BOOK REVIEWS
sure time in order to pursue questions as to whether a self holds ideas or ideas hold a self (Bion, 1991a). In War Memoirs, Bion writes of taking compass readings in an effort to soothe panic prior to the start of a battle. He considers that his action is simply an anxiolytic one and of no other use. However, he later finds that due to fog, the compass readings are essential for the navigation of the tanks he commands. Here, mental processes are filled with moments of false certainty and uncertainty that may be greater than what may be apprehended. In relation to the fog of war, experiences of bizarre objects are related to a reversal of the alpha-function that does violence to its structure. Experience becomes mediated through the changes brought by such violence, so the perception of a bizarre object is not the same as beta-elements (Bion, 1991b). Working with such thought, Eigen (2004) writes that trauma creates damage leading unconsciousness not to be trusted. Through work with survivors of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Ghislaine Boulanger (2007) finds confirmation that alpha functioning is damaged in presenting symptoms, and adds that the containing capacities of an analyst may be helpful to successfully work with what Eigen highlights as a sense of catastrophe (Eigen, 2011, p.65, italics original) so that beta-elements may become thoughts as opposed to bizarre, stagnant objects. Bearing witness to such transformative capacities, Parthenope Bion Talmo writes in the “Aftermath” that Bion became an analyst in spite of the war. After passing through fog and into battle, Bion is in a tank with a gasoline filter that is clogged. The danger of being an easy target is great, and extreme effort is required to complete the small task of making the filter work. Filters and thoughts may break down. Alpha backs up. Time stops. Bion’s writing on being in tanks is significant, as physical warfare becomes a model from which to approach the war of the mind (Williams, 2010). Prior to battle, Bion orders his men to tie gas cans full of water onto the exhaust pipes of their tanks so that later there would be hot water for tea. He also writes of an officer who simply ties a small container of water to another tank’s exhaust for his personal shaving kit. The implications of such differences in regard to an individual’s sense of relatedness in groups is underscored in the “Aftermath,” where Talmo considers that her father was gifted with a capacity to provide a sort of behavior therapy. However, behavior therapy is delivered in a context in which Bion’s interest in his own life had died. He writes to his parents that he looked forward to being killed as a way
in which to escape while doing his job to the best of his abilities. Such a berserk state typically entails perpetuating abuses, and it is challenging to find a melancholic quality to Bion’s berserk state in which he wishes to die in service to his men (cf. Shay, 1994). While reading, I began to have day– dreams of Snoopy as a flying ace rescuing Bion. A transitional object is a hero, and there I am reminded of Eigen (2010) writing that Winnicott is peace psychology. Following a German retreat, Bion writes, “One didn’t quite like to think about peace” (p.150). Snoopy is not coming, and that is heart breaking. A few pages after savoring my wish for a messianic Snoopy, I find Bion writing of enemy airplanes. He writes: “Amongst the others there was one painted bright red—the color usually believed to be affected by Richthofen [celebrated German pilot, nicknamed the Red Baron]” (p.147). I feel that the aim of my fantasy is spot on, and I “hang on” to my desire for Snoopy. Eigen (2010) adds that like Winnicott, Bion too has faith in nourishment. For Bion, faith is a radical openness or naked attitude existing without memory or desire, facilitating a move beyond a crisis in faith (cf. Eigen, 2011). There is a marked difference between writing in the “Diary” and in the sections that follow in regard to how Bion describes the events occurring shortly before and after the fixing of the tank’s clogged fuel filter in the 1918 battle of Amiens, which was the start of the offensive that eventually ended the war. In the “Diary,” Bion writes of being outside the tank and that the gasoline filter was easily fixed. Following the “Diary,” he is inside the tank, wonders if the walls are made of jelly, time appears to bend, Bion fixes the filter, and drops out of the door of the tank. It was common for commanders to walk behind the tanks. Moments after he exits, the tank explodes, and all the men inside are killed. He describes an image that looks like both a flower and the guts of an animal (p.244). In a transcript of a tape recording from August 8, 1978, Bion says: “… the bodies were charred and blackened, and poured out of the door of the tank as if they were the entrails of some mysterious beast of a primitive kind” (Bion, 1994, p.368). Like an inkblot, a tank can be a womb or a grave (cf. Williams, 2010). Moments after the tank explosion and the death of his men, a similar variation is found in Bion’s writing regarding the death of his runner, to whom he gives the name Sweeting. Bion writes to his parents that a shell seemingly burst on top of the two of them, leaving Sweeting unable to cough as the left side of his chest had been ripped apart. Bion also writes to his parents that prior to Sweeting dying, Bion accepts 18
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DIVISION | R E V I E W
Sweeting’s mother’s address and promises to write her on his behalf. Bion writes of this repeatedly in the sections that follow. There, Bion writes of leaving the exploded tank while “gripping tightly onto Sweeting’s belt” (p.244). Then, Sweeting clutches Bion’s side as they attempt to find safety in a shell hole, where Bion decides that his compass bearings must be incorrect. Bion then tells Sweeting to shut up in response to his request that Bion write his mother. Pages later, Bion writes in dialogue with another soldier that the war is simply mur-
der, and mentions Sweeting’s death. The other solider replies that it (the death of the runner Sweeting and organized murder in general) is not much to worry about. In the first section immediately following the “Diary,” Bion’s younger self tells his older self that most of his trouble started at this battle from which he never recovered. Bion of 1972 then speaks of still becoming. In A Memoir of the Future, Bion (1991a) writes of words as hanging across a mental wound like the lame field dressing that he applied to Sweeting, and that he wishes to believe in forgiveness. Sweeting has been considered Bion’s sweet heart or his feeling self with links to his mother that he was unable to tolerate (Williams, 2010). Wishing to avoid pain, Bion desires to be a “dummy stuffed with straw” (p.231). I find another link to The Magic Mountain, as in that novel, some characters with tuberculosis undergo procedures resulting in a condition in which one lung would expel air from the side of the chest. A fantasy results, in which Sweeting would be a fictional patient before the war, that is similar to my desire for Snoopy.
FALL 2018
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