What about at a collective (group or organizational) level? Much as a dream is interpreted and implications are drawn regarding how the dream’s content tells the dreamer something about their own wishes and fears, so beta elements in the life of an organization (or individual members of the organization) can be interpreted and can be sources of new learning. Bion is inclined to emphasize that once these elements are brought to consciousness, the members (and in particular the leaders) of an organization will be open to new learning from their continuing experiences in the organization.
When the conversion of beta to alpha is successful, earning is not distorted or dominated by unprocessed Beta elements (such as the basic group assumptions). Successful conversion for Bion involves the close alignment of learning to an accurate appraisal of ongoing experiences. Ego functions are in charge—whether this concerns the personal psyches of individuals or the collective psyche of a group or organization.
Alternative Versions of Metabolism
For Bion, metabolism often seems to be all about thinking and learning. Given this emphasis, I would suggest that we can turn to several other theorists who have more recently focused on the processes of thinking and learning.
Kahneman’s System One and Two: we have already mentioned the first of these theorists, Daniel Kahneman, when considering the containment of anxiety. Kahneman is the Nobel-prize winning behavioral economist who drew an important distinction concerning the speed of thinking.[xxiv] He describes as system (one) of fast thinking. It is a process that builds on intuition and readily applied heuristics (such as relying on the most recent information received). Kahneman’s fast thinking tends to leave anxiety-filled thoughts and images unmetabolized (beta elements).
Kahneman contrasts this with a second system (Two) that builds on slow thinking. This system requires a stepping back from one’s immediate experience, checking out the validity of specific assumptions, challenging the heuristics, and learning from both successful and failed engagements with the thinker’s world. Bion’s anxiety-filled thoughts and feelings can be metabolized (becoming alpha elements) through engagement in Kahneman’s system of slow thinking.
We offer Kahneman’s own words in providing a summary description of his two systems:[xxv]
System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.
System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including coml0065 computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration. . . .
System 1 is described as effortlessly originating impressions and feelings that are the main sources of the explicit beliefs and deliberate choices of System 2. The automatic operations of System 1 generate surprisingly complex patterns of ideas, but only the slower System 2 can construct thoughts in an orderly series of steps.
In many ways, as we have noted, Kahneman’s fast thinking yields Bion’s Beta elements — though Kahneman tends to focus on the influence of heuristics rather than the influence of unconscious and often repressed content (the proclivity of Bion and his psychoanalytic colleagues). Kahneman’s slow thinking similarly helps to yield Bion’s Alpha element—however, once again, Kahneman attends more to the head than the heart.
Given this at least partial alignment, how might Kahneman contribute to our understanding of Bion’s metabolism? We would point to the term used by Kahneman to describe this second mode of thinking: it is about slowing down. When we slow down and refuse to jump to immediate conclusions then we are increasing the chances of metabolism. This slowing down is particularly important to engage when we are anxious (individually or collectively).
We desperately want to reduce or resolve the anxious feelings. We are getting “signaled” all over the place. The alarms have rung out. We want to speed up and find quick solutions. Instead, we must slow down and determine the source and nature of the anxiety – which is not easy to do. The container, once again, is critical. This is where sanctuaries come into play. We find a place to think and feel. We pray for guidance or talk to a good friend. We step out at lunch time and go to a nearby park or run around the indoor track at the nearby gym. We schedule an appointment with our therapist, life coach or pastor.
We would also point to a second implication to be drawn from Kahneman’s description of System 1 and System 2. As noted in the passage we quoted, System 2 is dependent on System 1 for many of System 2 beliefs and choices. It is much too simple (System 1 thinking) to declare that System 2 is purely rational and devoid of distortions and assumptions.
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