The coronavirus pandemic, which apparently began in Wuhan in December 2019, and has persisted to the present day, has had several psychological effects in China. The real danger has produced prolonged stress. Large-group phenomena have been stimulated. Overwhelming affects generated by the real danger have led to regression in the stimulus barrier (or "filter"). The COVID-19 has also triggered unconscious defensive reactions, including obsessional cleaning, counterphobic behavior, humor, and denial. The nationally imposed home quarantine of millions of families has caused in-home conflicts and neurotic repetitions of unresolved childhood issues. Prior psychiatric illnesses have been exacerbated. Health workers, including psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychoanalysts, have experienced emotional depletion. Finally, in families where there has been infection or death, delayed mourning and posttraumatic phenomena have been observed. In each of these situations, different interventions based on psychoanalytic principles have been useful.
Psychodynamic techniques of confrontation, clarification, and interpretation were taught to psychiatry residents during "live" analytic psychotherapy interviews. First, during a therapeutic interview with a resident's patient in a seminar group setting, the interviewer (author) periodically stopped to discuss formulations and technique. Later, the author conducted the interviews until dynamic intervention seemed indicated; at those points, the author stopped, discussed the defenses and affects causing pathology, and then asked a resident to make the psychodynamic intervention with the patient. This teaching technique was rated by the residents as extremely helpful in integrating psychoanalytic theory with clinical interventions.
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