1st Edition

Rediscovering Psychoanalysis Thinking and Dreaming, Learning and Forgetting

By Thomas H Ogden Copyright 2009
    182 Pages
    by Routledge

    184 Pages
    by Routledge

    Winner of the 2010 Haskell Norman Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Psychoanalysis!

    Rediscovering Psychoanalysis demonstrates how, by attending to one’s own idiosyncratic ways of thinking, feeling, and responding to patients, the psychoanalyst can develop a "style" of his or her own, a way of practicing that is a living process originating, to a large degree, from the personality and experience of the analyst.

    This book approaches rediscovering psychoanalysis from four vantage points derived from the author’s experience as a clinician, a supervisor, a teacher, and a reader of psychoanalysis. Thomas Ogden begins by presenting his experience of creating psychoanalysis freshly in the form of "talking-as-dreaming" in the analytic session; this is followed by an exploration of supervising and teaching psychoanalysis in a way that is distinctly one’s own and unique to each supervisee and seminar group. Ogden goes on to rediscover psychoanalysis in this book as he continues  his series of close readings of seminal analytic works. Here, he makes original theoretical contributions through the exploration, explication, and extension of the work of Bion, Loewald, and Searles.

    Throughout this text, Thomas Ogden offers ways of revitalizing and reinventing the exchange between analyst and patient in each session, making this book essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and other readers with an interest in psychoanalysis.

    Rediscovering Psychoanalysis. On Talking-As-Dreaming. On Psychoanalytic Supervision. On Teaching Psychoanalysis. Elements of Analytic Style: Bion's Clinical Seminars. Bion's Four Principles of Mental Functioning. Reading Loewald: Oedipus Reconceived. Reading Harold Searles.

    Biography

    Thomas H. Ogden is the winner of the 2004 International Journal of Psychoanalysis Award for Outstanding Paper. He is the Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of the Psychoses and a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association. His previous publications include This Art of Psychoanalysis: Dreaming Undreamt Dreams and Interrupted Cries. His work has been published in 16 languages

    "For a number of years now, Thomas Ogden's publications have become a genre of their own. With Rediscovering Psychoanalysis, Ogden has written a profound and significant work, one that heralds a new age of psychoanalytic thinking and psychoanalytic practice.It also alters our way of thinking of psychoanalysis itself...Ogden's style itself is worthy of a work of its own." - James S. Grotstein, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

    "Thomas Ogden has deepened our understanding of how to make therapeutic use of strong emotional reactions to our patients as much as any contemporary psychoanalytic writer. Thomas Ogden's most recent book is an enjoyable work that is capable of affecting readers in both intellectually challenging and emotionally resonant ways. His writing has long been admired for its incisive and precise explication of topics such as projective identification and the "analytic third", and the reader gets a healthy dose of his theoretical style. There is also much fresh and playful prose that is highly authobiographical and contrasts substantially from his other work... Any serious psychoanalytic practitioner who has devoted time and effort to develop a solid understanding of the psychoanalytic process and has witnessed its power and complexity is likely to enjoy reading Ogden's latest work. Ogden has ventured into new territory in terms of the form of his writing and this is courageous and mostly successful. Most notably, we get more of a sense of the man who has contributed so much to the field he loves." - Michael C. Klein, Ph.D., Psychoanalytic Psychology

    "Thomas Ogden is one of the most creative psychoanalysts of our time. His work, papers and books are among the most quoted in the entire world. This book will be a study text for many psychoanalysts, clinical psychologists and psychotherapists, since it reveals him as an excellent teacher. He repeats his central concepts at key points, a didactic strategy which induces readers to think and rethink them in various contexts: analysis, supervision, teaching and writing." - Susan Rogers and David Rosenfeld, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

    "Ogden manages as only few psychoanalytic authors can to summarize ideas in precise forms... Ogden repeatedly demonstrates his sensitive and superior clinical skills. Yet his way of writing is never intimidating, but inspiring. Finally, Ogden encourages his readers to think about psychoanalysis innovatively and rediscover it. Overall, reading this book is a pleasure and clinical enrichment at the same time." - Daniel Barth, Bulletin of the European Psychoanalytic Federation, Vol 63, 2009 

    "Thomas Ogden is at it again, bringing his unique blend of lucidity and imagination to the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. He is as adept at pushing analysis into new territory as he is at distilling the major concepts of psychoanalytic thinkers." - Ellen Y. Siegelman, Jung Journal, Fall 2009