Creative Readings Thomas Ogden is internationally recognized as one of the most creative analytic thinkers writing today. In this book he brings his original analytic ideas to life by means of his own method of closely reading major analytic works. He reads watershed papers in a way that does not simply cast new and discerning light on the works he is discussing, but introduces his own thinking regarding the ideas being discussed in the texts. Ogden offers expanded understandings of some of the most fundamental concepts constituting psychoanalytic theory and practice. He does so by fi nding in each of the articles he discusses much that the author knew, but did not know that he or she knew. An example of this is how Freud, in his conception of the unconscious workings of mourning and melancholia, was providing the foundation of a theory of unconscious internal object relations. Ogden goes on to provide further re-readings of classic material from the following key contributors to contemporary psychoanalysis: • W. R. D. Fairbairn • Donald Winnicott • Wilfred Bion • Hans Loewald • Harold Searles. This book is not simply a book of readings, it is a book about reading, about how to read in a way that readers actively rewrite what they are reading, and in so doing make the ideas truly their own. The concepts that Ogden develops in his readings provide a signifi cant step in the reader’s expansion of his or her understanding of many of the ideas that lie at the cutting edge of contemporary psychoanalysis. Creative Readings will be of particular interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists who use a psychodynamic approach, as well as professionals and academics with an interest in contem- porary psychoanalysis. Thomas H. Ogden is a supervising and personal analyst at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. He has published eight books, including Rediscovering Psychoanalysis and This Art of Psychoanalysis . He 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 as a psychoanalytic clinician, teacher and theoretician”. THE NEW LIBRARY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS General Editor: Alessandra Lemma The New Library of Psychoanalysis was launched in 1987 in association with the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London. It took over from the International Psychoanalytical Library which published many of the early translations of the works of Freud and the writings of most of the leading British and Continental psychoanalysts. The purpose of the New Library of Psychoanalysis is to facilitate a greater and more widespread appreciation of psychoanalysis and to provide a forum for increasing mutual understanding between psychoanalysts and those working in other disciplines such as the social sciences, medicine, philosophy, history, linguistics, literature and the arts. It aims to represent different trends both in British psychoanalysis and in psychoanalysis generally. The New Library of Psychoanalysis is well placed to make available to the English-speaking world psychoanalytic writings from other European countries and to increase the interchange of ideas between British and American psychoanalysts. Through the T eaching Series, the New Library of Psychoanalysis now also publishes books that provide comprehensive, yet accessible, overviews of selected subject areas aimed at those studying psychoanalysis and related fi elds such as the social sciences, philosophy, literature and the arts. The Institute, together with the British Psychoanalytical Society, runs a low-fee psychoanalytic clinic, organizes lectures and scientifi c events concerned with psychoanalysis and publishes the I nternational Journal of Psychoanalysis . It runs a training course in psychoanalysis which leads to membership of the International Psychoanalytical Association – the body which preserves interna- tionally agreed standards of training, of professional entry, and of professional ethics and practice for psychoanalysis as initiated and developed by Sigmund Freud. Distinguished members of the Institute have included Michael Balint, Wilfred Bion, Ronald Fairbairn, Anna Freud, Ernest Jones, Melanie Klein, John Rickman and Donald Winnicott. Previous General Editors include Dana Birksted-Breen, David