Bions Grid: A Tool for Transformation

Marilyn Charles

Abstract: The author explicates the principles underlying Bions Grid in a way that
makes them useful for the clinician. The grid represents an attempt to provide a tool by
which we might better understand the abstract rules and principles that facilitate under-
standing1 in the analytic process. Bion believed that content often obscures meaning
unless we can move beyond the ostensible meaning in our attempts to understand the
complexity of a statement and the uses to which it is being put. For Bion, the grid itself
was not so important as the attempt to increase ones powers of observation, intuition,
interpretation, and transformation. A clinical illustration is provided in which the grid
provides a useful means for facilitating these endeavours.
Key Words: Bion; grid; Klein; myth; truth; lies

Bion left us a rich legacy through his attempts to better understand

the psychoanalytic process. One of the tasks that he set himself was to
try to set aside content in order to better understand the underlying
structures and processes. To this end, he devised an annotation sys-
tem in which the elements were to have no inherent meaning, so that
he could assign meanings to those elements. This move to a formal-
ized, abstract system represented an attempt to dispense with the par-
ticulars of content that tend to distract us from noticing essential simi-
larities of form or function. Too much emphasis on content results in
a situation similar to that depicted in the tower of Babel story, in which
too many languages were being spoken for any real communication
to take place.

Marilyn Charles, Ph.D., is in private practice in East Lansing, MI.

*A previous version of this article is being published in French in Le Mouvement

Psychanalytique (main title), revue des revues freudiennes (in italics), volume IV, n1,
2002, LHarmattan, Paris, pp. 121133.
**The author would like to extend her gratitude to James Grotstein for his illumi-
nating and enriching comments on a previous version of this paper.
1
Bion was not fond of the term understanding, believing that it borrowed too
heavily from the domain of the senses, and therefore belongs more rightly to K (Knowl-
edge) than to O: the true experience that is really beyond the senses. The only sense
organ that received his full approbation was intuition, which is at its best when we abjure
memory, desire, and preconception in order to experience O. With this caveat in mind,
the word has such common parlance that I prefer to use it in spite of Bions objections.
Journal of The American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 30(3), 429445, 2002
2002 The American Academy of Psychoanalysis
430 CHARLES

Bion (1992) suggests that it is through the unconscious that our most
important processing occurs. This deeper level of processing enables us
to take in and metabolize the facts of our experience, rather than think-
ing about them through the relatively less efficient rational mode (Charles,
2002). To this end, he encourages us to renounce memory or desire, so
that we might better observe what is actually occurring within the hour
(Bion, 1967). For Bion (1965), understanding is a function of transfor-
mations of experience, through which meaning is deduced via the inter-
play of intuition and reason. It is largely in the realm of metaphor (which
Bion refers to primarily as myth or visual models) that these com-
plex meanings are most productively passed along and digested. Whether
these are personal myths (such as dreams) or more publicly shared myths,
Bion (1963) felt that myths provide a condensed statement of complex
phenomena in a way that facilitates both understanding and communica-
tion. For Bion, the tower of Babel story is one exemplar of a wider range
of myths, including the story of Oedipus, that warn against the pursuit of
knowledge. These myths provide a succinct statement of psycho-analytic
theories which are relevant in aiding the analyst both to perceive growth
and to achieve interpretations that illuminate aspects of the patients prob-
lems that belong to growth (1963, p. 63).
Bions metaphors are quite striking in terms of revealing his views
of the processes by which growth in understanding occurs. Much as the
analytic session presumes an interchange of meanings through which
these meanings become clarified and elaborated, Bions metaphors, such
as container/contained and PS D (denoting the recursive nature
of the relationship between the paranoid-schizoid and depressive posi-
tions), carry similar presumptions. In each of these examples, it is the
relationship between the elements that is crucial for any real understand-
ing of the parts.
Even in his choice of a formalized abstract system, Bion affirms the
importance of relationshipprocess over contentthis time in the in-
terplay between the abstract and concrete as they become, alternately,
container and contained (Bion, 1962). The concrete gives foundational
meaning, whereas the abstract provides rules for utilizing that knowl-
edge. For Bion (1970), intuition is the vehicle whereby the analyst re-
alizes the products of nonsensuous experience. In this way, it serves
the somewhat paradoxical function of containing our more intangible
experiences. The move toward verbalizing these experiences further
contains them in a medium through which they can be more explicitly
communicated, via the word. As we abstract the essential meanings from
the experience, we devise categories by which to order and organize
 BIONS GRID 431

