On Being and Knowing: A Response to Thomas Ogden’s “Ontological” Model
Abstract
This paper addresses trends in how the concept of experience is currently operating in our field. Taking Thomas Ogden’s ontological framework (2019) as a prominent example, I argue that a subtle idealization and reification of the experiential aspects of our work may shut down space for thought. Through close comparison of Ogden’s framework with those articulated by Winnicott and Bion, I will contend that the inextricability of being and knowing is central to the psychoanalytic project, and that the contemporary focus on experience, as represented by Ogden, enacts a split between the two that paradoxically makes it more difficult to attend to all that experience entails.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
Posthumanist Ethics and Activism
Publication details
- Journal / source
- The Psychoanalytic Quarterly
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Volume
- 95
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 263–288
- Publication date
- 3 April 2026
- Language
- EN