The limits of interpretation. A reading of Bion's On Arrogance

When re-read today, On arrogance, a very brief paper Bion wrote in 1958, reveals its extraordinary topicality. We can think of it both as a commentary on Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and as an essay on the disease of psychoanalysis. In both cases, lying at its centre is the triad of curiosity-stupidity-arrogance that drives us to know the truth at any cost. In this paper Bion redefines the crime of Oedipus (and therefore of psychoanalysis) around epistemic instinct and no longer around sexuality; he unveils the objectifying attitude of the analyst he revolutionizes the understanding of negative therapeutic reactions. The analyst's psychosis (or that of psychoanalysis) finds expression in the phenomena of wanting to become a psychoanalyst, of aspiring to be scientific (as opposed to gaining a hermeneutical understanding), of wanting to tell the patient what he believes to be the truth, and finally of looking down upon his patients and colleagues. Anticipating the themes of Transformations and A Memory of the Future, On arrogance lays the groundwork for a cogent criticism of the ideology of psychoanalysis and an effective ethical re-foundation of the discipline.

Automated summary

This paper explores the triad of curiosity-stupidity-arrogance that drives us to seek truth at any cost, redefining the concept of arrogance in relation to psychoanalysis and unveiling the objectifying attitude of the analyst. It also critiques the ideology of psychoanalysis and lays the groundwork for an ethical re-foundation of the discipline.