them. In this way, the intangible, but in its own way concrete, intuition
is translated into a concrete abstraction: the word.
Through this interplay between intuition (based on the facts of our
experience) and abstraction (providing a means for organizing these
facts), we derive greater perspective from which we might move beyond
what is currently known in a derivative sense, to what might become
known, in the sense of understanding. Bions grid represents one such
attempt to provide tools, in the form of abstract rules and principles,
whereby the concrete facts of experience might be usefully transformed.
The grid is not only a tool, but also represents, symbolically, how we
process insights: how we unconsciously process new ideas, correlate
them with already established ones, and confront the catastrophic change
that emerges on the frontier between the new and the old (Grotstein, 2000,
p. 300).
For Bion, the most constructive mode of representing these truths
within the analytic session is in the form of myth. Myth enables us to
communicate with one another about essential truths in a form that fa-
cilitates our ability to keep the various aspects in mind. Unpacking the
myth helps us to appreciate the ramifications of the various elements.
These elements are also found in the personal myths that make up the
content of the psychoanalytic session.
Bion (1963) details these elements most particularly in Elements of
Psycho-Analysis, in which the first element described is that of container
and contained. This is a dynamic relationship that cannot be understood
without reference to both aspects. It is also a relationship that changes:
whatever is contained comes to be defined in such a way that it creates
an opening (or container) for containment of some new idea or an old
idea awaiting further elaboration. Whatever may be seen as a container
from one perspective will also be seen to be contained from another.
The second element described is the relationship between processes
of fragmentation and integration. This is depicted as PS D, repre-
senting the recursive relationship between the paranoid-schizoid and de-
pressive positions outlined by Klein (1946), which is a dynamic one, in
that each changes the other. For Bion (1962), these changes are reac-
tions precipitated by the discovery of the relationship between the ele-
ments: what Poincare (1952) describes as the selected fact:

If a new result is to have any value, it must unite elements long since known,
but till then scattered and seemingly foreign to each other, and suddenly
introduce order where the appearance of disorder reigned. Then it enables
us to see at a glance each of these elements in the place it occupies in the
432 CHARLES

whole. Not only is the new fact valuable on its own account, but it alone
gives value to the old facts it unites . . . The only facts worthy of our atten-
tion are those which introduce order into this complexity and so make it
accessible to us. (In Bion, 1962, p. 72)

You can see in Poincares description, metaphors of particles becom-

ing ordered. This seems to have been Bions essential attempt via the
grid: to order the disparate particles of information he was amassing
through his interactions with patients and with himself. In providing this
organizing structure, he is also better able to cope constructively with
the inevitable introduction of disorder, or complexity, into order, which
in turn facilitates the creation of something new. This is an important
point, for the selected fact can provide both order and disorder, in that it
offers up a new ordering that displaces the old, thereby disordering and
disorganizing the previous reality. Profound impending change in-
vokes a sense of dread, which Bion (1965) terms catastrophic. He
describes catastrophic change as a profound transformation that accom-
panies growth, thereby also subverting the prevailing order. If the new
order appears too disorganizing, it will be defended against.
For Bion (1962), the discovery of a selected fact is always idiosyn-
cratic and affectively driven. He depicts the discovery of coherence
(meaning) as a significant event that becomes known through its un-
deniable impact upon the perceiver. The selected fact is any fact or event
that provides a particular context (vertex) for understanding a crucial
facet of a relationship between elements. Bion likens this to those pic-
tures that change form depending on our perspective, as a shift in per-
spective causes a reversal between what is seen as foreground versus
background.
Meaning is not only dependent on perspective, but is also a function of
linking, whether of object to object, idea to idea, or self to other (Bion,
1962, 1963). The binding together of phenomena because of their co-
occurring (constantly conjoined) elements is a function of the PS D
mechanism, which has to do with processes of fragmentation and integra-
tion. In contrast, the interpolation of meaning is a function of the container/
contained mechanism, through the relational links between the expulsive
and ingestive aspects. In Bions system, meaning is always a function of
the relationships between elements. For example, PS D has to do with
the type of relationship between thoughts already created by the container/
contained relationship. Names, from this framework, link together phe-
nomena by virtue of their perceived similarities. In this way, names be-
come selected facts that foreground particular aspects of reality and
thereby dictate how links are to be patterned, organized, and understood.
 BIONS GRID 433

