The Place from Which We Know: A Response to the “Ontological” Turn in Psychoanalysis

This presentation addresses the recent shift towards was has been termed an “ontological” approach to psychoanalysis (Ogden 2019), in which experiencing and becoming oneself more fully are seen as the goals of treatment, with the generation of knowledge taking a back seat. Through a close reading of Bion and Winnicott it argues against the dichotomization of knowing and being that is often implicit in this framework. Rather than privileging one over the other, it proposes that both Bion and Winnicott view knowing is inextricably bound up with being, given the object psychoanalysis is attempting to know and to reach. This has consequences for how we work, and helps protect against the idealization of experiencing and other trends than can arise within the “ontological” analysis literature. Clinical vignettes are used to illustrate.