I was delighted to be asked to give a guest lecture to the Kent Psychotherapy Network on 6th February 2021.

My talk was called ‘Thinking/Not Thinking with Wilfred Bion’, and looked at Bion’s concern, throughout his career, with states of mind, thinking (and non-thinking) processes, and the thought without a thinker. This framing gave me an opportunity to discuss and introduce a number of key theoretical ideas in his work (including alpha-function and alpha-, beta-elements, and bizarre objects; the container-contained relationship, his counsel to psychoanalysts that they work ‘without memory and desire’, K and -K), but also to make some more topical comments around fascism and fascistic personality structures, and the way that Twitter and other short forms can be seen both as ways to enact and evade thinking.

My title was taken from the wonderful short song and video by the Turner Prize winner, Martin Creed.