Thomas Ogden: A Contemporary Introduction

Thomas Ogden: A Contemporary Introduction is the first book to gather and analyse Ogden’s significant contributions to contemporary psychoanalytic thinking.

The book meticulously unpacks Ogden’s key concepts including the analytic third, reverie, undreamt dreams, and the music of language, demonstrating how these ideas have fundamentally altered contemporary psychoanalytic practice. Through Ofrit Shapira-Berman’s detailed analysis of his writings and clinical approach, readers gain practical insights into implementing Ogden’s methods while understanding the philosophical underpinnings of his work. Paying close attention to his ontological perspective, Shapira-Berman considers Ogden’s unique integration of literary sensibility with clinical wisdom to offer practitioners new ways to engage with patients beyond traditional interpretive frameworks.

Part of the Routledge Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis series, this concise and informative book is essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists seeking to deepen their therapeutic practice. Graduate students and researchers in psychoanalytic theory will find it an invaluable resource for understanding one of the field’s most influential contemporary thinkers.

Ofrit Shapira-Berman is a psychoanalyst working in private practice in Tel-Aviv, Israel, a Training analyst at the Tel-Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and professor at the Hebrew University. She is the author of Psychoanalysis and Maternal Absence: From the Traumatic to Faith and Trust (2022).