The role of imitation in the constitution of psychic reality: The contemporary psychoanalytic perspective of Thomas Ogden

Abstract

This paper intends to examine the meanings of imitation in the development of psychic reality, taking into account processes that relate to a primitive and sensory-dominated area of experience, described by Thomas Ogden as the autistic–contiguous position. Influenced by the works of Tustin, Bick, Meltzer, and Gaddini, Ogden understands imitation as a form of object relatedness associated to this mode of psychic experience. He emphasizes its role as a primitive and presymbolic mechanism that allows the subject to hold onto some aspects of the other in the absence of a consistent inner space of fantasies where they could be stored. Ogden also examines imitation from the point of view of psychopathology, stressing its role as a defense mechanism against experiences of disruption of the cohesion of the self, but by no means restricted to patients suffering from severe psychological conditions. The paper first examines Ogden's theoretical influences and how imitation may act as a condition for the emergence of an integrated self. Second, it scrutinizes imitation as a predominantly sensorial set of experiences engaged in the production of subjective changes and meanings, and draws distinctions between Ogden's and the other authors’ understanding of imitation.

Keywords:

• Thomas Ogden
• imitation
• autistic-contiguous positon
• intersubjectivity
• identification

Acknowledgements

Pedro Salem acknowledges FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) for its support by means of a Post-Doctoral scholarship at the Institute of Psychology/University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Notes

¹This paper was originally presented at the Psychic Truth and Psychic Reality Conference, organized by The Psychoanalysis Unit of the University College London in association with the New Library of Psychoanalysis, December 2009.

²The philobat, in turn, expects to recuperate the state of harmonious mix-up acting in the opposite direction. He seeks a feeling of security within the primary love relation, keeping a distance and independence from the objects, relying basically on his own resources.

³It is, above all, based on the study of autistic phenomena that Meltzer devises his geographic model of the mental apparatus. He delimits the evolutive phenomenology of the mechanisms of identification based on a dimensional conception of space, where the relation of the self with the objects is examined in terms of the notion of “profoundness.” Meltzer suggests that this relation is gradually deepened, starting from a unidimensional character, until it reaches a tetradimensional one. The experience in the unidimensional domain would pertain to the manifestations of autism, characterized by a series of punctiform events suspended in space. The bidimensionality qualifies an object relation in which the self and the object acquire a certain value, but maintain an interaction based on their “superficial and sensual” qualities. The adhesive identification reflects this mode of object relation in which it still does not include the dimension of an inner space, as much in itself as in the others. It is only on the basis of the tridimensional relations that the individual becomes capable of conceiving the idea that the objects possess an interior space and that they can, therefore, function as a container for the individual's mental content. Finally, via internalization, the individual would conquer the capacity to contain his own mental states, as well as those of others.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pedro Salem

Pedro Salem, PhD, is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychology/University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is an aspirant member of the Círculo Psicanalítico do Rio de Janeiro (IFPS) and author of the book Do Luxo ao Fardo: um estudo histórico sobre o tédio (2004)

Nelson Coelho

Nelson Ernesto Coelho, Jr., PhD, psychoanalyst, is professor and researcher at the Institute of Psychology at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and has published papers in the scientific journals Culture & Psychology, Revista Brasileira de Psicanálise, and Terapia Psicológica (Chile)