THE GRID

In Bions (1962) epistemology, thoughts are prior to thinking and

thinking has to be developed as a method or apparatus for dealing with
thoughts. If this is the case then much will depend on whether the
thoughts are to be evaded or modified or used as a part of an attempt
to evade or modify something else (p. 83). This view of thoughts pro-
vides us with a vantage point from which we can consider the uses to which
thinking and speech are being putwhat is being communicated. Talk-
ing therefore may be considered as potentially two different activities, one
as a mode of communicating thoughts and the other as an employment of
the musculature to disencumber the personality of thoughts (p. 83).
Grotstein (personal communication, July, 2001) puts it thus: Thoughts
are primary, thinking becomes their choreographer. Thus, the horizontal
column deals with the epigenesis of thinking, whereas the vertical col-
umn deals with the evolution of thoughts to be thought (See Table 1).
The horizontal axis of the grid represents the uses or functions that
a statement is being made to perform (Bion, 1963, p. 71). These func-
tions are patterned after Freuds (1911) delineations of attentiveness to,
versus turning away from, stimuli encountered in the external world. The
statements may be the same in form, but the purpose varies, becoming
progressively more directed and active as we move across this axis. In
column I we find simple definitory statements. In column 2 we find state-
ments that are known to be false but provides the patient with a theory
that will act as a defensive barrier against feelings and ideas that might
take its place (p. 71). In columns 3 (notation: statements that repre-
sent realizations), 4 (attention: statements that represent a scientific
deductive system in ordinary conversational language), and 5 (inquiry:
statements that actively probe for more material), we find statements that
become progressively more focused, moving from what Freud (1911)
described as notation and then free-floating attention to directed
attention (inquiry): interpretations being used with an intention to illu-
minate material, that would otherwise remain obscure, in order to help
the patient to release still further material (Bion, 1963, p. 19). In col-
umn 6 (action), we find statements that are actively used as operators
with the intent of helping the patient to effect solutions to his problems
of development (1963, p. 20). In this column we also find thoughts that
are transformed into actions, so that the actions appear to take the place
of thought.
The vertical axis of the grid tracks the complexity of thought. In this
way, it represents both the stages of growth and the function of pre-
conception (Bion, 1963, p. 91), so fundamental for self-knowledge. On
 434 CHARLES

Table 1. The Grid

Definitory
Hypotheses Notation Attention Inquiry Action
1 2 3 4 5 6 . . . n.

A A1 A2 A6
-elements

B B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 . . . Bn
-elements

C C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 . . . Cn
Dream Thoughts
Dreams, Myths

D D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 . . . Dn
Pre-conception

E E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 . . . En
Conception

F F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 . . . Fn
Concept

G G2
Scientific
Deductive
System

H
Algebraic
Calculus
 BIONS GRID 435

this axis, the uses to which statements are being put remain constant,
while the terms themselves vary, becoming increasingly more complex
and abstract. In row A, we find the beta ( ) elements. These are thoughts
at their most basic level, basic sense impressions that have the quality
of concrete objects. In row B, we find alpha ( ) elements, the most basic
products of thinking, which become elements that can be used in the
formation of dreams and waking thoughts. In row C we find dream
thoughts, which depend on the prior existence of - and -elements
(which are hypothesized but not actually observed). The dream thoughts
are communicated by the manifest material in dreams and are also the
elements found in myth. In row D we find the preconception, which Bion
links to a state of expectation, in which the mind is adapted toward re-
ceiving a restricted range of phenomena. When a pre-conception is joined
with a realization, this results in the conception, found in row E. This
represents the concretization of the pre-conception, and can also become
a preconception for the realization of further conceptions. In row F we
find concepts, which are further refined and validated conceptions. It is
at this level that Bion places psychoanalytic theories or facts associated
with other logical or scientific formulations. These three rows (D, E, and
F) represent an essential aspect of the analytic process, in which obser-
vation (the realization) becomes integrated with previous awareness
(pre-conception or conception) in such a way that the previous knowl-
edge does not preclude new awareness, but rather facilitates it.
In row G we find the scientific deductive system, defined as

a combination of concepts in hypotheses and systems of hypotheses so that

they are logically related to each other. The logical relation of one concept
with another and of one hypothesis with another enhances the meaning of
each concept and hypothesis thus linked and expresses a meaning that the
concepts and hypotheses and links do not individually possess. (Bion, 1963,
p. 24)

