Mental Axioms and Lived Experience: On Character and the Assumed

Christopher Bollas presents an elusive and puzzling form of unconscious life that has hitherto eluded psychoanalytic theory. “The assumed” identifies select unconscious processes that are a crucial part of our way of being and relating. This creative concept, rooted in Bion’s writing and teaching, sheds fresh light on human nature and society.

We humans contain multitudes. We do not have an internal world; we have many internal worlds. Time, circumstance, and the maturational processes will alter those worlds as we move through the life cycle. When we come for psychoanalysis, we will inevitably enact axioms from the many differing worlds inhabited by the self.

The assumed identifies three interrelated unconscious phenomena. First, the self’s erroneous assumption that consciousness comprehends the stream of unconscious contents passing through it in the here and now. Second, mental “constellations”, forms of memory that collect into a dense inner object, so that when the self thinks about one aspect of the constellation, the entirety feels as if it is there. Third, those forms of knowledge derived entirely from the “unthought known”: the knowledge that arrives out of actions and interactions.

This cluster of unconscious assumptions are crucial to human thinking and behavior. Therefore, identifying this realm offers useful perspectives on the self and on clinical practice to enable analytical work in these areas. When the assumed is weakened or breaks down, we are witness to psychotic processes, and the restoration of mental well-being is a crucial priority and must precede the search for meanings.

Mental Axioms and Lived Experience: On Character and the Assumed opens vital new perspectives to expand psychoanalytic thinking and understanding of the individual, society, and human nature. This makes it essential reading for practising clinicians, trainees, academics, and those of us interested in the complexities of the human mind.