Citation

Williams S. Br. J. Psychother. 2006; 23(1): 83-98.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1752-0118.2006.00010.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The paper identifies some important areas of theoretical congruence between Jung and Bion in order to illuminate a central feature of analytic practice: analytic intuition. Jung and Bion suggest, in different yet surprisingly similar ways, that the therapist extends her reach towards unknown psychic reality through the exercise of analytic intuition. Both writers invite us to respect the symbolic and relational processes by which painful and disturbing emotional reality is intuited. Their particular formulations of unconscious process are used to arrive at a definition of analytic intuition and how it is experienced and used by analytic practitioners. The paper discusses Jung's and Bion's understanding of the dreaming process and also makes reference to Bion's ?reversible perspective? and Jung's ?synchronicity? as particular ways in which analytic intuition can be employed in analytic interpretation. The paper concludes by drawing a parallel between Jung's ?transcendent function? and Bion's ?binocular vision?.