Bion, Britton, and the Neo-Kleinian Model of the Mind: A Dialectical Critique

Abstract

Bion’s shift from writing Ps → D to writing Ps ←→ D does not provide a genuine
resolution of Klein’s hierarchical, linear conception of the developmental
relationship between the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions. While
Bion’s and Britton’s conception of creativity as involving cycles of disintegration
followed by reintegration recapitulates valid contributions by Kris,
Winnicott and Loewald, this paper calls into question the reductionistic
association of the paranoid-schizoid position with fragmentation rather
than order and the depressive position with order and depression.