Prescience and Premonition

This paper observes the emphasis on the past in psychoanalysis and the relative neglect of the future. Paradoxically, there is a prevalence of 'post' and a relative absence of 'pre.' It is important to fill in these missing links. I have suggested that 'prescience' is a variety of omniscience and shares much of its impulses. The paper discusses three manifestations of prescience and suggests different ways of interpreting these. It is finally argued that Bion's idea of 'premonition' be thought of as a technical tool that can counter this unnoticed form of false knowledge that may be sabotaging the analysis in ways that are hard to capture.