Why Read Ogden? the Importance of Thomas Ogden’s Work for Contemporary Psychoanalysis

Why Read Ogden? explores the importance of Thomas Ogden’s work to contemporary psychoanalysis, both as an interpreter of classic psychoanalytic thinkers and as a new and original theorist and clinician in his own right.

Ogden writes about the literary genre of psychoanalytic writing, emphasising the amalgamation of theoretical and clinical writing with the author’s personality. Ogden also considers psychoanalytic writing a form of thinking: We do not write what we think, but we are thinking something unprecedented in writing. Inspired by Ogden’s proposal of a transitive and creative reading, which the authors show him to demonstrate in his own writing about Freud, Klein, Bion and Winnicott, this book takes as its organising principle the question of how Ogden’s texts resonate with them personally. Ogden is regarded as one of the most important and influential living psychoanalysts, and this book addresses the lack of attention given to summarising and examining his key contributions.

This book will be essential reading for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, in practice and in training, who wish to gain a comprehensive understanding of Ogden’s work.

Marina F. R. Ribeiro, PhD, is a psychoanalyst, associate professor and research supervisor and advisor for master’s and PhD students in the Clinical Psychology Postgraduate Program at the University of São Paulo. She is also the author of several books and papers and most recently co-authored Reading Bion’s Transformation (2024).