Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis: W. R. Bion’s Theories of Mind
CPD Credits
1
Event Type
Live Online Event
Location
Zoom & Not Recorded
Time (UK)
6:00 pm - 7:15 pm
Standard
N/A
Trainee/NHS
£0.00
Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis: W. R. Bion’s Theories of Mind
Thursday, February 26, 2026

Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis: W. R. Bion’s Theories of Mind

W. R. Bion’s Theories of Mind

With Annie Reiner & Aner Govrin (Chair)

We are delighted to offer an in-depth conversation between Annie Reiner and Aner Govrin, editor of the Routledge Introduction to Contemporary Psychoanalysis series, on Annie’s new book W. R. Bion’s Theories of Mind: A Contemporary Introduction. In this dialogue, Aner invites Annie to reflect on how her book both consolidates and extends the field of contemporary psychoanalysis.

Dr Reiner’s understanding of Bion’s work derives not only from decades of reading his theories but from having had the opportunity to “read” Bion himself during the years he spent teaching, lecturing, and practicing in Los Angeles. This provided insight into his enigmatic and intriguing, if often perplexing, ideas, and how he presented them. Central to these ideas is Bion’s concept of O, his most mysterious and controversial concept, which he saw as central to psychoanalysis and essential to clinical work. It is inseparable from his ideas about thinking and the mind.

"The development of the mind has been a frightful nuisance and has caused an awful lot of trouble. I think we are still frightened of it." (Bion, 1978, p. 53)

The confusion and controversy surrounding O may have distracted psychoanalysts from the fact that the real mystery was not just O, but the enigmatic, unknowable, infinite reality it represents, as well as our fears of a human mind that is able to make contact with O. While the mind has always been central to psychoanalytic exploration, Dr. Reiner will examine some of the ways Bion questioned, and ultimately redefined, what we mean by a “mind.” 

Programme

18.00 Dr Annie Reiner and Aner Govrin in Conversation

Join Dr Reiner and Aner Govrin for an open, unstructured conversation. Rather than a formal presentation, this session will be guided by curiosity, spontaneity, and dialogue. Aner will facilitate the discussion, but the direction will be shaped by the flow of ideas and questions as they arise.

Participants are warmly encouraged to engage throughout via the Q&A function, sharing reflections, asking live questions, and contributing to the evolving conversation. This is a space to listen, think aloud, and participate in an active exchange of perspectives.

19.15 End

Aner Govrin

Aner Govrin is a psychoanalyst, philosopher and clinical psychologist based in Tel Aviv, Israel. He is the director of the doctoral track, 'Psychoanalysis and Hermeneutics', at Bar-Ilan University and is a member of Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. He is the series editor of the Routledge Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis book series, author of How Philosophy Changed Psychoanalysis (2024), Ethics and Attachment (2018), Conservative and Radical Perspectives on Psychoanalytic Knowledge: The Fascinated and the Disenchanted (2015), and Conversations with Michael Eigen (2003). He is also editor of The Routledge International Handbook of Psychoanalysis and Philosophy (2024) and Innovations in Psychoanalysis (2019). His two forthcoming book, Interpretation - A Contemporary Intrioduction and The Craft of the Psychodynamic Case Study: A Practical Guide, will be published by Routledge.

Annie Reiner

Dr.  Annie Reiner is a senior faculty member and training analyst at The Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC) in Los Angeles, and a Fellow of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). Her work was greatly influenced by British analyst, W. R Bion, with whom she studied in the 1970's.  Dr. Reiner lectures throughout the world, from South America and Europe to Kazakhstan and Israel, and is the author of five psychoanalytic books, including her recent book, W.R. Bion’s Theories of Mind: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2023), and her latest book, The Poetry, Art and Science of Psychoanalysis in Bion’s ‘O’ (Routledge, 2025.). Dr. James Grotstein ranked Dr. Reiner “...high among Bion scholars.”  She maintains a psychoanalytic practice in Beverly Hills, California.In addition to her psychoanalytic writing, Reiner is a poet, painter, and playwright, who has written a book of short stories, four books of poems, several plays, and six children=s books which she also illustrated.  About her book of short stories, This Nervous Breakdown Is Driving Me Crazy, the late comedian, Steve Allen, wrote: “Annie Reiner has done the seemingly impossible. Her stories are not only new in the conventional sense, but quite novel as regards both structure and content. The basic style is conversational, modern, and hip, but the ideas are substantive and intriguing.”

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