The empty couch: Love and mourning in times of confinement.
Int J Psychoanal
; 102(1): 16-30, 2021 02.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1142543
ABSTRACT
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.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Psychoanalytic Therapy
/
Grief
/
Telemedicine
/
Physical Distancing
/
COVID-19
/
Love
/
Mental Disorders
Type of study:
Case report
/
Observational study
/
Qualitative research
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Int J Psychoanal
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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