Pursuing relational consciousness: thinking and antithinking in group

Although human beings are interpersonal and innately curious, at the same time an aspect of the self defends against mental relationships with self and other, because such relationships threaten to cause psychic pain. Bion's ideas on thinking and antithinking are applied to this topic of relational consciousness: A "psychotic part of the personality"--which refers also to the "basic assumptions" level of the group-prefers antithinking: forestalling, evading, and assaulting thinking and thinkers. Clinical examples illustrate how the group therapist may address and treat the pervasive resistances to relational consciousness in the group setting. These involve understanding the dynamics and clinical manifestations of hatred of thinking, excessive projective identification, anticipatory anxiety regarding thinking, and bizarre and hallucinatory thought transformations.