NCP is privileged to present a morning with Annie Reiner, PhD, PsyD, LCSW guiding us with a fresh introduction to Wilford Bion’s clinical insights into optimizing an analytical state of mind.
Dr. Reiner will first present an orienting paper entitled, “Bion’s ‘O’: The Search for Truth in Psychoanalysis. Art, and Religion,” examining Bion’s central and most controversial concept of ‘O’ from multiple perspectives. After discussion and a short break, she will present a second, clinical, paper illuminating Bion’s idea of the “selected fact” which aids the clinician to focus intuitive attention on the most relevant factor in the session. Discovery of the selected fact develops clinical precision in making more specific and effective interpretations. Dr. Reiner demonstrates the similarities in the creative states of mind of artists, scientists, religious thinkers and psychoanalysts, using examples of their works and thoughts, and some of her own poems, all of which reflect the state of mind that Bion called ‘O’. She shares the experiences and clinical utility of this kind of attention, paradoxically based on relinquishing control.
Dr. Annie Reiner is a noted author and world-wide communicator of psychoanalytic ideas. She has written extensively about W.R. Bion’s complex ideas in an accessible way that does not compromise its depth. Respected psychoanalyst, Dr. James Grotstein, ranked Dr. Reiner “…high among Bion scholars.”
Annie Reiner PhD, PsyD, LCSW is a senior faculty member and training analyst at The Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC) in Los Angeles, and a Fellow of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). Her work was greatly influenced by British analyst, W. R Bion, with whom she studied in the 1970’s. Dr. Reiner lectures throughout the world, from the US to South America, Europe, Kazakhstan, Israel and New Zealand, and is the author of five psychoanalytic books, including her newest book, The Poetry, Art and Science of Psychoanalysis in Bion’s ‘O’ (Routledge, 2025,) and her acclaimed book, W.R. Bion’s Theories of Mind: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2023). In addition to her psychoanalytic writing, Reiner is a poet, painter, and fiction writer, who has written a book of short stories, four books of poems, several produced plays, and six children’s books, which she also illustrated. She maintains a psychoanalytic practice in Beverly Hills, California.
Moderator:
Thomas Brod, MD, is a member of the NCP Program Committee and Senior Faculty at the New Center for Psychoanalysis.