Abstract

Overview. It has been said that the roots of one of the British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion’s theories about the experiences of infants may be found in Bion’s experiences as a soldier in the trenches of the First World War. That is, that experience gave him insight, right or wrong, into challenges infants face. Similarly, this paper will connect with Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy how, in his childhood home, both his life and his autonomy were threatened, and how this led him to take refuge alone and as an alien. Inter alia, these experiences and emotions may have given Wittgenstein insight into an alien quality of our life in language—into what it is like for an infant to have even his seemingly most...