This would be the realm of Psychoanalytic Theory, per se, if there were
such a unified structure. Finally, in row H, we find calculi: scientific
deductive systems that are represented by an algebraic calculus, accord-
ing to formal rules. In this type of system, the signs have no properties
or inherent meanings, but only affirm the relationships expressed by the
rules of combination. This was Bions intent in moving to a formalized,
abstract system: to express the rules governing the elements of psycho-
analysis in such a way that they could be seen and discussed by col-
leagues without becoming lost in the richness of content that tends to
obscure similarities of form and function.
436 CHARLES

With the introduction of the grid, Bion points to particular aspects

within the complexity of the psychoanalytic situation and helps us to
order them in our minds. Regardless of whether or not this is a good
order, the ordering itself it useful because it brings us up against defin-
ing characteristics by which these elements might be ordered, thereby
enabling us to ground ourselves in consensual realities before moving
toward greater complexity. Bion, himself, felt that the system was in-
herently and essentially flawed, and yet its use has made it easier for
me to preserve a critical and yet informative, illuminating, attitude to
my work (1977, p. 6). Bions later (cf. 1997) dissatisfactions with the
grid may have come, in part, from his discomfort in seeing it used as an
obstructive force, a means for avoiding encountering the very facts of
experience it had been intended to illuminate. However, even though it
cannot circumvent the forces within us that move toward evasion, Bions
grid does represent one attempt to grapple with these forces. In so doing,
it also points toward the ease with which our theories become precon-
ceptions and prejudices that often impede our ability to observe what
might actually be taking place within the session. As Bion (1977) puts
it: as I became more able to silence my prejudices, I also became able
to be aware of the evidence that was there rather than to regret the evi-
dence that was not (p. 22).
Optimally, our own analyses help to diminish the weight of precon-
ceptions based on our personal histories, and yet these tend to be replaced
by preconceptions based on our training:
The effect of my own analysis was that it diminished the obstructive force
of unconscious memories and though I acquired new ones, usually believed
to be the theories of my analyst, the effects of such recently acquired memo-
ries were of a different kind than those usually characterized as inhibitions;
these last could be more fruitfully, though more vaguely, described as col-
umn 2 categoriesthat is to say, psycho-analytical objects feared as liable
to trigger off developments of a catastrophic nature, to initiate catastrophic
change. Bion, 1977, pp. 1617)

Bion always keeps in mind the inhibiting as well as productive poten-

tial of our theories, which makes it so important to have a vehiclesuch
as a working acquaintance with the grid providesfor helping us to make
finer discriminations between evasion and growth. The very theories that
gird us, and provide the useful pre-conceptions through which we come
to better understand the dilemmas in which our patients find themselves,
also serve to blind us and to inhibit us from seeing other truths that
might be more relevant to encouraging the growth and development we
seek. The grid reminds us in very simple and pragmatic terms that, re-
 BIONS GRID 437

gardless of its elegance or complexity, any theory can be used for both
evasive and constructive ends.
Just as it is important to be able to consider the value of a given state-
ment in terms of its complexity (vertical axis), it is also important to be
able to consider it in terms of the purpose for which it is being used
(horizontal axis). Is it an attempt at definition, a negation of meaning, a
notation of meaning, or an active attempt to discern meaning? For ex-
ample, in a recent session, a patient said: I dont know. I didnt know
what he meant by this statement, in this particular instance, as it has
meant various things in the past, including: 1 do not want to know and
am actively erasing the meaning from my mind or I know that there
is some meaning here, but it is slipping away even as I try to find it, or
I am unable to tell you that right now or I do not want to tell you that
right now. At various levels, these statements intersect and intercon-
nect, and yet each has a particular flavor that indicates the stance the
patient is taking toward knowing whatever is eluding him/us in the
moment. This is one instance where an awareness of grid categories can
help us to explore these possible nuances of meaning, thereby helping
the patient to explore his or her own meanings. To the extent that this
opens up the possibility of greater enquiry on the part of the patient, we
are increasing the possibility of self-knowledge and furthering the psy-
choanalytic endeavor.

TRANSFORMATIONS

Being aware of the types of transformations a patient tends to make

provides a means for pointing toward regularities in behavior in a way
that enhances self-knowledge and communication. To this end, Bion
(1965) tries to avoid becoming entangled in the content, so as to point to
the regularities of form in the behaviors. He likens the session to a paint-
ing, in that the patient is representing the facts of his experience in some
form. The analyst is attempting to understand the relationships between
the representations and the facts of experience sufficiently to reflect them
back in usable form to the patient. Transformations may lead to greater
or lesser knowledge, or may enhance the process of becoming, which Bion
also refers to as transformations in 0 (Ultimate Reality).
By way of illustrating the facilitative versus obstructive possibilities
of transformations, Bion (1965) describes two types of transformation
in which one finds invariance. He gives as an instance of the first type
the process of transference, whereby the feelings and ideas appropri-
ate to one object are transferred, with a wholeness and coherence that
438 CHARLES

is characteristic, to the relationship with the analyst (p. 19). In this type
of transformation there is little change. The invariance highlights the
essential patterns inherent in the phenomenon, which facilitates inter-
pretation and insight. Bion terms this type of transformation a rigid
motion transformation, and contrasts it with projective transformations,
in which the phantasy is discharged as an action, and the divergence in
points of view between the patient and the analyst do not permit pro-
ductive discussion. In this way, Bion is describing projective transfor-
mation as an action that precludes thinking rather than facilitating it
(therefore an A6 or B6 phenomenon). This type of transformation tends
to be linked to primary process material. The idiosyncrasy and person-
alization and lack of reliable referents in terms of space and time make
it difficult for the analyst to have reliable reference points within the
material. In this way, evasion is facilitated.

THE ROLE OF MYTH

Myth serves a privileged function within Bions schema. It has great

utility in that it is often a shorthand form of a more complex configura-
tion of meanings. Myth provides an opportunity for transformation, in
the sense that: an interpretation is a transformation; to display the in-
variants, an experience, felt and described in one way, is described in
another (1965, p. 4). A myth can be known via a feeling, but is also
amenable to expansions of this feeling and can be combined with other
psychoanalytic elements. Bion sees the myth as a type of model or heu-
ristic that helps to give form to subtleties of experience, such as feelings.
He suggests: it is hoped that the selected fact, that gives coherence and
relatedness to the hitherto incoherent and unrelated, will emerge. Thus
nominated, bound, the psycho-analytic object has emerged. It remains
to discern its meaning (1963, p. 103). The myth becomes a marker of
a common experience, which helps us to move backward and forward
between the gestalt and its elements, without running quite the risk of
losing the larger meaning when we focus on the individual aspects.
In his explication of the grid, Bion (1977) points to the role of myth
in bringing to our attention aspects of experience that tend to co-occur.
The myth serves a particularly important function in that, if we dont
saturate the elements, by taking them literally and thereby constrict-
ing their meaning, the elements offer themselves up for our consider-
ation and thereby encourage constructive thinking. Equating myth with
model (grid category C) and contrasting these with more sophisticated
theoretical formulations (F), Bion notes: The respect in which psycho-
 BIONS GRID 439

analysis seems to me to be seriously deficient is in models (C) of

omnipotence-helplessness (F) (1977, p. 30). He poses as one model for
this constant conjunction the story of the death of Palinurus, in which
Palinurus is invited to shirk his task, but refuses. The fates then dispose
of him in such a way as to give the appearance that he has done exactly
what he would not do. Palinurus means to defy the fates but is helpless
in the face of them, an illustration of the dilemma of omnipotence-
helplessness, which is also apparent in the oedipal tale and in the tales
of the Garden of Eden and of the tower of Babel, in which, however,
this dilemma is more easily obscured. Bion points out that the more
myths we have at our disposal, the easier it becomes to illustrate and
thereby bring to our awareness essential aspects of these types of dilem-
mas, which can be so important to think about and yet so elusive. Meta-
phors also serve this function (Charles, 2001a; Sandler, 1999). The
metaphors, myths, and dream images we share with our patients become
important reference points that ground us in our work together.

