Alpha, Beta, Container - Tracing biographical elements in the work of W. R. Bion

Wilfred Ruprecht Bion's work offers a deeper understanding of how experiences which are mentally overwhelming are processed in early development. This article will attempt to capture the resonance of events in his own biography and link those to individual aspects of his theory of thinking. This article focuses chiefly on select basic premises, such as the container-contained model, beta- and alpha-elements and alpha function, but that in no way means to detract from the complexity of his complete body of work and the elementary connections to other constructs. In this paper, we attempt to establish a connection between the treatment of patients with complex trauma and the passing on of traumatic experiences from generation to generation.