Ontological Psychoanalysis in Clinical Practice

Abstract

The author describes and then clinically illustrates what he terms the ontological dimension of psychoanalysis (having to do with coming into being) and the epistemological dimension of psychoanalysis (having to do with coming to know and understand). Neither of these dimensions of psychoanalysis exists in pure form; they are inextricably intertwined. Epistemological psychoanalysis, for which Freud and Klein are the principal architects, involves the work of arriving at understandings of play, dreams, and associations; while ontological psychoanalysis, for which Winnicott and Bion are the principal architects, involves creating conditions in which the patient might become more fully alive and real to him- or herself. The author provides clinical illustrations of the ontological dimension of psychoanalysis in which the process of the patient’s coming more fully into being is facilitated by the experiences in which the patient feels recognized for the individual he is and is becoming. This occurs in an analysis in which the analyst and patient invent a form of psychoanalysis that is uniquely their own.

Keywords:

• Ontological psychoanalysis
• epistemological psychoanalysis
• aliveness
• realness
• recognized

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

DISCLAIMER

Potentially personally identifying information presented in this article that relates directly or indirectly to an individual, or individuals, has been changed to disguise and safeguard the confidentiality, privacy and data protection rights of those concerned, in accordance with the journal’s anonymization policy https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/upaq20.

Notes

1 Freud [1926] asked that das Is and das Ech be translated as “simple pronouns” (“das Es and das Ich,” the I and the it) to describe our two agencies or provinces instead of giving them orotund Greek names” (p. 195).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas H. Ogden

Thomas H. Ogden is Supervising and Personal Analyst at Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California.