TRUTH AND LIES: A CASE ILLUSTRATION

Bion stresses that the grid is not a tool for use in sessions. My under-
standing of this is that he was concerned that the grid might be used as
a tool for obfuscation, for distancing ones self from the experience at
hand, rather than as a means for increasing ones powers of observa-
tion, intuition, interpretation, and transformation. And so, he cautions
us not to use the grid as a barrier to the ongoing moment within the ses-
sion. However, used respectfully in the service of growth rather than
evasion, familiarity with the grid brings its principles inevitably and
ineluctably into our work. In my work with David, for example, it often
feels as though we are in the midst of a treacherous sea of slippery waves
that alternately reveal and obscure whatever truths we are both seek-
ing and avoiding. He finds it tremendously difficult, at times, to hold
on to whatever he might be saying: the sense diminishes and then dis-
appears. I dont know, he says, and I must ask whether this statement
was true in the moment, as the awareness began to disappear, or whether
it had been a lie that had then made the statement become true. The
question, therefore, became a matter of how much volition there had been
in the moment, in this disappearance of meaning he had effected.
This brings us to the crucial issue of lies versus falsity. The use to
which a statement is being put is an important determinant of this dis-
tinction (Bion makes this distinction more explicit in his later writings.
See, for example, de Ferreira, 2001). It matters very much whether the
440 CHARLES

individual knows that he or she is speaking falsely, or merely doing so

without awareness.

It became evident that a distinction would need to be made between a lying

statement and a false statement, the false statement being related more to the
inadequacy of the human being, analyst or analysand alike, who cannot feel
confident in his ability to be aware of the truth, and the liar who has to be
certain of his knowledge of the truth in order to be sure not to blunder into
it by accident. (Bion, 1977, p. 5)

The capacity to lie presumes that the truth is known sufficiently to con-
sciously avoid it. Falsity, on the other hand, is a function of not know-
ing the truth: an inherent aspect of our human dilemma.
With David, I wonder (quite actively at times) whether we are in the
realm of false statements or lies, and how we might distinguish between
the two. This would seem to be an essential dilemma for David. How
can he know aspects of himself that he finds so distasteful that they have
become virtually unknowable, especially in the face of his determined
efforts over the years to divorce himself from the self that he would rather
not know? Davids father had been assaultive and abrasive, prone to fits
of rage in which he would attack mercilessly anyone in his path. Sur-
vival depended on trying to stay out of the path of the rage, and yet David,
as the oldest son, had also felt at times impelled to stand in the path of
the rage lest it fall on his younger brother or mother. He learned to pre-
tend that it did not matter; that it did not penetrate; that it did not hurt. If
he could deny the experience, he could also deny his wounds. If he could
deny his wounds, he could deny the rage that welled up in him, threat-
ening to make him like his father.
David pretends to have no rage. He comes in with extraordinary equi-
librium and aplomb. He inquires into my well-beingmy health, how
my day is goingeven though he knows I will not reply. As we encoun-
ter this portion of our daily ritual, he continues unruffledaside from
his smile, which lets me know that he has noted my silence, and has
attributed meanings to it, and has also noted my notation of these facts
before us. He chronicles the facts: Ok, he says, youre not going to
answer; Ok, so weve done that one, lets move along here; Ok, so now
Ill say something. As he guides himself through the process, he seems
to be hoping to coax himself into being able to talk about those things
that do matter, but encounters an acute, intense, and overwhelming block
as he attempts to do so.
On one day, in particular, we found ourselves faced with this dilemma
of the lie. He had said I dont know, and I asked him whether this was
 BIONS GRID 441

