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Ogden sets out a movement in contemporary psychoanalysis toward a new sensibility, reflecting a shift in emphasis from what he calls'epistemological psychoanalysis'(having to do with knowing and understanding) to'ontological psychoanalysis'(having to do with being and becoming). Ogden clinically illustrates his way of dreaming the analytic session and of inventing psychoanalysis with each patient. Using the works of Winnicott and Bion, he finds a turn in the analytic conception of mind from conceiving of it as a thing—a'mental apparatus'—to viewing mind as a living process located in the very act of experiencing. Ogden closes the volume with discussions of being and becoming that occur in reading the poetry of Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, and in the practice of analytic writing. This book will be of great interest not only to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists interested in the shift in analytic theory and practice Ogden describes, but also to those interested in ideas concerning the way the mind and human experiencing are created.

Das Buch befaßt sich mit den frühesten Formen menschlichen Erlebens, den'... Grenzen des Bewußtseins, jenseits derer Worte versagen, obwohl Bedeutungen da sind'(T. S. Eliot, 1950). Um diesen frühesten Modus des vorwiegend sensorischen Erlebens zu beschreiben, führt Ogden das Konzept der autistisch-berührenden Position ein. Darunter versteht er einen sensorisch dominierten, vorsymbolischen Erlebnisbereich, in dem die primitivste Form von Bedeutung auf der Grundlage von Sinneseindrücken, besonders an der Hautoberfläche erzeugt wird. In diesem psychischen Bereich existiert eine Form von Angst ohnegleichen: die Panik, die Begrenzung der eigenen sensorischen Oberfläche könnte aufgelöst werden, was ein Gefühl des Fallens in einen grenzen- und formlosen Raum zur Folge hätte. Aufbauend auf dieser Idee wird der Schluß gezogen, daß eine Revision der Konzeption der schizoiden Position notwendig ist. Die autistisch-berührende Position wird als die tiefliegendste Schicht der schizoiden Persönlichkeitsorganisation verstanden und liegt damit Kleins paranoid-schizoider und Fairbairns Welt der inneren Objekte zugrunde.

die Möglichkeit, die Dinge auch anders sehen zu können. In der depressiven Position wird Lebensgeschichte nicht nur ge­ macht, sondern erzählt, umgeschrieben und erweitert. Zwi­ schen uns und anderen ist Raum, einander zu verstehen und uns aufeinander im Kontext einer gemeinsamen Geschichte zu beziehen. Das ermöglicht ein Verstehen von Schuld aber auch von Wiedergutmachung und Versöhnung. In dieser Darstellung könnte fälschlicherweise der Ein­ druck einer Fortschrittsgeschichte entstehen. Eine primitivere Stufe von Erfahrungsstruktur wird durch eine neue ersetzt. Aber dies ist nicht das Bild, das Ogden zeichnet. Für ihn ist die primitivere Stufe nicht nur ein Trittbrett, um zu einer höheren zu gelangen, sondern sie ist wie das Fundament eines Hauses, dessen höhere Regionen, wenn man es abreißt, zusammenfal­ len würden. Die psychologische Basis für ein gelingendes Le­ ben ist nicht nur die Erhaltung der verschiedenen Erfahrungs­ modi, sondern auch ihre Koordination. Erst das massive Über­ wiegen einer einzigen Position fuhrt zu einem pathologischen Erscheinungsbild. Daß die vorsymbolische Ebene nicht ein­ fach überwunden werden darf, wenn man nicht Sinnlichkeit im weiten Sinne opfern möchte, versteht sich von selbst. Aber Ogden zeigt auch gegen die kleinianische Tradition, daß auch die paranoid-schizoide Position nicht überwunden werden darf, birgt sie doch die Chance, starke Gefühle zu erleben und Erfahrungen zu machen, die überraschend sind. Die Fähigkeit, das eigene Selbstverständnis durch solche Erfahrungen in Frage zu stellen und diese zu integrieren (depressive Position), macht aus Spaltungen lebensgeschichtliche Lernprozesse. Ogden gelingt es, komplexe psychische Prozesse interes­ sant zu systematisieren und erfahrungsnah darzustellen.

