Psychotic Metaphysics

The threshold that Melanie Klein found to exist between the paranoid-schizoid and the depressive positions is the site of a series of transformations - extremely inducing murder or suicide - in which habitual forms of discourse break down. W. R. Bion defined the series of transformations as a state of catastrophic change: it is comparable to the stage in rites of passage, as described by Arnold van Gennep, in which initiates undergo an experience of psychic eclipse. With a wealth of clinical material, linking themes derived from psychotherapy, the arts, anthropology and philosophy, Psychotic Metaphysics proposes that this turbulence, which logically precedes embodiment, is the impetus for the unique quality of human achievement.