title: Imaginative literature and Bion's intersubjective theory of thinking.
abstract: The author applies Bion's intersubjective theory of thinking to study the influence of imaginative literature on the development of the capacity for figurative or metaphorical thought in response to affect-laden experience. Using a selection from Emily Dickinson's poetry and a soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet in a study group model to illustrate this application of Bion's theory, he proposes that such literature may itself serve as a potential container/contained of unique affective power to maturation of the thinking apparatus and sustain the capacity for reverie and creative interpretive thought in the midst of intense emotional engagement.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Medical School, USA. wshields@3b.com
authors.forename: Walker
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shields
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D004324:Drama; D004325:Dreams / Q000523:psychology; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008091:Literature; D019365:Metaphor; D009769:Object Attachment; D011037:Poetry as Topic; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D011932:Reading; D013850:Thinking; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology; D014851:Wakefulness; D014956:Writing