The Analyst‘s Ear and the Critic‘s Eye is the first volume of literary criticism to be co-authored by a practicing psychoanalyst and a literary critic. The result of this unique collaboration is a lively conversation that not only demonstrates what is most fundamental to each discipline, but creates a joint perspective on reading literature that ne

Stimmen zur amerikanischen Originalausgabe:'Einer der führenden psychoanalytischen Theoretiker unserer Zeit seziert die Grundkomponenten der psychoanalytischen Situation in einer solchen Weise, daß der Leser die Psychoanalyse nie mehr wieder auf die selbe Art betrachten wird. Er stellt neue Überlegungen an über die Verwendung der Couch, den technischen Zugang zur Traumdeutung, das Bedürfnis des Klienten und Analytikers nach Zurückgezogenheit, den Gebrauch der Sprache und die Anatomie der Träumerei...'Glen O. Gabbard, M.D.'Ein neues Werk von Thomas Ogden ist immer ein Ereignis und sein fünftes Buch führt den einfühlsamen und ständig kreativen Geist seiner früheren Schriften weiter... Von größter Bedeutung für die analytische Partnerschaft ist das Verständnis und der Gebrauch der Träumerei (Reverie), die die Tagträume, sexuellen Fantasien, Körpergefühle und Sorgen umfasst, die den Analytiker während der Sitzung befallen. Diese Beschäftigungen, in der Literatur als unwesentlich fallengelassen, werden als wichtiger Beitrag zur psychoanalytischen Suche dargestellt. Ogdens theoretische Konzepte sind wie immer reichlich klinisch illustriert und ermöglichen eine gute Einsicht in die Art, wie er die überlappenden Traumzustände des Analytikers und des Patienten in der analytischen Reise benützt.'Joyce McDougall, Ed.D.

Thomas H. Ogden is the winner of the 2004 International Journal of Psychoanalysis Award for the Most Important Paper of the year and the 2010 Haskell Norman Prize – an international award for'outstanding achievement as a psychoanalytic clinician, teacher and theoretician'.Thomas Ogden is internationally recognized as one of the most creative analytic thinkers writing today. In this book he brings his original analytic ideas to life by means of his own method of closely reading major analytic works. He reads watershed papers in a way that does not simply cast new and discerning light on the works he is discussing, but introduces his own thinking regarding the ideas being discussed in the texts. Ogden offers expanded understandings of some of the most fundamental concepts constituting psychoanalytic theory and practice. He does so by finding in each of the articles he discusses much that the author knew, but did not know that he or she knew. An example of this is how Freud, in his conception of the unconscious workings of mourning and melancholia, was providing the foundation of a theory of unconscious internal object relations. Ogden goes on to provide further re-readings of classic material from the following key contributors to contemporary psychoanalysis: W. R. D. Fairbairn Donald Winnicott Wilfred Bion Hans Loewald Harold Searles. This book is not simply a book of readings, it is a book about reading, about how to read in a way that readers actively rewrite what they are reading, and in so doing makes the ideas truly their own. The concepts that Ogden develops in his readings provide a significant step in the reader's expansion of his or her understanding of many of the ideas that lie at the cutting edge of contemporary psychoanalysis. It will be of particular interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists who use a psychodynamic approach, as well as professionals and academics with an interest in contemporary psychoanalysis.

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.

Winner of the 2010 Haskell Norman Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Psychoanalysis!Why is dreaming the mind's single most important psychoanalytic activity?This Art of Psychoanalysis offers a unique perspective on psychoanalysis that features a new way of conceptualizing the role of dreaming in human psychology.Thomas Ogden's thinking has been at the cutting edge of psychoanalysis for more than 25 years. In this volume, he builds on the work of Freud, Klein, Winnicott, and Bion and explores the idea that human psychopathology is a manifestation of a breakdown of the individual's capacity to dream his experience. The investigation into the role of the analyst in participating psychologically in the patient's dreaming is illustrated throughout with elegant and absorbing accounts of clinical work, providing a fascinating insight into the analyst's experience. Subjects covered include: a new reading of the origins of object relations theory on holding and containing, being and dreaming on psychoanalytic writing. This engaging book succeeds in conveying not just a set of techniques but a way of being with patients that is humane and compassionate. It will be of great interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and other mental health professionals.

This book is exciting, original, and above all accessible–a rare combination for a text which deals in depth with psychoanalytical theory. Non-analysts are frequently both baffled and alienated by the jargon and the complexity of works which extend psychoanalytical thinking, but Ogden is revealed in this book as an outstanding communicator as well as a major theoretician. The book's subtitle is a guide to the main focus of the work, which reinterprets the work of Melanie Klein, with its focus on phantasy, in relation to the biological determinants of perception and the meaning and organization of experience in the interpersonal setting of human growth and development. Ogden re-interprets Klein to illuminate Freudian instinct theory, using the contributions of Bion, Fairbairn, and particularly Winnicott–British object relations theorists–to clarify and extend aspects of their work and to move towards an impressive exposition of the way in which the human mind develops.'–Pamela M. Ashurst, The British Journal of PsychiatryA Jason Aronson Book

In his fifth book Thomas Ogden, widely regarded as the most profound and original psychoanalytic writer of this decade, explores the frontier of contemporary psychoanalytic thinking: the experience of the analyst and patient in the dynamic interplay of subjectivity and intersubjectivity. A Jason Aronson Book

