Stepping into the field Bion and the Post-Bionian field theory of Antonino Ferro and the Pavia group

ABSTRACT Antonino Ferro’s Field Theory is a powerful clinical application of Bion’s formulations that offers analysts and therapists a perspective on the analytic process focused on the containment and metabolization of emotional turbulence in the service of the evolution and growth of the psyche. This article offers a summary perspective on key elements in Bion’s thinking that are foundational for Ferro’s work and goes on to discuss how Ferro operationalizes these potentials and movements, changing the paradigm of analytic work from the unveiling of hidden meanings to expanding the patient’s capacity to dream and to think. In so doing, ‘The psychoanalytic laboratory then becomes dedicated not to what has been but to what may be in the future’.