Living, dreaming, and thinking about emotional experiences: The process of psychic elaboration

The work of psychic elaboration that fosters mental development implies contact with emotional experiences, as well as the ability to dream of them in the sense proposed by Bion: thinking about them and being able to experience them instead of just knowing about them. The resulting psychic maturation takes place in discontinuous leaps through changes in the way individuals feel and conceive of themselves and others. In the analytic relationship, this entire process is experienced and worked on by the pair, in an asymmetric way. Two clinical situations and the therapeutic transformations that occurred are reported, one of them with online therapy during the Covid-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Portuguese) O trabalho de elaboragao psiquica propiciador do desenvolvimento mental implica o contato com experiencias emocionais, assim como a capacidade de sonha-las no sentido que Bion da a esse termo, de pensa-las e, alem disso, de poder vivencia-las ao inves de apenas conhece-las. A maturagao psiquica resultante ocorre em saltos descontinuos atraves de mudangas na forma do individuo sentir e conceber a si mesmo e aos outros. Na relagao analftica, todo esse processo e vivenciado e trabalhado pelo par, de forma assimetrica. Sao relatadas duas situagoes clinicas e as transformagoes terapeuticas ocorridas, uma delas com atendimento on-line durante a pandemia da Covid-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Spanish) El trabajo de elaboration psiquica que propicia el desarrollo mental implica el contacto con las experiencias emocionales, asi como la capacidad de sonarlas en el sentido que le da Bion a este termino, de pensarlas y, ademas, de poder vivirlas en lugar de solo conocerlas. La maduracion psiquica resultante tiene lugar en saltos discontinuos a traves de cambios en la forma en que el individuo siente y se concibe a si mismo y a los otros. En la relation analitica, todo este proceso es vivenciado y trabajado por la pareja, de forma asimetrica. Se reportan dos situaciones clinicas y los cambios terapeuticos ocurridos, una de ellas con asistencia en linea durante la pandemia Covid-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Emotional cycles and collective action: Global crises and the World Social Forum

As the world suffers the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, global justice activists pursue political solutions to its devastating consequences especially on the weakest sections of the world's population. I analyse activists' responses to the 2008 financial crisis to reflect on how collective action is impacted by social crises. The global justice movement and the financial sector face recurring, intertwined, and inversely related cycles of exuberance and crash. I find that, on the one hand, the prevalence and intensity of recurring crises in large transnational collective actors depend on factors including their prevalent emotional dynamics, their dispositions towards their objectives, and their ability to gauge external reality. On the other hand, differential outcomes of crises in groups are accounted for by the capacity to mourn the losses suffered, as opposed to the denial of responsibility and the externalisation of blame. I analyse these emotional dynamics through psychoanalytic lenses to provide a contribution to the literature on the cycles of collective action and, more broadly, to the study of political action and social change.

Comparing Bion's Container-Contained Relationship with Aspects of Containment in the Collective Unconscious

The psychodynamic therapist is both aware of and open to phenomena arising in their relationship with the patient. This paper compares two different phenomena and expands on how processing these phenomena aids the therapeutic pair: Bion's container-contained relationship and Jung's concept of the collective unconscious, which could be thought of as containing the therapeutic relationship. The two concepts will be described and elucidated using a clinical example of a therapist's dream from the collective unconscious following sudden termination in therapy. This supports a synthesis of the two concepts in a developmental context and within the wider scholarship of both thinkers. Finally, their relationships to embodied processes will be explored. Copyright © 2022 BPF and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Living, dreaming, and thinking about emotional experiences: The process of psychic elaboration

(Portuguese) O trabalho de elaboragao psiquica propiciador do desenvolvimento mental implica o contato com experiencias emocionais, assim como a capacidade de sonha-las no sentido que Bion da a esse termo, de pensa-las e, alem disso, de poder vivencia-las ao inves de apenas conhece-las. A maturagao psiquica resultante ocorre em saltos descontinuos atraves de mudangas na forma do individuo sentir e conceber a si mesmo e aos outros. Na relagao analftica, todo esse processo e vivenciado e trabalhado pelo par, de forma assimetrica. Sao relatadas duas situagoes clinicas e as transformagoes terapeuticas ocorridas, uma delas com atendimento on-line durante a pandemia da Covid-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Spanish) El trabajo de elaboration psiquica que propicia el desarrollo mental implica el contacto con las experiencias emocionales, asi como la capacidad de sonarlas en el sentido que le da Bion a este termino, de pensarlas y, ademas, de poder vivirlas en lugar de solo conocerlas. La maduracion psiquica resultante tiene lugar en saltos discontinuos a traves de cambios en la forma en que el individuo siente y se concibe a si mismo y a los otros. En la relation analitica, todo este proceso es vivenciado y trabajado por la pareja, de forma asimetrica. Se reportan dos situaciones clinicas y los cambios terapeuticos ocurridos, una de ellas con asistencia en linea durante la pandemia Covid-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Back to the future: when children and adolescents return to office sessions following episodes of teletherapy.

