ABSTRACT
The Japanese psychiatrist, Zen practitioner, and student of Karen Horney, Akihisa Kondo's overlooked work on intuition will serve as an entry point for the ensuing discussion. From the common ground shared by this diverse group of thinkers, total exertion comes into focus as the action that facilitates the awareness of the evolution or ongoing operation of intuition. The chapter explores total exertion in terms Dogen's notion of "sensing" and Wilfred Bion's explication of intuition of "O" derived out of dreaming the analytic session along with the patient as the primary tool of the psychoanalyst. Bion distinguishes O from what he notes as knowledge (K). For Bion, O is the reality of life prior to definition, prior to the intrusion of K. One need to be aware of the tendency to be led around by definitions rather than using them as secondary tools that facilitate working with the primary experience of the total exertion of O evolutions known through intuition.
