In his paper, "A Theory of Thinking" (Second Thoughts, 1967, pp. 100-120), Wilfred Bion speaks of raw sense-data and of "inchoate elements" which have to be transformed into alpha-elements by alpha functions. That description is the precursor of what he was to call later beta-elements. He first uses the term beta-elements in Learning from Experience: "If alpha-function is disturbed and therefore inoperative the sense impressions of which the patient is aware and the emotions which he is experiencing remain unchanged. I shall call them beta-elements. In contrast with the alpha-elements the beta-elements are not felt to be phenomena, but things in themselves" (p. 6).

Bion often speaks of beta-elements, raw sense-impressions, and raw emotional data. Beta-elements are very concrete. They are felt as bad internal "things" which can be dealt with only by expulsion. He emphasizes that the beta-function...