Analysts and psychotherapists are beginning to have more thorough and probing discussions about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their work. Shifting to online teletherapy has been necessary due to the public health measures put in place to curtail the spread of the virus. Much of the existing literature addresses how using online platforms for teletherapy works for adults. This paper instead looks at its effects on working with children and adolescents. A contrast between Winnicott's notion of holding and Bion's concept of container-contained is reviewed through a summary of a paper by Ogden. This author finds that holding might be more applicable to online work during a pandemic when the collective relationship to time and its usual parameters is severely upended. Containing could be more arduous and challenging online due to the lack of embodied presence to communicate and detect tiny nonverbal cues. A short questionnaire affirms that child analysts and psychotherapists have struggled with dimensions of online work that are particular to the developmental levels of their patients. Further, teletherapy may often not be a good fit for someone with learning differences.

Les analystes et les psychothérapeutes commencent à avoir des discussions plus profondes et plus pointues sur comment la pandémie de COVID-19 a affecté leur travail. Passer à la thérapie en ligne a été nécessaire du fait des mesures de santé publique mises en place pour freiner l'avancée du virus. La majeure partie de la littérature s'intéresse à comment l'utilisation des plateformes en ligne pour la psychothérapie a fonctionné pour les adultes. Par contraste, cet article se penche sur les effets dans le travail avec les enfants et les adolescents. A travers un résumé d'un article d'Ogden, un contraste entre la notion de « holding ¼ de Winnicott et le concept de contenant-contenu de Bion est examiné. L'auteur soutient que la notion de holding serait plus adaptée au travail en ligne durant une pandémie, quand la relation collective au temps et à ses paramètres habituels est gravement perturbée. La contenance (Bion) pourrait s'avérer plus délicate et plus laborieuse en ligne du fait du manque de présence incarnée pour détecter et communiquer les signes non-verbaux. Un court questionnaire confirme que les analystes d'enfants et les psychothérapeutes ont eu du mal avec les aspects du travail en ligne qui se rapportent aux niveaux de développement de leurs patients. De plus, la télé-thérapie peut souvent ne pas être adaptée pour quelqu'un qui présente des différences d'apprentissages.

Analistas y psicoterapeutas están comenzando a tener discusiones más minuciosas y agudas sobre cómo la pandemia por el COVID-19 ha afectado su trabajo. El cambio a la terapia virtual ha sido necesario debido a las medidas de salud pública tomadas para reducir la propagación del virus. Gran parte de la literatura existente da cuenta de como el uso de plataformas para la terapia virtual funciona para los adultos. El presente trabajo en cambio, presta atención a los efectos en el trabajo con niños y adolescentes. Se revisa a través de un trabajo de Ogden, el contraste entre la noción de sostenimiento de Winnicott y el concepto de contenedor-contenido de Bion. Este autor encuentra que el sostenimiento puede aplicarse más al trabajo online durante una pandemia cuando la relación del colectivo con el tiempo y sus parámetros usuales es severamente trastocada. La contención podría ser más ardua y desafiante de manera online debido a la falta de una presencia corporal que comunique y permita detectar pequeñas señales no-verbales. Un breve cuestionario afirma que analistas y psicoterapeutas de niños han luchado con aquellas dimensiones del trabajo online propias del nivel de desarrollo de sus pacientes. Además, la terapia virtual puede a menudo no ser una buena opción para alguien con diferencias en el aprendizaje.

CONTAGION, THE BRAZILIAN WAY

The disastrous management of COVID-19 in Brazil has led to over 600,000 deaths. The main reason for this tragedy has been the negationist attitude of President Jair Bolsonaro, aggravating an already precarious political and economic situation. This paper describes these conditions, recalls how the federal government boycotted a consistent fight against the virus, quotes a number of the President’s declarations about the virus, and suggests some hypotheses to explain his persistent negationist attitude. The author offers a psychoanalytic interpretation of Brazilian attitudes toward the pandemic, which have somewhat changed since the rollout of a massive vaccination campaign. For the author, this change occurred (at least partly) because the sensation of safety induced by the campaign’s success offered a better container for collective anxieties that were formerly dealt with through archaic defense mechanisms. This substitution, he argues, led to dynamic advantages concerning citizens’ psychic economy. Seeking independent support for this view, he examines contributions from other psychoanalysts on the subject, and discusses the results of a University of California study aimed at leading anti-vaxxers to change their position. © 2022 Boeck Universite. All rights reserved.

