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From a psychoanalytical perspective: Bion's containment theory (1957) and the role of emotions.

Wilfred Bion, Feelings and Containment: Feelings Want to Be Held

Feelings flood us, connect us and can overwhelm us. How can we avoid repressing difficult emotions and instead recognise them as part of our own development?
Wilfred Bion revolutionised our understanding of human interaction with his ideas about containment and "holding feelings".

What it's about:

• why Bion's insights into emotion, containment and psychological growth are more relevant today than ever, and

• how they are changing our view of relationships, identity and mental health.

Introduction

Wilfred Bion viewed containment, self-containment and identity as closely interrelated central processes in psychological development and the processing of feelings.

He described containment as the ability of a "container" (typically the mother or a primary caregiver) to receive, hold and internally transform and process the often unbearable feelings projected by the "contained" (the child or another person) in such a way that they become less overwhelming and more integrable by the contained. Through this psychological "holding", the container creates a kind of safe space in which the child or person learns to cope with their own intense emotional states.

The goal of this process is the development of self-containment: the ability to endure, process and integrate one's own feelings without relying on external help. For Bion, self-containment represents a decisive step in psychological maturation, as it enables people to regulate their inner emotional worlds independently.

For Bion, the experience of containment and the subsequent ability to achieve self-containment are crucial for the development of a stable identity, as they enable the experience of a coherent self. When feelings are held and integrated through containment, this contributes to healthy self-esteem and psychological stability. If this functioning containment dynamic is lacking, anxiety, psychological fragmentation or insecurity can arise, which also have a negative impact on identity development.

In addition, Bion emphasised the role of the medium as a dreamlike (rêverie) capacity of containment to perceive and symbolically absorb feelings, which promotes the understanding and integration of inner experiences. This function allows raw, unprocessed feelings to be transformed into "thinkable" and structured psychological content.

Overall, Bion's concept of containment, self-containment and identity shows how important and meaningful emotional relationships and their processing are for human experience and mental health.

What does containment mean to Bion?

Wilfred Bion introduced the concept of containment into psychology in 1962. Containment refers to the psychological "absorption" and "transformation" of intense, sometimes even unbearable feelings so that they no longer pose a threat but can be integrated and understood. The basis for this is the early relationship between infant and mother: The child initially experiences undifferentiated, overwhelming inner states (such as fear). Since it is not able to do this itself, it projects these feelings onto the mother, who, as a containing object, accepts and processes them and returns them to the child as a new, nameable experience. This gives rise to a crucial psychological function: feelings are regulated and transformed through relationships.

Only when feelings are held and "digested" through such containment can the child, and later the adult, learn to deal with their own emotions and develop a coherent self.
Without this containment, raw emotions (beta elements) remain unbearable and cannot be processed.

How does containment manifest itself in everyday life?

Containment happens all the time in everyday life, without any therapeutic environment. A simple example: a friend listens when you talk about your worries, stays calm and helps you put the chaos into words. Or parents who accompany their child when they are afraid, give them security and help them understand the situation together.

Such "everyday containment" creates emotional security and enables negative feelings to be integrated rather than taking a toll on the psyche.

How does "holding feelings" shape our development?

Bion shows that containment is not just a concept for infants, but remains a lifelong process. In relationships, friendships or partnerships, people repeatedly experience that feelings are accepted and reflected back to them. This not only conveys security, but also enables a stable sense of self and the integration of one's own emotional world.

Uncontained feelings, on the other hand, lead to insecurity, division (division of the psyche) or anxiety disorders. The ability to self-regulate, known as self-containment, only develops through repeated experiences of successful containment in relationships with others.

Self-containment

Wilfred Bion defines self-containment as the ability to independently endure, process and integrate one's own feelings without relying on an external reference person or another containing object. While containment originally describes how, for example, a mother absorbs raw, unbearable feelings from her infant, "detoxifies" them internally and returns them in a tolerable form, self- , self- represents the important developmental step in which the individual learns to take on this function themselves.

For Bion, self-containment is a sign of psychological maturity and stability. People with this ability can cope with stressful feelings such as fear or despair without being overwhelmed by them. They develop an inner security that allows them to better withstand emotional crises and regulate themselves. This ability is the result of repeated positive experiences of containment in early childhood and forms the basis for a stable identity.

Bion also sees self-containment as a necessary prerequisite for the ability to think and learn from experience: only those who can tolerate and "hold" their own feelings are able to integrate inner experiences, reflect on their own impressions – in short, to grow psychologically and develop further.

In short, self-containment is the inner "container" that allows us to deal with the emotional chaos of life without breaking down, thereby consolidating our own self as a coherent whole.

According to Bion, this ability is fundamental to mental health because it allows feelings to be integrated into consciousness and thus become usable, rather than having an exclusionary or divisive effect.

Identity

Wilfred Bion regarded identity as a central outcome of the process of containment and self-containment in psychological development. For him, a stable identity only emerges when feelings, especially those that are experienced as unbearable (e.g. fear, despair), are accepted, held and processed by others, usually in early relationships through a mother or similar containing object. This "holding" creates a secure inner framework in which the child or person can integrate and process their own feelings bit by bit.

