Of Things Invisible to Mortal Sight: Celebrating the Work of James S. Grotstein

Dr James Grotstein (1925–2015) was the foremost Bion scholar, and one of the most noted and honoured psychoanalysts in the world. His prolific writings and generous encouragement to other analysts has had an enormous impact. He was among the first to examine Bion’s most controversial concept – O – in particular the mystical aspects of O. The title of this book, Of Things Invisible To Mortal Sight: A Celebration of the Work of James S. Grotstein, inspired by a line from Milton’s Paradise Lost (Book III), reflects Grotstein’s decades-long examination of the most profound aspects of the human mind.

Dr James Grotstein’s erudition and depth of understanding made him one of the most revered psychoanalysts throughout the psychoanalytic world. He was well known and appreciated for his prolific writings, so it was only fitting to honour him through writing, and the fifteen articles in Of Things Invisible To Mortal Sight are written by esteemed analysts from Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, and throughout the United States. They vary from examinations of Grotstein’s theories and his historical place in psychoanalysis, to detailed clinical accounts and creative theoretical works.

To honour James Grotstein is also to honour Wilfred Bion, for we might say that Bion was his muse for a half century, as well as his teacher, analyst, and the inspiration for Grotstein’s encyclopedic writings about Bion’s work in countless articles and books. Grotstein’s insatiable curiosity and passion for learning, however, led to his studying and contributing to the literature of many other psychoanalytic orientations as well, ranging from Klein to Kohut to Intersubjectivity, but until the end of his life Grotstein continued to find inspiration in Bion’s work, and in Bion himself – the genius, mystic, and “extraordinary individual.” Grotstein spent decades examining Bion’s concept of O, and many other mysteries and states of mind “invisible to mortal sight,” which must nonetheless be intuited and which Grotstein, and these authors, help psychoanalysts to do.