a statement of fact, or a statement he was hoping to make fact in the mo-

ment, or a lie that he was hoping would end the subject. The question
seemed important, I said, because it had to do with whether or not he knew
what was true, which was much more important than whatever he might
or might not tell me. Im not sure, he said, but it reminds me that I did
tell a lie this morning, a really stupid lie. I dont know why I did that. I
asked him to tell me more, and he recounted to me a story of having lied
to a salesperson about a trivial piece of informationthe spelling of the
name of his street. I asked him how he had felt at the time. Anxious, he
replied. I interpreted this as exhilaration, thinking that he had been enjoy-
ing the lie because it left him knowing something the other person had
not. This made him superior and thus not inferior, not vulnerable.
David did not agree with this idea of exhilaration, but as we moved
on and he continued to affirm the triviality and meaninglessness of the
lie, I wondered aloud about his hostility. At first he denied it (he was
not aware of it), but then as I began to talk about my ideas of the situa-
tionhow he seemed to have a somewhat disparaging attitude toward
this person who could not spell, and had then proceeded to actively en-
courage the misspellingDavid began to be able to see and to feel the
hostility inherent in the situation, At this point, the idea of the exhilara-
tion could also be explored: there had been some enjoyment in the hos-
tility, for which he had felt guilt and also some fear of discovery. His
only awareness in the moment, however, had been of anxiety. This gives
us an important piece of information, I said. Now we know that it is
easier for you to be aware of your anxiety than your hostility in some
moments when both are present. At times, then, the anxiety will be a
cue alerting us to the presence of hostility.
This interchange highlights the usefulness of having a working knowl-
edge of the principles inherent within Bions grid. This knowledge helps
us to be aware of subtleties within the processsuch as the difference
between the lie and the lack of awarenessthat help us to make sense
of what is going on within the process, even when the individual is not
able (ostensibly) to bring forward the material that troubles him. The
material is therein another form, at another level. It is there metaphori-
cally, an arena with which we are familiar. Part of the dance, as we begin
to work with a patient, is to discern what might be known and the pa-
rameters within which meanings can be established.
With David, for example, we have had to agree on basic facts, such
as the meanings of statements such as I dont know. In this way, we
are also having a discussion about the process of analysis and our pre-
conceptions, which do not agree. From his side, it seems to be a place in
which help might be found, but only theoretically. This keeps him able
442 CHARLES

to persevere in coming to sessions even though they are often frustrat-

ing and ostensibly unproductive. From my side, I tell him my beliefs
about what might be possible in this space we are creating, and also what
possibilities seem to exist for him in these difficult moments in which
little feels possible. In this way, his speechlessness is not merely an
impediment to the process, but also a meaningful act that we can attempt
to understand in its variousness. As Davids silence moves from pro-
ductive thinking to the frustrating awareness that he is unable to use that
information as a source of discussion, his inability to speak, in turn,
becomes an interesting fact that we can try to understand.
Bions (1962) distinction between evasion versus modification, when
confronted with pain, is a crucial one. Evasion precludes growth. It is
intended not to affirm but to deny reality, not to represent an emotional
experience but to misrepresent it to make it appear to be a fulfillment
rather than a striving for fulfillment (p. 49). In the grid, the categories
are based upon the individuals experience of the act in question. Thus,
our judgements must hinge on whether the solutions attempted are
growth-producing or the reverse (1965, p. 66).

A statement may be made not to mislead but to fill the function of evoca-
tion. Thus a lying report may be evocative or provocative, accusatory or
defensive, to name only a few of the more obvious uses. In such a case cate-
gory 2 is not the correct category because the statement is intended to lead
to emotional upheaval. In short, the lying statement is not category 2 but
category 6. Its nature must be indicated by some usage such as minus L ( L)
or minus K ( K).2 (Bion, 1970, p. 97)

If the aim of psychoanalysis is seen as truth, the lying patient may be

seen to be in conflict with the analyst. However, the lie may also be a
way of bringing to the attention of the analyst the very defences within
which the patient is caught. In this sense, the lie becomes a potentially
useful enactment: a definitory statement of sorts, pointing to the nature
of the problem. In grid terms, this would bring the lie from an unknown
(by the patient) action (A6 or B6) to, for example, a D6 statement, in
which the analysts very realization of the lie thus proffered by the pa-
tient provides the patient with the opportunity to be able to think more
fully about the lie as well as the act of lying. To the extent that this is
possible, the analyst and the patient can begin to form concepts and
hypotheses in their further attempts toward meaning making. These will