Bound by Infinities: Technology, Immediacy and Our Environmental Crisis.

This paper explores the relationship between human desire, technology, and imagination, emphasizing (1) the phenomenology of this relationship, and (2) its ontological and ecological ramifications. Drawing on the work of Bion and Winnicott, the paper will develop a psychoanalytic container for attitudes contributing to our current climate-based crisis, paying special attention to the problematic effect technology has had on our sense of time and place. Many of our technologies stunt sensuous engagement, collapse psychic space, diminish our capacity to tolerate frustration, and blind us to our dependence on worlds beyond the human. In short, our technologies trouble our relationship to our bodies and other bodies. The paper argues that omnipotent fantasies organizing our relationship to technology, to each other, and to the nonhuman world, have cocooned us in a kind of virtual reality that devastates a sense of deep obligation to the environment.

Adolescents coping with the COVID-19 pandemic: 'every day is like another Sunday'.

COVID-19 has upended the way analysts and psychotherapists practice. Many use the phone for their sessions, many are using video platforms, and many use a combination of the two. Work with adolescents is very challenging in this new modality because of the loss of in-person connection and immediate non-verbal cues. The public health restrictions put in place to manage COVID-19 spread are at odds with the adolescent tasks of adventuring, experimenting and gaining new experiences. In addition, increased anxieties about infection, contamination and invasion are often manifest and adolescents can regress in the face of them. Using seminal ideas from Bion, this article looks at two process examples from adolescent boys who struggled with parts of themselves that felt disturbing and unacceptable. The author discusses the clinical exchanges in detail and offers ideas about the difficulty of creating psychic space when working virtually.

La COVID-19 a bouleversé la manière dont les analystes et les psychothérapeutes travaillent. Beaucoup font des séances par téléphone, beaucoup utilisent des plateformes vidéo et beaucoup combinent les deux. Le travail avec les adolescents est rendu très délicat par ces nouvelles modalités du fait de la perte du lien en personne et des indices non-verbaux dans l'immédiateté. Les restrictions de santé publique mises en place pour contenir la diffusion de la COVID-19 vont dans la direction opposée des tâches qui incombent à l'adolescent: s'aventurer, expérimenter, acquérir de nouvelles expériences. De plus, on observe souvent des angoisses accrues concernant l'infection, la contamination et l'intrusion, ce qui peut amener les adolescents à régresser. Utilisant des idées fondamentales de Bion, cet article étudie deux exemples de processus chez des adolescents garçons qui sont en difficultés avec des parties d'eux-mêmes qu'ils ressentent comme dérangeantes et inacceptables. L'auteur revient en détail sur les échanges cliniques et propose des idées sur la difficulté à créer un espace psychique quand on travaille de manière virtuelle.

El COVID-19 ha trastocado el modo de hacer clínica de analistas y psicoterapeutas. Muchos utilizan el teléfono para sus sesiones, muchos están usando plataformas de video, y muchos una combinación de ambas cosas. El trabajo con adolescentes es muy desafiante en esta nueva modalidad debido a la pérdida de la conexión personal y de las señales no-verbales inmediatas. Las restricciones implementadas por la salud pública para manejar los contagios del COVID-19 se encuentran en conflicto con las tareas adolescentes de aventurarse, experimentar y ganar nuevas experiencias. A su vez, se manifiesta a menudo un incremento de las ansiedades vinculadas a la infección, contaminación e invasión, frente a lo cual, los adolescentes pueden mostrar una regresión. Utilizando ideas seminales de Bion, el presente artículo mira el proceso de dos adolescentes varones, quienes luchan con partes de sí mismos que sienten como perturbadoras e inaceptables. El autor analiza en detalle los intercambios clínicos y ofrece ideas sobre la dificultad de crear espacio psíquico al trabajar virtualmente.

A Psychiatric Residency in the Era of COVID-19: A Bionian Perspective.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently ravaging health systems across the world. Psychiatric trainees are at risk of exposure to patients with COVID-19 given their clinical roles in emergency and inpatient psychiatric settings. This article represents a case study of group dynamics in which we reflect on our own experience as psychiatric residents at a Boston-area hospital system in the era of COVID-19 and apply Wilfred Bion's concepts of the "work group" and the "basic assumption group" processes of group operation. We assess dynamics between trainees and administrative leadership both at baseline and in the current pandemic. Since navigation through crises is more effective if group leadership recognizes and responds to basic assumption behaviors, we propose suggestions to enable health system administration to successfully lead health care organizations through periods of societal turmoil. We posit that these principles apply across settings, specialties, and provider types. In addition, we use our observations to indicate future directions for expanding Bion's theories in the contemporary context.