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around these basic building blocks of psychic structure follows from Melanie Klein’s assertion that knowledge or at least an intimation of an object, as either target or source of satisfaction, was an inherent part of the drives . In contrast to Freudian theory where the drive exists with derivatives in the psyche and the object must be ’found’ in order to be placed into the unconscious equation, for Klein, the object of the drive is there ab initio , in-borne and hard- wired . Along with the object, there is also an in-borne sense of the self as subject , – e.g., desiring – no matter how partial, vague or primitive and so the basic unit of ‘I wanting something from or doing something to you’ (as part or whole object) is assumed from the very beginnings of psychic activity. The Freudian concept of ‘ contact barrier’ was extended by Bion, who retrieved it from the “Project for a Scientific Psychology” (Freud, 1895), and proposed a new way to conceptualize it. In Freudian terms, repression was conceived as a barrier that defended the conscious system from the unconscious one. Bion theorized the reverse: that “repression likewise defended System Ucs . from sensory stimuli originating from System Cs.” (Grotstein, 2008, p. 201). The contact barrier divides and unites at the same time conscious and unconscious mental phenomena: thanks to its selective permeability, an interchange between Cs and Ucs. systems is rendered possible. The selective permeability of the contact barrier between conscious and unconscious is created and reinforced by the alpha function through which raw sensory data (beta-elements) are transformed into alpha-elements which can be used for thinking and dreaming. The alpha function includes both primary and secondary processes and functions within both Cs . and Ucs. systems (Grotstein 2004b, 2007). According to Bion’s thinking, in the realm of alpha function both the pleasure and the reality principle are included: they are not conceived as separate principles as Freud theorized (1911b) but seen as conjoined as binary oppositions in both systems and normally functioning cooperatively (Bion, 1962, 1963, 1965). From the concept of contact barrier stems that of “ binocular vision”: an ability based on a double focussing which fosters the cooperation between conscious and unconscious mental functions (Reiner, 2012). Bion refers to it when he writes that “we need a kind of mental binocular vision – one eye blind [to the sensual world], the other eye with good enough sight” (Bion, 1975, p.63). Binocular vision gives depth and resonance to the experience and is seen by Grotstein (1978) as a “dual track” which allows the apprehension of phenomena taking place in the course of an analysis. “Systems Ucs and Cs can be considered to be like two eyes or two cerebral hemispheres that are receptive to the intersections of the ever-evolving ‘O’ from their respective vantage points” (Grotstein 2004a, p.103). Such binocular vision allows the analyst to pay attention to and try to understand what he sees from a double reversible perspective: a conscious and unconscious one which in turn fosters a way of looking at things from different points of view (De Bianchedi, 2001). According to Grotstein (1997), Bion (1970) believes that as analysts we should use both our conscious and unconscious minds in order to be receptive to ‘O’ as ‘the Absolute Truth about the Ultimate Reality’. From this concept derives a theorization of the unconscious as a system which partially coincides with ‘O’, unknowable and unknown since it remains outside
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