Psychoanalysis and Covidian Life

Sixteen leading psychoanalysts reflect on the impact of the global pandemic that has changed all of our lives.

Showcasing a diverse range of contributions from psychoanalysts of many different countries and theoretical orientations, Psychoanalysis and Covidian Life, a collective work edited by Howard B. Levine and Ana de Staal, offers readers the opportunity to explore and reflect upon the ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic has begun to influence analytical practice. From the changes imposed on the framework (online sessions) to the impact of the trauma of isolation and the disruption of our social anchoring (required by confinement and health protection gestures), to the challenge presented to the ‘ordinary’ denial of mortality, this book explores the lessons of what the pandemic can teach us about how to understand and treat collective distress individually and puts psychoanalytical tools to the test of the profound psychosocial upheavals that the twenty-first century may hold in store. This book will be of interest to practising and trainee clinicians and anyone with an interest in the all-consuming effects of a global pandemic. Contributions from Christopher Bollas, Patricia Cardoso de Mello, Bernard Chervet, Joshua Durban, Antonino Ferro, Serge Frisch, Steven Jaron, Daniel Kupermann, Howard Levine, Francois Levy, Riccardo Lombardi, Elias & Alberto Rocha Barros, Michael Rustin, Ana de Staal, and Jean-Jacques Tyszler.

Acknowledgements About the editors and contributors Editors' note Part I The background scene/the context 1. Civilization and the discontented 2. The coronavirus pandemic and its meanings Part II Living and thinking in pandemic times 3. The shattering of a denial as food for thought 4. Landscapes of mental life under Covid-19 5. Catastrophe and its vicissitudes: denial and the vitalising effect of "good air" Part III The setting under pressure 6. Being online: what does it mean for psychoanalysis? 7. The burnt compartment. Or: Psychoanalysis without a couch 8. Individual distress, institutional distress Part IV Reconfigurations and changes in practice 9. Body and soul in remote analysis: anguished countertransference, pandemic panic, and space-time limits 10. A short circuit in the analytical process 11. Beyond the all-traumatic: narrative imagination and new temporalities in the analytic session Part V Clinical journals 12. Katabasis, anabasis: working in a post-ICU Covid-19 unit in a public hospital 13. Where does the psychoanalyst live? The online setting in the psychoanalysis of a three-year-old girl on the autistic spectrum 14. Where does the Covid live? Osmotic/diffuse anxieties, isolation, and containment in times of the plague Part VI Conclusion 15. Covidian life Index,

Acknowledgements

• Edited by Howard B. Levine
• Edited by Ana de Staal

'Its editor cautions it is too soon to draw firm conclusions on the impact of the pandemic on the practice of therapy. Yet this collection of 15 essays … succeeds in its aim of providing some useful observations, ideas, and experiences.'

— Duncan Barford, psychodynamic counsellor, SCAP no. 141 (Summer 2021) sussex-counselling.co.uk

'it is in demonstrating the resilience of the analytic frame and the value of psychoanalytic tools in illuminating the structure of our most personal fears that this book proves its unique worth. […] A fascinating read.'

— Jane Cooper, former senior counsellor at the University of of Cambridge – Therapy Today Nov 2021

I think this book would be of interest to anyone working in the psychotherapeutic professions, who wishes to reflect on the multiple challenges of working and being over the past two years. It is a stimulating read for anyone who can resist the lure of amnesia now that the pandemic seems to be becoming endemic.

— Helen Lowe, registered member of BACP, Healthcare Counselling and Psychotehrapy Journal Vol 22 No 22 April 2022

I was immediately taken with the title of this book and impressed that Howard Levine and Ana de Staal had been able, so quickly, to bring together papers by a range of psychoanalytic practitioners from many different countries. [… It] sets down some very important challenges for us as individuals and as a profession, with opportunities and responsibilities that go beyond the clinic and the office. I will be mulling over them for some time, as I think you will too.

— Lord John Alderdice, Harris Manchester College, Oxford, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 2022

‘The different chapters of this seminal book weave a rich tapestry of this covidian life. […] The contributors offer a much-needed attempt to conceptualize collective and individual distress, including the social/political context in which the pandemic emerged, its effect on the therapeutic setting and the frame, and the immediacy of the clinical realm.’

— Isaac Tylim, 'The Psychoanalytic Quarterly', 92:1, 148-153, 2023