2 Bions system of notation, he distinguishes between acts that move toward or

against () Love (L), Hate (H), Knowing (K), or Ultimate Reality (O).
 BIONS GRID 443

inevitably be disrupted periodically by further instances of the lie. In

that event, the lie marks the point of exhaustion of current resources for
thinking about the problem.
In Davids case, there is a palpable shutdown, which at times marks
his ability to think privately about the thoughts that trouble him, and at
other times marks his inability to do so, thereby marking the evacuation
of those thoughts about which he is currently unable to think. He is gen-
erally not able to tell me which event is taking place unless given an
explicit choice. His ability to acknowledge, but not to generate, truth in
these moments indicates to us something of the nature of the defense.
Its desperation and urgency suggest a realm of terror beneath, that in
some moments is quite palpable.
For example, David was very tired in a recent session and was unable
to do more than relate the events of the previous night that had upset him.
He could not acknowledge the upset, much less the quality of it and, when
pressed, seemed to become inundated with the upset itself, which left him
overwhelmed and unable to think productively, much less speak. In these
moments, my attempts at understanding become invasive. I become the
assaultive father, undermining Davids autonomy and ego integrity. He
then turns this on himself, becoming attacked by the internalized father.
In this way, he affirms his most deadly fear: the equation of self with fa-
ther. Re-creating this dilemma provides us with an opportunity to know
together what cannot be spoken about, as of yet. It also potentially pro-
vides David with an opportunity to prove that he can effect the inconceiv-
able: to stand up to his father without becoming the father.
The grid can also be used as a way of understanding the functions of
emotions for the patient. For David, for example, the awareness of emo-
tion often becomes a warning signal, rather than a cue inviting self-
exploration. Emotion is seen as a cue for evasion, rather than a source
of understanding. In particular, negative emotions tend to be overwhelm-
ing as they signal danger of either becoming like the father or being
immobilized by him. In the session just reported, for example, Davids
feelings appeared to become -elements, unknown to him in the mo-
ment. They were expelled outward where they lodged, quite heavily, in
the sensoria of the analyst (see, for example, Charles, 2001b). My reg-
istration of these feelings could not be explored conjointly, as David was
not able to be aware of them in any useful fashion.
In the following session, with the violence of the emotions less present,
David was better able to acknowledge that emotions had been present,
though their quality was still somewhat inaccessible. In this way, we
had moved from total expulsive not-knowing, to a denial of the inten-
sity: a partial unknowing that enabled some movement toward under-
444 CHARLES

standing. We had moved from grid category A6 or B6 (active expulsion

of unknown elements) to C3 or C4 (notation or attention in the realm of
myth), in which there could be interest in the phenomenon, albeit in a
displaced manner. We had moved into the realm of metaphor; very use-
ful environs for the search of understanding.
My work with David is often perplexing, as what might have been
known becomes unknown and my very knowing becomes a potential
source of assault. This assault then becomes internalized as a self-versus-
self gridlock, in which he is both perpetrator and victim. The dread of
knowing provides a profound dilemma for both patient and analyst. In
these types of engagements, it is particularly important for the analyst
to be able to think about what takes place within sessions. What is un-
known provides greater fodder for destructive acting out. To the extent
that we turn aside from what might be known, we collude with the de-
fences and reinforce the power of the lies so that truth and illusion
become further confounded. Our lack of persistence affirms for the pa-
tient their fear that growth cannot really happen, that the best they can
hope for is to consolidate their defences and enhance the lie. However,
to the extent that we pursue understanding in the face of the patients
need to defend against what is experienced as impending catastrophe,
we also close down the analytic space. The analytic inquiry, as the pur-
suit of knowledge or understanding, becomes lost as a positive end.
At these times, our task becomes to understand well enough the di-
lemma in which we are caught to be able to find our way into a space in
which we can once again consider what might need to be considered,
together, once again. Bions grid provides an invaluable tool in that
endeavor, helping us to refine our capacities to see beyond the ostensi-
bly known toward what might be known, in our search for understand-
ing: transformations in 0.

References

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Bion, W. R. (1963), Elements of Psycho-Analysis , Heinemann, London.
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Bion, W. R. (1970), Attention and Interpretation , Jason Aronson, Northvale, N.J.
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 BIONS GRID 445

Charles, M. (2001b), Nonphysical touch: Modes of containment and communication within

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