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containment of the infant’s anxiety filled projections and their return in a form that the infant can tolerate and internalize that sets the conditions for the transition from concrete thinking (beta elements) to true symbolic thinking through the mother’s ‘alpha function’. Beta elements are for Bion raw unmetabolized somatopsychic elements of preverbal thought fit only for expulsion unless modified. While alpha elements are those that have been transformed via maternal alpha function and reverie, and can be used for symbolic thinking and ‘the furniture of dreams’ (Bion 1956, S. 346). He refers to the mother's alpha function as necessary for reverie, the mother's capacity to receive and transform the infant's beta elements (raw sensory data) into meaningful thoughts (alpha elements), an aspect of the container function. For Bion, symbolic thinking becomes possible when two basic factors are met: First, the infant’s capacity to bear frustration during the object’s absence and second, the mother’s capacity to contain the infant’s projective identifications. Symbol formation is thus triggered through absence and separation while at the same time making separation possible. Through repeated experiences of successful maternal containment, the infant gradually takes in these transformed alpha elements thus endowing the world with meaning, while also internalizing the mother’s containing function allowing the infant to bear longer periods of frustration. When images and meanings can be linked in a creative way, they lead to complex symbolic representations. These dynamic processes Bion (1992) associated with dreaming (dream-work- alpha) which continue even during the waking state. Bion (1957) writes also about ideograms, as a more archaic form of symbolism, representing complex meanings and associations as a single image or idea - not dissimilar to Freud’s technique of dream analysis when complex associations are being explored. Moreover, these processes further lead to differentiation of the mind into conscious and unconscious when a semi-permeable contact barrier is formed from alpha-elements enabling mechanisms of repression instead of expulsion. In the later developments of his ideas, processes of transformation play a crucial role in producing representations (symbolic versions) of ultimate reality. In this way, more finite meanings and representations are experienced and conceptualized within an interpersonal context. Bion however emphasizes the fact that subsequent transformations, acquiring more symbolic and abstract forms are only imperfect approximations of psychic reality. He described a particular constellation of internal object relations with the presence of a harsh merciless superego. For Bion, the ego-destructive superego precludes linking and thinking processes leading to loss of the capacity to create meaning and symbolic representation (a consequence of lack of containment and excessive projective identification by the primary object as described above). Failure of symbolism leads to concreteness of thinking and enactment. Donald Meltzer (1984) originally elaborates on Bion’s notions of alpha-function and linking that offer the possibility of creating meanings to psychic experience. As Bion did before him, Meltzer emphasized that the capacity to explore dreams and psychic life are more important than the final symbolic representations themselves (especially the discursive ones) – implying the continuous meaning-creating capacity of dreaming. He further explores important distinction between ‘saying it’ and ‘meaning it’ which he sees as rooted in the patient's capacity
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