Clinical implications of Bion’s theory of Transformations in Hallucinosis: Negative and Positive Hallucinations in the Psychoanalytic Process

with Rodrigo Barahona

This five-part seminar series explores the clinical implications of Wilfred Bion’s theory of Transformations in Hallucinosis, particularly the differentiation between positive and negative hallucinosis as they manifest in psychoanalytic listening and technique. Drawing on the work of Bion, André Green, Donald Meltzer, Giuseppe Civitarese, and others, the course elaborates the metapsychological foundations and clinical relevance of these phenomena. Seminar topics include the analyst’s countertransference, symbolization, and reverie; the relationship between hallucinosis and enactment; and the analyst’s struggle with disorientation and resistance in the face of patients’ unconscious trauma. Through detailed case material—including the recurring cases of Ms. S, Mr. D, and Ms. C—the series illuminates the aesthetic and ethical demands of tolerating “negative capability” and introduces the author’s concept of “finding one’s ghost” as a metaphor for reclaiming dissociated aspects of the self in the analytic relationship.

Online via Zoom on Saturdays, beginning January 24, 2026