Tuckett, Elizabeth Spillius and Susan Budd. Current Members of the Advisory Board include Liz Allison, Giovanna di Ceglie, Rosemary Davies and Richard Rusbridger. Previous Members of the Advisory Board include Christopher Bollas, Ronald Britton, Catalina Bronstein, Donald Campbell, Sara Flanders, Stephen Grosz, John Keene, Eglé Laufer, Alessandra Lemma, Juliet Mitchell, Michael Parsons, Rosine Jozef Perelberg, Mary Target and David Taylor. ALSO IN THIS SERIES Impasse and Interpretation Herbert Rosenfeld Psychoanalysis and Discourse Patrick Mahony The Suppressed Madness of Sane Men Marion Milner The Riddle of Freud Estelle Roith Thinking, Feeling, and Being Ignacio Matte-Blanco The Theatre of the Dream Salomon Resnik Melanie Klein Today: Volume 1, Mainly Theory Edited by Elizabeth Bott Spillius Melanie Klein Today: Volume 2, Mainly Practice Edited by Elizabeth Bott Spillius Psychic Equilibrium and Psychic Change: Selected Papers of Betty Joseph Edited by Michael Feldman and Elizabeth Bott Spillius About Children and Children-No-Longer: Collected Papers 1942–80 Paula Heimann. Edited by Margret Tonnesmann The Freud–Klein Controversies 1941–45 Edited by Pearl King and Riccardo Steiner Dream, Phantasy and Art Hanna Segal Psychic Experience and Problems of Technique Harold Stewart Clinical Lectures on Klein and Bion Edited by Robin Anderson From Fetus to Child Alessandra Piontelli A Psychoanalytic Theory of Infantile Experience: Conceptual and Clinical Refl ections E. Gaddini. Edited by Adam Limentani The Dream Discourse Today Edited and introduced by Sara Flanders The Gender Conundrum: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Feminitity and Masculinity Edited and introduced by Dana Birksted-Breen Psychic Retreats John Steiner The Taming of Solitude: Separation Anxiety in Psychoanalysis Jean-Michel Quinodoz Unconscious Logic: An Introduction to Matte-Blanco’s Bi-logic and its Uses Eric Rayner Understanding Mental Objects Meir Perlow Life, Sex and Death: Selected Writings of William Gillespie Edited and introduced by Michael Sinason What Do Psychoanalysts Want? The Problem of Aims in Psychoanalytic Therapy Joseph Sandler and Anna Ursula Dreher Michael Balint: Object Relations, Pure and Applied Harold Stewart Hope: A Shield in the Economy of Borderline States Anna Potamianou Psychoanalysis, Literature and War: Papers 1972–1995 Hanna Segal Emotional Vertigo: Between Anxiety and Pleasure Danielle Quinodoz Early Freud and Late Freud Ilse Grubrich-Simitis A History of Child Psychoanalysis Claudine and Pierre Geissmann Belief and Imagination: Explorations in Psychoanalysis Ronald Britton A Mind of One’s Own: A Kleinian View of Self and Object Robert A. Caper Psychoanalytic Understanding of Violence and Suicide Edited by Rosine Jozef Perelberg On Bearing Unbearable States of Mind Ruth Riesenberg-Malcolm. Edited by Priscilla Roth Psychoanalysis on the Move: The Work of Joseph Sandler Edited by Peter Fonagy, Arnold M. Cooper and Robert S. Wallerstein The Dead Mother: The Work of André Green Edited by Gregorio Kohon The Fabric of Affect in the Psychoanalytic Discourse André Green The Bi-Personal Field: Experiences of Child Analysis Antonino Ferro The Dove that Returns, the Dove that Vanishes: Paradox and Creativity in Psychoanalysis Michael Parsons Ordinary People, Extra-ordinary Protections: A Post-Kleinian Approach to the Treatment of Primitive Mental States Judith Mitrani The Violence of Interpretation: From Pictogram to Statement Piera Aulagnier The Importance of Fathers: A Psychoanalytic Re-Evaluation Judith Trowell and Alicia Etchegoyen Dreams That Turn Over a Page: Paradoxical Dreams in Psychoanalysis Jean-Michel Quinodoz The Couch and the Silver Screen: Psychoanalytic Refl ections on European Cinema Edited and introduced by Andrea Sabbadini In Pursuit of Psychic Change: The Betty Joseph Workshop Edited by Edith Hargreaves and Arturo Varchevker The Quiet Revolution in American Psychoanalysis: Selected Papers of Arnold M. Cooper Arnold M. Cooper. Edited and introduced by Elizabeth L. Auchincloss Seeds of Illness and Seeds of Recovery: The Genesis of Suffering and the Role of Psychoanalysis Antonino Ferro The Work of Psychic Figurability: Mental States Without Representation César Botella and Sára Botella Key Ideas for a Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Misrecognition and Recognition of the Unconscious André Green The Telescoping of Generations: Listening to the Narcissistic Links Between Generations Haydée Faimberg Glacial Times: A Journey Through the World of Madness Salomon Resnik This Art of Psychoanalysis: Dreaming Undreamt Dreams and Interrupted Cries Thomas H. Ogden Psychoanalysis as Therapy and Storytelling Antonino Ferro Psychoanalysis and Religion in the 21st Century: Competitors or Collaborators? Edited by David M. Black Recovery of the Lost Good Object Eric Brenman. Edited and introduced by Gigliola Fornari Spoto The Many Voices of Psychoanalysis Roger Kennedy Feeling the Words: Neuropsychoanalytic Understanding of Memory and the Unconscious Mauro Mancia Projected Shadows: Psychoanalytic Refl ections on the Representation of Loss in European Cinema Edited by Andrea Sabbadini Encounters with Melanie Klein: Selected Papers of Elizabeth Spillius Elizabeth Spillius. Edited by Priscilla Roth and Richard Rusbridger Constructions and the Analytic Field: History, Scenes and Destiny Domenico Chianese Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Hanna Segal. Edited by Nicola Abel-Hirsch Psychoanalysis Comparable and Incomparable: The Evolution of a Method to Describe and Compare Psychoanalytic Approaches David Tuckett, Roberto Basile, Dana Birksted-Breen, Tomas Böhm, Paul Denis, Antonino Ferro, Helmut Hinz, Arne Jemstedt, Paola Mariotti and Johan Schubert Time, Space and Phantasy Rosine Jozef Perelberg Rediscovering Psychoanalysis: Thinking and Dreaming, Learning and Forgetting Thomas H. Ogden Mind Works: Technique and Creativity in Psychoanalysis Antonino Ferro Doubt, Conviction and the Analytic Process: Selected Papers of Michael Feldman Michael Feldman. Edited by Betty Joseph Melanie Klein in Berlin: Her First Psychoanalysis of Children Claudia Frank. Edited by Elizabeth Spillius The Psychotic Wavelength: A Psychoanalytic Perspective for Psychiatry Richard Lucas Betweenity: A Discussion of the Concept of Borderline Judy Gammelgaard The Intimate Room: Theory and Technique of the Analytic Field Giuseppe Civitarese Bion Today Edited by Chris Mawson Secret Passages: The Theory and Technique of Interpsychic Relations Stefano Bolognini Intersubjective Processes and the Unconscious: An Integration of Freudian, Kleinian and Bionian Perspectives Lawrence J. Brown Seeing and Being Seen: Emerging from a Psychic Retreat John Steiner Avoiding Emotions, Living Emotions Antonino Ferro Projective Identifi cation: The Fate of a Concept Edited by Elizabeth Spillius and Edna O’Shaughnessy The Maternal Lineage Edited by Paolo Mariotti Insight: Essays on Psychoanalytic Knowing Jorge L. Ahamada Creative Readings: Essays on Seminal Analytic Works Thomas H. Ogden TITLES IN THE NEW LIBRARY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS TEACHING SERIES Reading Freud: A Chronological Exploration of Freud’s Writings Jean-Michel Quinodoz Listening to Hanna Segal: Her Contribution to Psychoanalysis Jean-Michel Quinodoz Reading French Psychoanalysis Edited by Dana Birksted-Breen, Sara Flanders and Alain Gibeault Reading Winnicott Edited by Lesley Caldwell and Angela Joyce Initiating Psychoanalysis: Perspectives Edited by Bernard Reith, Sven Lagerlöf, Penelope Crick, Mette Møller and Elisabeth Skale Creative Readings Essays on Seminal Analytic Works Thomas H. Ogden First published 2012 by Routledge 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa Business © Thomas H. Ogden 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Ogden, Thomas H. Creative readings : essays on seminal analytic works / Thomas Ogden. p. cm.—(New library of psychoanalysis) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-415-69832-0 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-415-69833-7 (paperback) 1. Psychoanalysis. I. Title. RC506.O33 2013 616.8917—dc23 2011036755 ISBN: 978-0-415-69832-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-69833-7 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-12529-8 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Paperback cover design by Sandra Heath To my patients who, each in their own way, have taught me what is possible when two people put their all into talking truthfully to one another