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Coming to Life in the Consulting Room: Toward a New Analytic Sensibility
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.
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.
- GenresPsychoanalysisPsychology
191 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 20, 2021
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81 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 1, 2023
Complicato e ostico, insomma il solito Ogden. Per certi versi mi affascina molto, ma mi ha lasciato spesso perplesso durante questa lettura.
February 4, 2022
this is his latest book. i wanted to say his last, but it saddened me. i don't want it to be his last. I've read almost all of his books, except his novels. and I'm grateful that i had the chance to become familiar with him, through his words. he is by far the only author in psychoanalysis literature that I became sad when i finished his works. he thought me things that i didn't even know they exist. how therapy can be humane, and how i can help people and myself, to become more alive. he didn't taught techniques in his works. what he thinks/writes/teaches is how to be as humane as possible, toward ourselves and the patients. though his works, i become more interested in the works of Donald Winnicott. because of him, i learned psychoanalysis again, in each page, in a different way. I'm really grateful of his contributions. I'm struggling to find words. there are alot of things that i wanna say but have no word for. but i know when the time comes, i have the words/feelings/reveries. thank you Thomas. thank you for being you and teaching me to become me!
January 28, 2024
It was a strange read.
The book reads as the author's attempt to describe what he calls ontological or existential psychoanalysis. It is a paradigm of psychoanalytic work that invites clients to describe their experience and arrive at their own interpretations rather than have them served by the analyst.
The main author chosen as a representative of this form of psychoanalysis was Donald Winnicott. The author seemed so obsessed with Winnicott's ideas that he attempted to give his reading of some of the more obscure papers by Winnicott. Unfortunately, it didn't feel to me that the author did a good job at that.
Instead of giving more conceptual clarity to Winnicott's ideas, the theory didn't become clearer or more crisp. I guess, the reason is because the author made very clear his weariness of explanation and argumentation, which is probably why he relied more on poetic language that, unfortunately, I found sloppy and unscientific.
As far as the clinical vignettes are concerned, they felt cherry picked as they always are in psychoanalytic papers, but they were written much better than the theoretical parts of the book.
After reading the book, I got the feeling that some people should be theoreticians and others should be novelists, but when you are trying to be good at both, it rarely results in good outcomes.
The book reads as the author's attempt to describe what he calls ontological or existential psychoanalysis. It is a paradigm of psychoanalytic work that invites clients to describe their experience and arrive at their own interpretations rather than have them served by the analyst.
The main author chosen as a representative of this form of psychoanalysis was Donald Winnicott. The author seemed so obsessed with Winnicott's ideas that he attempted to give his reading of some of the more obscure papers by Winnicott. Unfortunately, it didn't feel to me that the author did a good job at that.
Instead of giving more conceptual clarity to Winnicott's ideas, the theory didn't become clearer or more crisp. I guess, the reason is because the author made very clear his weariness of explanation and argumentation, which is probably why he relied more on poetic language that, unfortunately, I found sloppy and unscientific.
As far as the clinical vignettes are concerned, they felt cherry picked as they always are in psychoanalytic papers, but they were written much better than the theoretical parts of the book.
After reading the book, I got the feeling that some people should be theoreticians and others should be novelists, but when you are trying to be good at both, it rarely results in good outcomes.
September 1, 2023
📝Parlare di psicoanalisi non è mai semplice, riassumerla in poche righe è sempre una impresa ma un libro così interessante non possiamo non condividerlo con voi.
📚Con “Prendere vita nella stanza d’analisi”, Thomas Ogden si rivolge direttamente a psicologi e psicoterapeuti tracciando il percorso della psicoanalisi contemporanea nella direzione di una nuova sensibilità analitica che corrisponde al passaggio da quella che chiama “psicoanalisi epistemologica” sviluppata da Freud e Klein (che ha a che fare con il conoscere e il comprendere) a una “psicoanalisi ontologica” introdotta ed elaborata da Winnicott e Bion.
(che ha a che fare con l’essere e il divenire).
🧠Ogden descrive come ogni volta reinventi la psicoanalisi con ciascun paziente, forte di un cambiamento nella concezione analitica: anziché pensare la mente come una cosa, un “apparato mentale”, Ogden preferisce trattarla come un processo vivente che si manifesta nell’atto stesso di fare esperienza.
🩹Ogden ritiene che non esista una tecnica analitica corretta, piuttosto auspica che ciascuno possa trovare il proprio stile analitico, cioè una creazione personale che è prima di tutto un processo vivente che affonda la propria origine nella personalità e nell’esperienza dell’analisi.
🌷Questo libro sarà di grande interesse non soltanto per gli psicoanalisti e gli psicoterapeuti interessati all’evoluzione della teoria e della pratica analitica, ma per tutti coloro che sono affascinati dai modi in cui la mente e l’esperienza umana prendono vita.
📚Con “Prendere vita nella stanza d’analisi”, Thomas Ogden si rivolge direttamente a psicologi e psicoterapeuti tracciando il percorso della psicoanalisi contemporanea nella direzione di una nuova sensibilità analitica che corrisponde al passaggio da quella che chiama “psicoanalisi epistemologica” sviluppata da Freud e Klein (che ha a che fare con il conoscere e il comprendere) a una “psicoanalisi ontologica” introdotta ed elaborata da Winnicott e Bion.
(che ha a che fare con l’essere e il divenire).
🧠Ogden descrive come ogni volta reinventi la psicoanalisi con ciascun paziente, forte di un cambiamento nella concezione analitica: anziché pensare la mente come una cosa, un “apparato mentale”, Ogden preferisce trattarla come un processo vivente che si manifesta nell’atto stesso di fare esperienza.
🩹Ogden ritiene che non esista una tecnica analitica corretta, piuttosto auspica che ciascuno possa trovare il proprio stile analitico, cioè una creazione personale che è prima di tutto un processo vivente che affonda la propria origine nella personalità e nell’esperienza dell’analisi.
🌷Questo libro sarà di grande interesse non soltanto per gli psicoanalisti e gli psicoterapeuti interessati all’evoluzione della teoria e della pratica analitica, ma per tutti coloro che sono affascinati dai modi in cui la mente e l’esperienza umana prendono vita.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews