Presented by Mark Winborn, PhD

In our discussion, we’ll review some of the major ideas of Bion and Ogden that the authors reinterpret or recontextualize within field theory, bringing these ideas alive through clinical vignettes. We will also touch on Winnicott’s transformative ideas on play, Ogden’s depiction of “aliveness and deadness” in psychoanalysis, as well as his call to pursue psychoanalysis from an ontological perspective rather than an epistemological perspective, and Daniel Stern’s research on forms of vitality in infants. Time permitting, there will also be some comparison between the agenda that the authors intended for this volume and some of the parallel themes Jung was developing during the time of split from Freud and the psychoanalytic community.

Hopefully, by the end of the evening, we will all be in a subversive mood and more inclined to lean towards playing and vitality during our next forays into the playgrounds we refer to as offices or consulting rooms!