Thomas Ogden, MD, 2012

Thomas Ogden’s contributions to psychoanalysis have spanned a wide range of subjects including: his introduction of the concept of “the analytic third”; his use of reverie in psychoanalysis; a revised conception of aspects of analytic technique, including the fundamental rule, the use of the couch, and dream analysis; the concept of an “autistic-contiguous position”; his revisions of the analytic understanding of the male and female Oedipus complex; his unique perspective on the use of language in psychoanalysis; his approach to the psychoanalysis of schizophrenic patients; his understanding of the relationship between psychoanalysis and literature; and his creative readings of seminal works by major contributors to twentieth century psychoanalysis.

He has published ten books on psychoanalytic theory and practice, the most recent of which are Creative Readings: Essays on Seminal Analytic Works; Rediscovering Psychoanalysis: Thinking and Dreaming, Learning and Forgetting; This Art of Psychoanalysis: Dreaming Undreamt Dreams and Interrupted Cries; Reverie and Interpretation: Sensing Something Human; Subjects of Analysis; and The Primitive Edge of Experience. His forthcoming book, The Analyst’s Ear and the Critic’s Eye: Rethinking Psychoanalysis and Literature, is in press. His work has been published in nineteen languages.

Dr. Ogden is a Supervising and Personal Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California and a member of the faculty of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. He has served on the editorial boards of a number of major psychoanalytic journals including the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. He teaches, practices and supervises in San Francisco.

Thomas Ogden was awarded the 2004 International Journal of Psychoanalysis Award for the “Most Important Paper of the Year” and the 2010 Haskell Norman Prize, an international award for “Outstanding Achievement in Psychoanalysis.”