Dr. Annie Reiner’s new book, Bion and Being: Passion and the Creative Mind, examines the most mysterious and revolutionary of Bion’s ideas. With his concept of “O,”  Bion provided a new psychoanalytic space in which to explore the mind. It reflects what is essentially a state of being, of mental presence or existence, which is the basis of thinking and creativity. Because O, unknown and unknowable, cannot be represented in linear rational terms, Dr. Reiner explores the  similarities between this psychoanalytic space and the artist’s creative sensibility, as well as mystical and religious states, in an effort to bring a more experiential emotional understanding to Bion’s theoretical ideas. She uses examples of the works of artists, poets, writers, theologians, and philosophers, including Rilke, Cummings, Dickinson, Shakespeare, and Beckett, as well as the ideas of Nietzsche and the Gnostic Gospels, to illustrate psychoanalytic concepts. Detailed clinical examples help in exploring the obstacles to these states of being, and how to work clinically to develop access to this creative realm of the mind.

"The clinician and the poet come together in this lucid presentation of Bion's central thinking about the nature of Being." (Karnac Books)

"Fresh from the recent publication of her first book related, The Quest for Conscience and the Birth of the Mind (Karnac, 2009), a remarkable work in its own right, Dr Annie Reiner has written an outstanding follow-up work. Noting the paradox in the enormous popularity of Bion's works existing side-by-side with great mystery and confusion about their meaning, she lucidly and astutely plunges into the centre of his most recondite discovery, transformations in and from "O", relating them to others of his more complex ideas. Furthermore, she presents numerous clinical examples that aptly reflect many of these ideas. This is an incredibly credible work which, along with her first book, places her high among Bion scholars."
Dr. James Grotstein (Los Angeles)

"In this remarkable book, Dr Annie Reiner helps us open our bodies, hearts, and souls to our own unique emotional discovery of Bion's "O". She does this by sharing her own personal odyssey with poetry, music, literature, philosophy, theology, science, in addition to her work as a psychoanalyst engaged with her analysands in the intimate discovery of their authentic selves. Dr Reiner's writings are organic, practical, spiritual, and, as usual, very scholarly. She effectively explores the frontiers of Bion's perspective of analysis in a creative way, and adds an important new voice of depth and understanding to psychoanalytic theory and practice, which should be useful to all theoretical and clinical points of view. This book is a "MUST" read."
Dr. James Gooch (Los Angeles)