In the Shadow of Armageddon: Working Analytically After Trump’s Election

Psychoanalysis during the COVID-19 pandemic: Several reflections on countertransference

“…It is equally important to take into consideration the countertransference or transference of the psychoanalyst which may be associated with any special shifting conditions of his or her work, which was also noted by Sandler et al (1992) in the general list of countertransference elements. The search for such studies and clinical reports showed numerous reflections on countertransference connected to the patient's and psychoanalyst's crisis or trauma after World War I (Birkett, 1992;Brunner, 1991) and World War II (Eyers, 2013;Segal, 1997), during living under conditions of a terror-state (Hollander, 1992;Holub, 2019), during and after the September 11 terrorist attack in the USA (Brenner, 2006;Frawley-O'Dea, 2003;Goren, 2005), after Donald Trump's presidential election (Sherman, 2018), during the Maidan revolution in Ukraine (Uvarova, 2017), etc.…”

“…By the end of March, after numerous discussions with supervisors, I decided to accept my own states and to stop fighting them, acting as if nothing had changed in the world around, including psychoanalysis and psychoanalyst, and to search for a stance of an observer in psychoanalytic situation which could help to study how certain patient deals with 'passivization' of the other in the person of the psychoanalyst. It was literally a challenge to find self-acceptance for failing to be a good enough psychoanalyst because of being 'overwhelmed by death, fear, grief and brokenness' as M. G. Frawley-O'Dea once also noticed (2003), as well as not to feel as a 'betraying, abusive or non-recognizing parent' (Sherman, 2018).…”

Turbulent Times Inside and Outside the Consulting Room: The Politics of Polarization and Hate and the Illusion of the Therapist’s Freedom from Impingement

“…These clients especially need a safe contained space to talk about their fears and have their fears recognized, validated, and understood within this context of what is happening in America. In today’s political climate, where therapist and client may share similar feelings of vulnerability and helplessness, it can take great determination to continue to listen, hold, and contain without retreating or becoming exhausted or dissociated (Sherman, 2018).…”

“…After 3 years, most people are tired of the constant flow of distressing information 24 hours a day at dizzying speed with little time to process it. Escaping into what Sherman (2018) labels a “dissociative cocoon” becomes quite appealing; instead of feeling activated much of the time, we become numb, disengaged, or even dissociated. Who among us is not feeling burned-out and fatigued?…”

“…In the spirit of alarm, both Philipson (2018) and Sherman (2018) caution that we need to recognize when we become too exhausted, detached, or cynical to think analytically, listen for symbolic meanings and stay alert to enactments. As Sherman (2018) points out, what cannot be thought about often becomes enacted—so we need to be able to think! Not acknowledging our own anxiety, vulnerability, and alarm to the daily disorienting political shocks, does not bode well for either ourselves or our clients (Philipson, 2018).…”