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Reading Ogden's book was, for me, a delightful experience in terms of what the author is able to elicit in the reader's mind. It was also a disquieting experience, given that, as a result of this reading, I was to produce a review of the work of such an artful author.
In his preface, Ogden says this book is the “most recent installment” of his
… attempts to put into words my understanding of those aspects of psychoanalysis that are of most importance to me, and to say how they have become integral to who I am, and who I am becoming as a psychoanalyst.
Although a compliation of previously published articles in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis from 2002 through 2005, still, this book can be read as a series of eight chapters that all go perfectly together in one book.
Ogden's theoretical influences are wide-ranging, going from a solidly based understanding of traditional psychoanalytic theorists such as Freud, Klein, Winnicott, and, most significantly, Bion to renowned writers such as Poe and Borges. His use of literature, in general, and the references to Borges, in particular — a Latin American (like myself) who has the gift of being able to describe the emotional world beautifully without a tedious psychoanalytical vocabulary — are especially appealing. Literature, poetry, and the arts, in general, as Freud frequently said, often provide us with metaphors or elements of dreams that enable us to represent, name, and signify that which was once nameless or meaningless.
Right from the start, Ogden defines the psychoanalytic encounter as a “a lived emotional experience” (p. 1). In other words, it is an experience lived