Re/starting with Bion

I'm often asked how to start with Bion. My first recommendation is: don't!

If you're insane enough to want to truly study Bion, I believe you have to wrestle with—and even suffer through—his primary texts. That said, there's no shame in accessing pre-digested versions of his ideas first. The loading ramp to Bion's more complex primary material could be partioned into four dimensions: conversational, introductory, biographical, and referential. Most of these texts are downloadable for free on Anna's Archive.

Conversational
Bion's seminars provide a conversational entry point to his theories. They mix lectures with Q&A discussions. Wilfred Bion: A Seminar in Paris (1978) is a wonderful, brief introduction to the creative weirdness of Bion available to read here. Four Discussions (Los Angeles, 1977) and The Tavistock Seminars (1976-1979) are also good gateways. One of his seminars is even available to watch here.

Introductory
Here are five secondary texts that offer clear, user-friendly introductions to Bion:

1. W.R. Bion's Theories of the Mind by Annie Reiner: a distillation of Bion's more complex theories into a legible, approachable compact book.
2. Bion: An Introduction by Nicola Abel-Hirsch: a clear, brief primer on Bion's major works.
3. Reading Bion by Rudi Vermote: a somewhat more complex chronological close reading of Bion's works.
4. The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion by Neville and Joan Symington: a thematic (rather than chronological), reader-friendly introduction to Bion's ideas, particularly their practical, clinical dimension.
5. A Beam of Intense Darkness: Wilfred Bion's Legacy to Psychoanalysis by James Grotstein: a comprehensive interpretation of Bion's entire corpus written by a former analysand.

Biographical
There has surprisingly only been one biography of Bion. Wilfred Bion: His Life and Works 1897–1979 was written by Gérard Bléandonu, a French community psychiatrist. He organizes Bion's output into four historical-intellectual periods:

1. Group processes (Experiences in Groups)
2. Clinical work with psychosis (Second Thoughts: Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis)
3. Theories of observation, epistemology, and ontology (Seven Servants: Four Works)
4. Autobiographical and literary period (A Memoir of the Future trilogy)

Referential
The Complete Works of W.R. Bion by the late Christopher Mawson is a 16-volume collection of most of Bion's corpus. This is essential when you want to research particular keywords in the entirety of Bion's work with just a few clicks of the mouse.

The Language of Bion by P.C. Sandler is an obsessively compiled encyclopedia of Bion's concepts written by someone who has studied him for decades. It's extremely useful to have at your side when first encountering novel terms and old terms used in novel ways.

Method
The study method that has proven most fruitful to my study group (of two) is to approach the material in a circular or helical fashion. Civitarese writes, for instance, that Experiences in Groups is the memory of the future of "late" Bion. We've found that close reading that moves forward and backward is key. Likewise, spiraling between the periphery (secondary texts) and the center (primary texts) is also useful.