Subjects of Analysis, the fourth of Thomas Ogden's books, explores the frontier of contemporary psychoanalytic thinking: the experience of analyst and analysand in the dynamic interplay of subjectivity (the individual'I-ness'of each participant) and intersubjectivity (the'shared'experience of the analytic pair). No longer are transference and countertransference considered to have meaning (as concepts or as experiences) except in relation to one another; each is the context in which the other is generated and understood. In the course of this discussion, Ogden introduces the idea of the'intersubjective analytic third'in his effort to conceptualize the interdependence of subject and object, of transference and countertransference, in the analytic process. This book offers a way of understanding and making use of a critical dimension of the analytic experience that is rarely spoken about by psychotherapists and analysts, and even less frequently written about in the analytic literature: the ordinary, moment-to-moment experience of the analyst in the analytic setting, including his most mundane thoughts about the minutiae of his'outside life,'his obsessional ruminations, daydreams, sexual fantasies, distractedness, bodily sensations and worries, and so on. This highly personal, very ordinary, almost invisible aspect of the analyst's experience in the consulting room is viewed as having been created freshly as an analytic object in the unique context of the analytic relationship as it has developed to that moment of the analysis. Too often, this sort of experience has been dismissed as'the analyst's own stuff'that must be filtered as extraneous'psychological noise.'For Ogden, this mundane/personal background of analytic experience is seen as an important manifestation of the analyst's experience in the intersubjective analytic third to which the analyst must attempt to gain conscious access and must learn to utilize in the formulation of his interpretations and other forms of intervention.

Explains the patient's identification in treatment with a significant other for purposes of mastering traumatic experiences.'This book is a clear, constructive, and instructive treatment of an important observation. It is also an example of clinical sophistication of the very highest order.'–Jeffrey J. Andresen'A major strength of this book is that it addresses the difficult situations that arise in treatment when projection is at play. The difficult feelings aroused in the projective introjective interplay are explored and the therapist is cautioned repeatedly against using untimely interpretations rather than therapeutic containment and holding feelings `in reverie.'The patient needs the space to grow and Ogden is quite sensitive to this process.'–Janet Schumacher FinellA Jason Aronson Book

'This is an extraordinary and exciting book, the work of a truly original and creative psychoanalytic theoretician and most astute clinician. Ogden continues to expand and to deepen his reformulations of the British object-relations theorists, M. Klein, W. R. Bion, D. W. Winnicott, W. R. D. Fairbairn, H. Guntrip, to illuminate further the world of internalized object relations. His concepts are evolutionary and at times revolutionary. Exploring the area of human experience that lies beyond the psychological territories addressed by the previous theorists, he introduces the concept of an autistic-contiguous mode as a way of conceiving of the most primitive psychological organization through which the sensory'floor'of the experience of self is generated. He conceives of this mode as a sensory-dominated, presymbolic area of experience in which the most primitive form of meaning is generated on the basis of organization of sensory impressions, particularly at the skin surface. A major tenet in the book is a conceptualization of human experience throughout life as the product of a dialectical interplay among three modes of generating experience: the depressive, the paranoid-schizoid, and the autistic-contiguous. Each mode creates, preserves, and negates the other. No single mode of generating experience exists independently of the others. Psychopathology is conceptualized as a'collapse'of the dialectic in the direction of one or another mode of generating experience. The outcome of such collapse may be entrapment in rigid, asymbolic patterns of sensation (collapse in the direction of the autistic-contiguous mode), or imprisonment in a world of omnipotent internal objects where thoughts and feelings are experienced as things and forces which occupy or bombard the self (collapse in the direction of paranoid-schizoid mode) or isolation of the self from lived experience and aliveness of bodily, sensations (collapse in the direction of the depressive mode). Ogden presents his unique development of the autistic-contiguous mode as the synthesis, interpretation, and extension of the works of D. Meltzer, E. Bick, and F. Tustin. He is careful to state that this psychological organization is a developing and ongoing) mode of generating experience and not a limited phase of development; an elaboration of this primitive organization is an integral part of normal development. All three modes are considered not'positions'to be passed through, outgrown, or overcome, and relegated to the past, but as integral dimensions of present adult ego functioning. Sensory experience in an autistic-contiguous mode has rhythmicity that is becoming the continuity of being; it has boundedness that is the beginning of experience of the place where one feels things and lives; it has features such as shape, hardness, cold, warmth and texture, beginnings of the qualities of who one is. As his generous case examples aptly demonstrate, Ogden's theories are solidly grounded in his discerning work with a broad variety of patients. His brilliant pathfinding will enlighten and enrich the reader with invaluable insights. He will listen with new ears and with a fresh conceptual framework with which to comprehend the most primitive elements of human development and the complex interplay among the different modes of experience. This is a bold, important, instructive, and stimulating book of equally great clinical and theoretical applicability.'—The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association A Jason Aronson Book