According to Bion, repeated experiences of containment lead to the development of self-containment, i.e. the ability to tolerate and process one's own intense feelings without having to be held by others. According to Bion, this self-capacity is an essential component of psychological maturity and allows the individual to build a coherent, stable self-image, i.e. identity.

For Bion, identity is therefore not a static characteristic, but a dynamic process that arises through the interaction of projection and introjection in relationships. The experience of having one's inner world mirrored, understood and held strengthens the sense of security and self-worth.

Furthermore, Bion describes the medium as a "dreamlike" (rêverie) capacity for containment, through which raw, unconscious feelings are transformed into conceivable, integrable psychological content ( ). The medium enables the integration of unconscious experiences that are essential for identity formation.

If a good containment experience is lacking or disturbed, this can lead to anxiety, division and insecurity, which impair identity development. According to Bion, containment is therefore central to mental health and the formation of a healthy identity.

In summary, Wilfred Bion believes that identity is the result of successful containment, through which feelings can be held, processed and increasingly self-regulated. The ability to integrate one's own emotional world is at the core of what constitutes a stable self.

What is the medium in Bion's theory?

Bion (following Melanie Klein and Freud) understands the medium as the "link" that acts in relationships: the mother or another close person serves as a "medium" for feelings, as a psychological space in which fear, pain or anger can be held and processed.
In psychoanalytic treatment, too, the analyst is the medium, absorbing the patient's unspoken feelings in a "dreamlike" (rêverie) state and processing them symbolically.

The medium thus has the function of turning feelings into a conceivable, comprehensible experience in the first place.

How did Melanie Klein influence Bion's work?

Melanie Klein had a significant influence on Bion's work: her concept of projective identification, i.e. the unconscious "transfer" of unbearable feelings to another person, forms the basis of containment theory. Klein investigated how infants build up an inner space of experience through projection and introjection.
Bion developed his theories from this: he described how certain feelings are so unbearable for the child that they must be projected onto the mother in order to be psychologically "digestible". The mother becomes a container that provides integration and relief.

What role does the mother play as a containing object?

Containment is clearly evident in the mother-child relationship: the mother absorbs the infant's fear, anger or despair, calms them down, names the feeling and returns it to the child in a new, reworked form.
This process is crucial for normal psychological development: the child feels understood, the emotion loses its threatening nature and becomes part of an inner world.
Later, close relationships, friends or partners take on this containing role, or one learns to incorporate it into oneself.

How do relationships and identification arise through feelings?

According to Bion (and Klein), relationships become sustainable when feelings circulate, are mirrored and held between people. Identification here means that a person takes on characteristics or attitudes of their counterpart in order to grow or regulate themselves (e.g. through model learning). The experience of "my fear is held" thus shapes one's own sense of security, value and belonging – central building blocks of a stable identity.

What function does containment have in psychology?

Containment is now a central concept in psychology, psychotherapy and education:

• It explains how emotional development takes place.

• It shows the importance of sensitive reactions (sensitivity) for children's development.

• It offers approaches to explaining psychological disorders that arise from a lack of containment (e.g. insecurity, splitting, depression).

The ability to "hold feelings" (containment) is now considered a basic prerequisite for emotional maturity and mental health.

Summary

• Wilfred Bion, a British psychoanalyst, coined the term containment.

• Containment means that unbearable feelings are taken in, held and transformed by another person.

• The mother-child relationship is the basic model for the process.

• Melanie Klein influenced Bion primarily through projective identification.

• Containment is central to healthy development, self-regulation and a stable identity.

• If containment is not possible, anxiety, splitting or emotional insecurity can arise.

• Self-containment, the ability to manage feelings oneself, develops through successful experiences of containment with others.

• Feelings want to be held: this holding enables growth and integration.

• This principle applies to all relationships and has a lasting impact on mental health.

• Everyone can strengthen their own inner containment through mindfulness, acceptance and reflection.

Those who understand Bion's idea recognise that feelings need space, and relationships create precisely this space so that feelings can turn into understanding and maturity.

FAQ: Containment, self-containment, identity

What is the difference between containment and self-containment?

Containment refers to the holding and transforming of unbearable feelings by someone else. Self-containment is the ability to carry out these processes within oneself.

What is rêverie?

Bion uses the term rêverie to describe the dreamy, receptive attitude that is necessary for containment.

Why is containment so central to psychological development?

Because it enables integration, identity and emotional maturity.

What if containment fails?

Psychological symptoms, anxiety, insecurity or splitting may occur.

Why is the concept of containment important for the psyche?

The experience of containment protects against fragmentation (the separation or externalisation of unbearable parts of the self) and enables individuals to accept their own emotional states as part of their psyche in the first place. Understanding how containment works can help to overcome fears, develop emotional stability and create healthier relationships.

Containment is therefore not just a psychoanalytical theoretical construct. It is a fundamental principle of human coexistence that applies to all relationships.

How can everyone learn to deal with feelings better?

• Perceive and name feelings: Pay more attention to what is happening in your body and mind.

• Acceptance instead of avoidance: Don't judge your feelings, but allow them to arise with curiosity.

• Practise regulation: breathing exercises, journaling, talking to trusted people – all of these can help you to harbour and transform feelings.

With regular practice, a kind of "inner containment" develops: the ability to support yourself in difficult moments and integrate emotions without projecting them onto others.

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