King Lear is a timeless exposition of humankind\'s attempt to find meaning amidst the ceaseless turbulence of existence. This entails navigating the disintegrating pulls of nature and harmful human action that exist alongside affiliative, life-promoting gestures shown toward one another. As the predictability and safety afforded by social and two-dimensional psychic constructs collapse, several characters in this play are forced to reckon with the untamed, less organized realms of the mind and natural world. This leads to movements toward psychic paralysis and disintegration, as well as toward growth and interpersonal healing, dynamics that hinge on the characters\' internal structuring.

Wagner\'s opera Parsifal is \"read\" with the help of Bion\'s theory of thinking in order to discover psychoanalytic \"truths\" implicit in it. These are then returned to Bion\'s model in order to further elaborate the theory itself. It is suggested the opera contains within it the idea that compassion may be used as an element of psychoanalysis in theory-building, particularly in order to combine it in the psychoanalytic theory of thinking. Bion intuited infantile sexuality as a component of the container/contained function, but did not formulate this in his model. It is suggested that Parsifal offers such a formulation, with compassion as an adjunct to the container/contained gained in the context of infantile sexuality. The rationale for such use of myth and art in psychoanalytic theory is examined, also with the help of Bion\'s thinking. This may serve as a demonstration of the use of myth and art in general, and opera in particular, in interdisciplinary exchanges that may enrich both psychoanalysis and the understanding of artworks.

\"Common sense\" is ubiquitous in most discourse, including the psychoanalytic process. It is comprised of multiple different forms of thinking which have certain similarities of organization. Its appearance in interpersonal discourse evokes typical affects, fantasies, and intersubjective experiences, which I call \"the feeling of common sense\". Because of its underlying conceptual structure and its powerful affective and intersubjective components, as well as the underlying conceptual organization of the various forms of thinking associated with it, common sense can have a variety of different functions in the analytic process; some serve its forward movement, while others function, in various ways, as impediments which need to be understood and unravelled. Such understanding sheds light not only on the patient\'s internal dynamics, but the analyst\'s collusive participation in enactments at many levels. Such awareness may shape the analyst\'s technical decisions as much as the content of his or her interpretations. I offer clinical illustrations of a number of these phenomena.

Peer Gynt, the main character in Ibsen\'s dramatic poem from 1867, has fascinated scholars since its publication. After a lifetime of escapades, Peer finds himself lonely, detached and with feelings of deadness. Gradually, the underlying structure of his personality confronts him. With the help of Wilfred Bion\'s ideas, it is possible to trace a distinct pattern, where unprocessed thoughts seem to play a decisive role in hindering Peer\'s self-realization. The main female character, Solveig, spends her life waiting for Peer. Eventually she develops into a container, ready to welcome Peer\'s stray thoughts. This paper demonstrates how she evolves Bionian capacities like reverie, and eschewing of memory and desire. The interpretation that follows thus challenges a tradition where Solveig is seen as a romantic figure who, like Goethe\'s Gretchen, is designed to save the male protagonist by unconditional love. This paper argues that Solveig plays a more active role towards Peer in offering significant tools for personal development. The paper concludes that Ibsen and Bion have uncovered elements of basic human conditions that in some significant ways seem to coincide.