Toward a Jung/Bion Dialogue: W.R. Bion’s Reading of C.G. Jung’s Memories, Dreams and Reflections

Two of the most famous psychoanalysts after Sigmund Freud are C.G. Jung and W.R. Bion. Both men practiced psychoanalysis from different perspectives. In 2016, Joseph Aguayo was allowed to study Bion’s personally annotated copy of C.G. Jung’s autobiography, Memories, Dreams and Reflections (MDR). What did Bion think about Jung’s ideas? This program, a first-time collaboration in Los Angeles between a Jungian psychoanalytic institute and a contemporary British object relations institute, will provide insight into that question.

Analyst and scholars familiar with Bion’s work know that he rarely cited the work of contemporary analysts outside of the London Klein group. While he remained interested in the work of non-analytic authors (e.g., Kant, Keats, and Milton), it is unusual to see that he took a degree of interest in Jung’s MDR.

To the question of why we should bother with Bion’s margin notes, Andre Green (1992) when commenting on Bion’s Cogitations, notes and sketches he left behind in notebooks, wrote: “Bion’s sketches and cast-offs are much more valuable than the common run of material that finds its way into print. These day-to-day jottings are like a breath of fresh air from the open sea.”