What Alive Means

'It is no exaggeration to say that Ogden has pioneered a new pathway in psychoanalysis and has ingeniously created fresh paradigms without becoming mired in new orthodoxies. Instead, Ogden has consistently offered new perspectives: transitioning from a psychoanalysis that decodes to a psychoanalysis engaged in inventing, dreaming, and playing. In this book, Ogden continually shifts from a psychoanalysis that interprets to one that opens up fresh, surprising possibilities. His works read like stories. Personal experiences unfold and link in ways akin to dreams, tales, impossible puzzles, all of which stand in playful, creative relationships with one another.' Antonino Ferro, MD, recipient of the 2007 Sigourney Award and co-author of The New Analyst’s Guide to the Galaxy 'Thomas Ogden has written an extraordinary book in which he describes the way that the analyst must invent psychoanalysis with each patient otherwise the analysis becomes impersonal and ineffective. This idea is long overdue. In lucid writing, Ogden illustrates the ways in which he works differently with each of his patients to create a form of psychoanalysis that facilitates the patient’s making psychic changes required for him or her to become a fuller person. This book is a tour de force from which the reader is richly rewarded for the time he or she spends reading it.' Glen O. Gabbard, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston