Psychoanalysis and Covidian Life

Common Distress, Individual Experience

Christopher Bollas, Michael Rustin, Bernard Chervet, Alberto Rocha Barros, Elias Rocha Barros, Daniel Kupermann, Antonino Ferro, Ana de Staal, Serge Frisch, Riccardo Lombardi, François Lévy, Jean-Jacques Tyszler, Steven Jaron, Patricia Cardoso de Mello, Joshua Durban, Howard B. Levine, Howard B. Levine, Ana de Staal, Howard B. Levine, Ana de Staal

• Publisher: Phoenix Publishing House
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781912691777
• eBook ISBN: 9781800130340
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychoanalysis
• Index: Psychology

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 fromChristopher Bollas, Patricia Cardoso de Mello, Bernard Chervet, Joshua Durban, Antonino Ferro, Serge Frisch, Steven Jaron, Daniel Kupermann, Howard Levine, François Lévy, Riccardo Lombardi, Elias & Alberto Rocha Barros, Michael Rustin, Ana de Staal, and Jean-Jacques Tyszler.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Quotes
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• About the editors and contributors
• Editors’ note by Ana de Staal and Howard Levine
• Part I: The background scene/the context
• 1. Civilisation and the discontented by Christopher Bollas (London, England)
• 2. The coronavirus pandemic and its meanings by Michael Rustin (London, England)
• Part II: Living and thinking in pandemic times
• 3. The shattering of a denial as food for thought by Bernard Chervet (Paris and Lyon, France)
• 4. Landscapes of mental life under Covid-19 by Alberto Rocha Barros and Elias Rocha Barros (São Paulo, Brazil)
• 5. Catastrophe and its vicissitudes: denial and the vitalising effect of “good air” by Daniel Kupermann (São Paulo, Brazil)
• Part III: The setting under pressure
• 6. Being online: what does it mean for psychoanalysis? by Antonino Ferro (Pavia, Italy)
• 7. The burnt compartment. Or: Psychoanalysis without a couch by Ana de Staal (Paris, France)
• 8. Individual distress, institutional distress by Serge Frisch (Luxembourg and Brussels, Belgium)
• Part IV: Reconfigurations and changes in practice
• 9. Body and soul in remote analysis: anguished countertransference, pandemic panic, and space–time limits by Riccardo Lombardi (Rome, Italy)
• 10. A short circuit in the analytical process by François Lévy (Paris, France)
• 11. Beyond the all-traumatic: narrative imagination and new temporalities in the analytic session by Jean-Jacques Tyszler (Paris, France)
• Part V: Clinical journals
• 12. Katabasis, anabasis: working in a post-ICU Covid-19 unit in a public hospital by Steven Jaron (Paris, France)
• 13. Where does the psychoanalyst live? The online setting in the psychoanalysis of a three-year-old girl on the autistic spectrum by Patricia Cardoso de Mello (São Paulo, Brazil)
• 14. Where does the Covid live? Osmotic/diffuse anxieties, isolation, and containment in times of the plague by Joshua Durban (Tel Aviv, Israel)
• Part VI: Conclusion
• 15. Covidian life by Howard B. Levine (Cambridge, MA, USA)
• Index