,
and psychoanalysis.
Naomi Wynter-Vincent holds degrees from the University of Cambridge,
University of Sussex, and University College London. She completed her PhD
at the University of Sussex. She has presented her work on Wilfred Bion at
conferences in the UK, Italy, Finland, and Brazil. Naomi works in private
practice in London and Luton as a therapist and coach.
Wilfred Bion and Literary
Criticism
Naomi Wynter-Vincent
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Naomi Wynter-Vincent
The right of Naomi Wynter-Vincent to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Wynter-Vincent, Naomi, 1978- author.
Title: Wilfred Bion and literary criticism / Naomi Wynter-Vincent.
Description: New york : Routledge, 2021. | Includes bibliographical
references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2021013094 (print) | LCCN 2021013095 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367439460 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367439453 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003006619 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Bion, Wilfred R. (Wilfred Ruprecht), 1897-1979. |
Psychoanalysis. | Creative ability. | Creative writing--Psychological aspects.
Classification: LCC BF173 .W96 2021 (print) | LCC BF173 (ebook) |
DDC 150.19/5--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021013094
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021013095
ISBN: 978-0-367-43946-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-43945-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-00661-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003006619
Typeset in Bembo
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
For Dan and Edith, with love.
Contents
Citations xi
Acknowledgements xii
1 Selected facts: introducing the work of Wilfred Bion 1
2 Freud’s ‘excessively intense idea’: the Project for a Scientific
Psychology 18
3 Pompey’s thought-worm: Stevie Smith’s Novel on Yellow
Paper 33
4 Restoring the lost container: B.S. Johnson’s The
Unfortunates 51
5 With and without Bion: supplementing an uncanny
reading of Mary Butts 67
6 Jean Rhys’ bizarre telescope: a Bion-emic/-etic reading of
Wide Sargasso Sea 84
7 Efficient psychosis: notes towards a Bionian Ballardian
breakdown 98
8 Becoming ray: transformations in Nicholas Royle’s Quilt 118
