This Art of Psychoanalysis

Book excerpt: 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.