ABSTRACT
The point of departure for this chapter is the myth of Oedipus, as it is portrayed in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. The established notions regarding this myth were overturned by Bion (1967, p. 86), who marginalised the theme of incest and focused on the desire to know, investigate, and reveal the truth. Following Bion, I attempt to describe different kinds of knowing, offering my conjectures regarding the type of knowing that a leader must practise in order to be able to handle a traumatic social situation, which demands endless sacrifice. “Knowing” and “knowledge” have multiple unconscious meanings, especially associated with eating from the tree of knowledge.
