A Memoir of the Future (3 vols)

Bion's semi-autobiographical psychoanalytic novel.

INTRODUCTION. . . 

PRELUDE . . . 

OVERTURE & BEGINNERS . . . 

ONE, TWO, . . .

Within this book there are changes of meaning that are obvious, communicated and interpretable according to the rules of grammar and articulate speech. There are changes of rhythm that are not so obvious, but if detected they are similarly communicated and interpretable. The rules to which they conform may be more difficult to detect, as would the key of a musical composition written without the statement of the key signature. There are changes detectable only by those willing to make the effort. If no existing human mode of thinking provides a model, an approximation could be found in astronomical space. There may be modes of thinking to which no known realization has so far been found to approximate. Hallucinosis, hypochondriasis and other mental 'diseases' may have a logic, a grammar and a corresponding realization, none of which has so far been discovered. They may be difficult to discover because they are obscured by a 'memory', or a 'desire', or an 'understanding' to which they are supposed—wrongly—to approximate. Unless the obscurity can be circumvented or penetrated it will remain unobserved, as the galactic centre or the origin of the universe remains unobserved.