Nicola Abel-Hirsch is a training analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and works in full-time psychoanalytical practice. She has given theoretical and clinical papers on Bion in the UK; Taiwan (annually 2005–2012); the USA; and Europe. From 2013 to 2015 she was the visiting professor at the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. She is the author of Bion: 365 Quotes (2019), and editor of Hanna Segal's last book Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (2007). Under the auspices of Understanding Primitive Mental States NYC, she chairs an ongoing series of seminars on Bion's later lectures, seminars and supervisions.

• PrologueAbout the authorFive opening thoughts1. Bion’s warThe Battle of CambraiTanksWar languagesAmiensTurning the guns round2. Oxford, medicine, Samuel BeckettThe 1920s and 1930sSome detailBion and Samuel Beckett3. What groups doThe 1940sStarting to ask questions againWorld War Two work: including NorthfieldThe Tavistock groups: including Bion the observer, basic assumptionsAn eyewitness account of Bion’s group-work(From an occasion when Bion took a group in 1964 for about four months)4. A time of membershipLate 1940s/1950sAnalysis with Klein and Klein’s group of 4The Imaginary Twin‘Verbal thinking’ in the 50s papersBion and Winnicott5. A breakthroughAnd then Bion made a breakthroughOn Arrogance (1958)Attacks on Linking (1959)Braithwaite and FregeThe beginning of Bion’s ‘cogitations’6. Going back to beginningsIndiaBishop Stortford School7. ThinkingThe Theory of ThinkingHume and Kant8. Opening up his own thinking: Learning from Experience (1962)The “name givers”Alpha-functionBeta elementsContainer/containedBion’s own clinical work in this periodGalileo and Poincaré9. A new instrument: Elements of Psychoanalysis (1963)The GridReversible PerspectiveAn eyewitness account of Bion’s clinical work in the 1960s10. Going as far as possible: Transformations: Change from Learning to Growth (1965)Transformations and InvariantsBion’s own clinical work in this periodThe emergence of ’O’: the last chapter of TransformationsPlato and Milton11. Talking about his findingsMemory and Desire 1965Catastrophic Change 1966The Commentary to Second Thoughts: Selected Papers on Psycho-Analysis 196712. Los Angeles 1967SpectrumDispute with Greenson13. Elaborations: Attention and Interpretation: A Scientific Approach to Insight in Psycho-Analysis and Groups (1970)Container/containedSufferingIntuition and ‘F’[Faith]Bion’s own clinical work in this periodAn eyewitness account of Bion’s clinical work in the 1970s14. International lectures, seminars and supervisionsThe Brazilian LecturesThe Brazilian Clinical SeminarsThe Tavistock SeminarsThe Italian Seminars15. Autobiography and A Memoir of the FutureBion’s autobiographyA Memoir of the FutureFive closing thoughtsBrief glossaryBibliography

‘Nicola Abel-Hirsch is a masterful teacher of Bion's works; knowledgeable of his history as an individual and a psychoanalyst. Like the best of teachers, she knows her subject intimately and explains even the most obscure concepts clearly. Her new book, Bion: An Introduction, displays her deep appreciation and knowledge of the work of Bion. I highly recommend Bion: An Introduction to all clinicians and psychoanalysts who want to understand Bion's life and work in depth.’