Summary
Thomas H. Ogden is a psychoanalyst and writer whose work is characterized by a soulful connection to humanity. His writings span a wide range of topics, from theoretical concepts in psychoanalysis to the art of psychoanalysis itself. Ogden emphasizes the importance of being humane in psychoanalysis, treating patients with respect and honoring their human dignity. He also explores the idea of truth in psychoanalysis, highlighting the intersubjective nature of the therapeutic relationship and the significance of the therapist’s reverie. Ogden’s work encourages therapists to be honest with themselves and to create a space where patients can express their true emotional experiences.
Highlights
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The potential value of this book lies in the degree to which it creates a possibility for the given (of which it is now a part) to be overcome through interpretation by the reader in a new and more generative way
De Ogden en the primitive edge Of experience
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Ogden is consistently contending with how our words and sentences are inexact and unable to fully express what it means to be human. Yet, the endeavor of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy exists in a space of words and language and our attempts to think, feel, and express through them. They are ephemeral, slippery, sometimes static and sometimes dynamic, and fluid. We contend with attempting to communicate our subjectivity to others within the bounds of an imperfect and finite system
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The first value that Ogden articulates is that of Being Humane. Ogden is clear that each aspect of one’s value system is inseparable from another; however, he does acknowledge a hierarchy. For him, “what is most fundamental to psychoanalysis is the principle that an analyst treats his patient - and all those his patient’s life impinges upon - in a humane way, in a way that at all times honors human dignity” (p. 8). He describes this value as the “North Star” of psychoanalysis and extends its importance, saying “when an analyst is not being humane, what he is doing with the patient is not recognizable to me as psychoanalysis”
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He sees psychoanalysis as a tool to help him understand what happens in the consulting room. It provides him theories and metaphors which can be utilized to explain what is happening with a patient and help shape how he may interact and respond with a patient, but the institution of psychoanalysis is not superordinate to the patient and their needs. At all times, the needs of the patient, and those impacted by the patient, take priority
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I view psychoanalysis as most fundamentally an effort by patient and analyst to put into words what is true to the patient’s emotional experience
Cita de Ogden
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Truth and aliveness, and how they relate to one another, are repeated themes in Ogden’s work.
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The intersubjectivity of psychoanalysis is abundant throughout Ogden’s work, most notably in his concept of “the analytic third.” He frequently cites Winnicott’s, “there is no such thing as an infant [without the maternal provision]” (Winnicott, 1960, p. 39, fn), which Ogden extends to the idea that there is no such thing as an analysand apart from the relationship to the analyst. The relationship between analyst and analysand creates a new, third subject which he calls “the analytic third.” The analytic third consists of the analyst, the patient/analysand, and a third entity which is both/neither the analyst and the patient, as each individual subjectivity continuously “create[ing], negat[ing], and preserv[ing] the other” (Ogden, 1994, p.4
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Ogden gives special attention to his own reverie during session, the seemingly mundane thoughts, feelings, and sensations we have during session which may be dismissed as irrelevant wanderings of the mind
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We do not, however, (typically) speak about our reverie any more than we reveal our countertransference. Rather, we speak from our reverie and countertransference. The task of the therapist is to consider the thoughts in conjunction with and as they would any other clinical material, including the patient’s manifest and latent content, transference and countertransference, process, and all other content.
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Therapists do not create truths for patients through interpretation, diagnosis, or any other method. We may be able to understand patients on a level that allows us to say something about what is true, but in doing so we are only observing something that exists with or without us
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Through the conditions of the analytic frame and treatment, we remain attuned to our experiences, the experiences of the patient, and the mutually informed and re-enforced co-created analytic third to attempt to identify what appears to be true.
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The sense of “aliveness” and “deadness” in the transference and countertransference is a major indicator of what is true between patient and therapist