The notion of the setting and the extinction drive

The author describes the analysis of a woman patient in the absence of the analytic setting during the long period of confinement due to Covid-19. Bleger's distinctions between the analytic process and the frame are explored in this context, and Green's formulation on the function of the framing structure in the construction and elaboration of phantasy life, as well the function of the hallucinatory wish fulfilment in the movement towards symbolization. The production of a sculpture during this time is on the pathway towards the elaboration of the work of mourning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) Abstract (French) L'auteur decrit l'analyse d'une patiente, par telephone, dans le contexte du confinement du a la Covid-19, alors que la dimension physique du cadre analytique est absente. Elle interroge la theorie de Bleger et sa distinction entre cadre et processus analytiques ainsi que celle de Green sur la fonction de la structure encadrante et la fonction de l'accomplissement hallucinatoire de souhait dans le mouvement vers la symbolisation. La production d'une sculpture pendant l'analyse amorce l'elaboration d'un travail de deuil. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Loss and Survival: Experiences of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists Working Remotely During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper presents the findings of a research project that explored the experiences of psychoanalytic psychotherapists based in the UK during the first period of lockdown in the COVID 19 pandemic. Groups of therapists met regularly to share and reflect on the impact of the sudden changes to their practice, and this paper pulls together the key themes which emerged from these discussions. The overarching preoccupations of the psychotherapists were those of loss and survival, with sub-themes of difficulty holding the frame;reduced security and safety;challenged analytic technique;and altered relationship dynamics. The groups were highly valued by participants as offering support during times of unprecedented stress, while also providing a forum to learn from and make creative use of the challenges presented by working remotely. Copyright © 2022 The Authors. British Journal of Psychotherapy published by BPF and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Loss and Survival: Experiences of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists Working Remotely During the COVID‐19 Pandemic

This paper presents the findings of a research project that explored the experiences of psychoanalytic psychotherapists based in the UK during the first period of lockdown in the COVID 19 pandemic. Groups of therapists met regularly to share and reflect on the impact of the sudden changes to their practice, and this paper pulls together the key themes which emerged from these discussions. The overarching preoccupations of the psychotherapists were those of loss and survival, with sub‐themes of difficulty holding the frame;reduced security and safety;challenged analytic technique;and altered relationship dynamics. The groups were highly valued by participants as offering support during times of unprecedented stress, while also providing a forum to learn from and make creative use of the challenges presented by working remotely. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Practicing Psychoanalysis at the Intersection Of Covid-19, The Murder of George Floyd, and Trump's Presidency: Reflections from a Brown Analyst.

The author focuses on some of her experiences as the COVID-19 pandemic began and her retrospective understanding of those experiences. She describes having drawn on memories from her early life to arrive at this understanding; she discusses how this process has allowed her to move past certain countertransferential obstacles in her clinical work during the early days of the pandemic and to listen to her patients with more optimal analytic attentiveness. The author also discusses concurrent sociopolitical events, such as Donald Trump's presidency and George Floyd's murder, and how these impacted her analytic work. Illustrative clinical vignettes are presented.

Resistance and Revolution: Authority and the Analytic Situation During COVID-19.

The author discusses a process of recommending returning to in-person analysis during the period from April to October 2021, after working by phone since March 2020. Clinical excerpts from several analytic cases are presented and discussed in terms suggested by that material and other sources. Previous work on interpretive authority and on the interpretation of verbal and nonverbal material, still generally relevant to the analytic situation, is discussed as a background for integrating more specific ideas particularly relevant to this phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, including preliminary concepts of revolution and resistance, danger and opportunity, and convenience and necessity.

Making More From Less in a Corona-Encircled Analytic Frame and Situation.

The author describes how the parasitic coronavirus encircled and disrupted the analytic frame and situation, activating anxiety in both therapist and patient. A patient is described with core intimacy difficulties whose primitive anxieties manifested in him the dis-regulation of the too-far (agoraphobic), too-near (claustrophobic) intimacy dialectic. Drawing on Winnicott, the author describes how these increased dialectic tensions, when contained, created a potentially transformational transitional space that helped to enhance the patient's mental and symbolizing capacity, that is, a capacity to make more from less.

The empty couch: Love and mourning in times of confinement.

This paper describes the psychoanalytic treatment of a woman patient during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the setting was profoundly disrupted and was transferred from in-person psychoanalysis to telephone sessions. Drawing on Bleger's formulations on the construction of the analytic frame and on André Green's on the function of the framing structure in the construction and elaboration of phantasy life, the case study shows how, in the absence of the physicality of the setting, the most primitive anxieties about the symbiotic relationship with the mother were expressed and contained in the transference and countertransference in the analysis. The author offers some considerations about the notion of "background of the uncanny", derived from Yolanda Gampel, which draws attention to the challenges when both patient and analyst are inserted into the same traumatic wider context. It is suggested that the production of an art object by the patient during this period represents a step in the elaboration of the work of mourning and towards symbolization.

Stretching the Analytic Frame: Analytic Therapists' Experiences with Remote Therapy During COVID-19.

Remote therapy has been used by analytic therapists for quite some time, though many have been reluctant to use it regularly, out of concern that it might distort analytic frame and relational dynamics. Now the Covid-19 pandemic has forced therapists to make a sudden, across-the-board transition to remote therapy. This study reports on survey responses from 190 analytic therapists on their transition to online therapy via videoconferencing during the pandemic and their previous experience with remote therapy (the majority had such experience). During the pandemic they prepared themselves and their patients for the transition in a variety of ways. The majority of those surveyed reported feeling as confident and as competent in their online sessions as in their earlier in-person work. Moreover, despite technical and relational challenges, they remained as strong, emotionally connected, and authentic in their online therapy sessions as they were in person. These experiences during the pandemic led to more positive views of online therapy than they held before, but a majority still considered online therapy less effective than in-person sessions.