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II. Dj. Rigid Motion and Projective Transformations Bion described these forms of transformations with respect to neurotic and primitive forms of mental functioning. Rigid motion transformations refer to the former, and projective transformations to the latter. To be clear, the term “rigid” does not indicate pathological mental brittleness, but rather that the invariant remains undistorted through the series of transformations. Rigid motion transformation corresponds to Freud’s classic concept of neurotic transference. Projective transformation corresponds to Klein’s (1946) concept of projective identification. Projective transformations distort the invariant, just as a film projector placed askew, at a large angle to the viewing screen, projects distorted images. Bion used many mathematical examples to illustrate these ideas. II. Dk. Transformations in Hallucinosis Transformations in hallucinosis comprise both a fundamental aspect of psychoanalytic clinical observation, and a ubiquitous but often covert state of being. This topic takes up mental states foreclosed to language-based communication or T(K), and which are related to T(O). Again, this makes it impossible to describe transformations in hallucinosis directly, and the relevant texts are unclear, vaguely mystical, and often quite ambiguous. Bion understood that his text was very difficult, and encouraged readers to take the time to work with it (Bion 1970, VI, 243-244). Not surprisingly, this has created significant controversy on how to interpret his intentions (for example, Civitarese 2015a, 2015b; Sandler 2015). The central passages consist of Chapter 10 of “Transformations”, in particular pp. 242-246, and especially Chapter 3 of “Attention and Interpretation”, entitled “Reality sensuous and psychic” (Bion 1965, V, 240- 257; 1970, VI, 242-254). One minor point of confusion comes from the fact that North American psychiatry does not use the term ‘hallucinosis’, whereas in British psychiatry, hallucinosis refers to the state in which hallucination occurs; this is how Bion uses the term (Bion 1965, V, p. 199). Another point comes from Bion’s indirectly stated yet crucial proposition that transformations in hallucinosis may be applied to work with all patients, and not only those suffering psychotic states. Bion described symptomatic hallucinosis in a straightforward manner: “In the domain of hallucinosis the mental event is transformed into a sense impression and sense impressions in this domain do not have meaning; they provide pleasure or pain. In this way the unsense-able mental phenomenon is transformed into a β-element which can be evacuated and reintroduced so that the act yields, not a meaning, but pleasure or pain” (Bion 1970, VI, p. 251). Thoughts are transformed to non-mental sense impressions; thinking, and thus language-based communication is destroyed. Although he does not state it directly, pathological hallucinosis may be represented as K ➔ O. This set of transformations might be described more precisely as transformations to hallucinosis, although Bion does not use this phrase.
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