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Ogden's love of language, facility with words, and concern with using language to capture the vitality of human experience are evident throughout this volume. It consists of seven previously published papers and an introductory chapter, “On the Art of Psychoanalysis.” In this first chapter we are introduced to the central idea that “the sense of aliveness or deadness of a given moment of an analytic hour” (p. 4) is an important gauge of the analytic process. Ogden puts forth his essential concern that the use of language “convey a sense of this delicate interplay of aliveness and deadness of human experience” (p. 4). In his view, finding one's own voice to communicate something authentic and alive (something human), poses a major challenge for the contemporary psychoanalyst, not only as therapist speaking to patient but as conveyer of psychoanalytic ideas by means of written words.
In the second chapter, “Analyzing Forms of Aliveness and Deadness,” Ogden proposes that all psychopathology may be seen as representing a type of limitation on the individual's capacity to feel fully alive. He gives the experience of aliveness a superordinate position in the analytic endeavor—placing it over resolution of unconscious intrapsychic conflict, symptom reduction, and self-understanding. This emphasis is reminiscent of Winnicott's preoccupation with the true and false self, with being real, and with feeling alive in one's own body and in relationships with others. I am reminded of Winnicott's (1989) fervent prayer, “Oh God! May I be alive when I die” (p. 4).