The Analyst''s Reveries: Explorations in Bion''s Enigmatic Concept

While the use of the analysts own reveries in work with patients has increased in recent times, there has been little critical inquiry into its value, and the problems it may lead to. The Analyst's Reveries finds increasing veneration for the analysts use of their reveries, while revealing important differences amongst post-Bionians in how reverie is defined and used clinically. Fred Busch ponders if it has been fully recognized that some post-Bionions suggest a new, radical paradigm for what is curative in psychoanalysis.

After searching for the roots of the analysts use of reverie in Bions work and questioning whether in this regard Bion was a Bionian, Busch carefully examines the work of some post-Bionians and finds both convincing ways to think about the usefulness and limitations of the analysts use of reverie. He explores questions including:

• From what part of the mind does a reverie emerge?
• How does its provenance inform its transformative possibilities?
• Do we over-generalize in conceptualizing what is unrepresented, with the corresponding problem of false positives?
• Do dreams equal understanding and what about the generalizability of the co-created reverie?

Busch concludes that it is primarily through the analysts own associations that the reveries potential is revealed, which further helps the analyst distinguish it from many other possibilities, including the analysts countertransference. He believes in the importance of converting reveries into verbal interpretations, a controversial point amongst post-Bionians. Busch ends with the difficult task of classifying the analysts reveries based on their degree of representation.

The Analyst's Reveries will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.