Editing Wilfred Bion (section)

==Education and early career==

After World War I, Bion studied history at [[The Queen's College, Oxford]], earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1922, before studying medicine at [[University College London]].

Initially attracted to London by the "strange new subject called psychoanalysis", he met and was impressed by [[Wilfred Trotter]], an outstanding brain surgeon who published the famous ''[[Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War]]'' in 1916, based on the horrors of the First World War. This was to prove an important influence on Bion's interest in group behavior. Having qualified in medicine by means of the [[Conjoint|Conjoint Diploma]] (MRCS England, LRCP London) in 1930<ref>The Medical Directory, 125th edition, 1969</ref> Bion spent seven years in psychotherapeutic training at the Tavistock Clinic, an experience he regarded, in retrospect, as having had some limitations. It did, however, bring him into fruitful contact with [[Samuel Beckett]]. He wanted to train in Psychoanalysis and in 1938 he began a [[training analysis (psychotherapy)|training analysis]] with [[John Rickman (psychoanalyst)|John Rickman]], but this was brought to an end by the advent of the Second World War.

Bion was recommissioned in the [[Royal Army Medical Corps]] as a lieutenant on 1 April 1940,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34843 |supp=y|pages=2703–2704|date=3 May 1940}}</ref> and worked in a number of military hospitals including [[Northfield Hospital|Northfield Military Hospital]] (Hollymoor Hospital, Birmingham) where he initiated the first Northfield Experiment. These ideas on the psychoanalysis of groups were then taken up and developed by others such as [[S. H. Foulkes]], Rickman, Bridger, Main and [[Patrick De Mare]]. The entire group at Tavistock had in fact been taken into the army, and were working on new methods of treatment for psychiatric casualties (those suffering post-traumatic stress, or "shell shock" as it was then known.) Out of this his pioneering work in [[group dynamics]], associated with the "Tavistock group", Bion's papers describing his work of the 1940s were compiled much later and appeared together in 1961 in his influential book, ''[[Experiences in Groups and other papers]].'' It was less a guide for the therapy of individuals within or by the group, than an exploration of the processes set off by the complex experience of being in a group. The book quickly became a touchstone work for applications of group theory in a wide variety of fields.

In 1945, during the Second World War, Bion's wife [[Betty Jardine]] gave birth to a daughter, but Betty died a few days afterwards. His daughter, Parthenope, became a psychoanalyst in Italy, and often lectured and wrote about her father's work. Parthenope died, together with her 18-year-old daughter Patrizia, in a car crash in Italy in July 1998.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=bjp.015.0368a |title=Parthenope Bion Talamo |publisher=British Journal of Psychotherapy |last1=Joseph |first1=Betty |date=1999}}</ref>