The Abject to the Sublime

ABSTRACT This article engages the concept and experience of otherness, or the “stranger within,” through the artwork of Francis Bacon. Bacon’s artwork is explored utilizing Jung’s concept of the shadow; Bion’s interrelated concepts of β-element, α-element, α-function, containment, and reverie; and Burke’s concept of the sublime. The encounter with otherness, so essential to the analytical process, as well our engagement with the world around us, is also central to Bacon’s art. Bacon’s work both confronts and reveals. Through distortions of figure, expression, and space Bacon meditates on the abject, distorted, disfigured, and painful aspects of experience.