Psychoanalysis, COVID and Mass Trauma: The Trauma of Reality

Description

Constructed as a psychoanalytic diary, the authors of this book reflect on clinical observations from their work with patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, tracking these singular experiences to arrive at broader understanding of the psychological characteristics of collective trauma. Based on the theoretical framework of their previous book, which focuses on the transgenerational, psychological effects of large-scale social-historical traumas and introduced new concepts such as the "Transgenerational Atmosphere," the authors here explore the trauma itself, especially those deep traumas which affect a large group of people or even the whole of humanity, including pandemics, natural disasters, terrorism, and war. In this volume, the authors progress toward the potential immediate and long-term psychological effects of such trauma, including the possibility of the activation of unprocessed transgenerational traumatic experiences, but also the potential for growth. Rich in clinical material and methodological suggestions, this book will appeal to mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, and social workers, in addition to professors in other academic disciplines such as sociology, history, philosophy, and anthropology. Cover Half Title Endorsements Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Foreword References Introduction Structure of the book References PART I Psychoanalytic Diary of the COVID Crisis The Context February 2020 March/April 2020 Scapegoating Maskers and Antimaskers The Enabling Act Mask and Shame A Sense of Loss Changing Settings Unstable (Internet) Connection Pets in the Therapy Space 9/11 and COVID-19 in Dreams Therapist’s Experience: Snapshot of the Professional Community The Spirit of War Individual Crisis and COVID Various Reports on the Concept of Lockdown I Don’t Want to Hide: A Snapshot from a Non-therapy Relationship The Therapist’s Loss and Grief May/August 2020 Conspiracy Theories Abound Temporary Relaxation, a Split in Reality “I Wish It Were All Over and Done” September/October 2020 Decisions Virus and Projections The Meanings of the Setting Responsibly–Irresponsibly Dreams and the Transgenerational Atmosphere External and Internal Spaces in Dreams The Positive Effect of COVID: A Snapshot from a Non-therapy Relationship November/December 2020 Numbers on the Rise A Fairytale but Not for Everyone The External World Crystallizes in the Community of Psychoanalysts The Therapists’ Own Experiences: Where Is the Wolf? Online versus In Person Fear of Exclusion Should I Stay or Should I Go? Unprotected Splitting Appears in Online Sessions and in Dreams “People Don’t Respect Each Other Any More”: Social Snapshots Different Attitudes: A Split in Reality Dream from This Period COVID and the Transgenerational Atmosphere The Transgenerational Atmosphere in a Dream: The Therapist’s Own Experience The Period before Christmas Extremes Acute Crisis during the Pandemic The Therapist Changes Room Events in Society: Vaccines and Projections Isolation and Regression Lost Time Dreams from This Period January/February 2021 The Period When the Vaccines Appear Suspected COVID “I Don’t Want to Exist at That Price” Lockdown and Post-traumatic Working Through Lockdown Dreams The Therapist’s Own Experiences: The Vaccine Snapshots from Non-therapy Relationships from This Period March/April 2021 The Third Wave Eastern Vaccine, Western Vaccine Snapshots from Non-therapy Relationships from This Period The Scapegoat “You Can’t Make a Mistake” “We’re Not Scared!” Dream from This Period Rituals Are Overturned Snapshots from Non-therapy Relationships from This Period Late April/Early May 2021 A New Reopening Begins This Vaccine or That One Dreams from This Period Snapshots from Non-therapy Relationships from This Period End of May/End of July 2021 “The COVID Bubble Has Burst” The Therapist’s Own Experience: “Being Jolted Back” Meeting In Person Once More Snapshots from Non-therapy Relationships from This Period End of July 2021 Uncertainty Has Fear Disappeared? Snapshots from Non-therapy Relationships from This Period Closing Image: How Will the Fireworks End? References Part II The Reality of Trauma, the Trauma of Reality 1 The Reality of Trauma Psychological Effects of a Shocking Event: Possible Outcomes Factors that Influence the Integrability of a Shocking Event Does the Shocking Experience Become Traumatic? Trauma Trauma and Splitting Trauma and Self Trauma and Temporality Can Lost Time Be Regained? Trauma and Continuity Trauma and Imagination The Societal Aspect of Trauma Society’s Containing Capacity and How It Can Be Damaged The Healthy Social Container Perversion of the Social Container The Collapse of Humanness The Witness Role and Its Perversion The Silent Eyewitness The Role of the Third Postmemory References 2 The Atmosphere The Transgenerational Atmosphere Post-trauma Intrasubjective Experiencing and Processing of the Event Encapsulated Self-parts and Flash Experience Encapsulated Self-parts in the Following Generation The We-self The Healthy We The Pathological We Traumatic Space-Time, the Damage to the Boundaries of the Self in the Transgenerational Atmosphere Born into the Transgenerational Atmosphere: The Next Generation What Is the Atmosphere? Me and We, and Their Mutual Interaction in the Atmosphere How the Atmosphere Works Ideology, Nation, and Leader The Intersubjective Background to Sharing of Experience The Dynamic Model of the Self Healthy Functioning of the Self Interaction between the Me-self and the We-self The Atmosphere and the Collective Unconscious The Healthy Functioning of the Atmosphere Transformation in the Atmosphere The Dream of the Atmosphere The Pre-symbolic Aspect of How the Atmosphere Works Temporality and Continuity in the Atmosphere The Trauma Victim and the Traumatizing Atmosphere Transgenerational Atmosphere within the Atmosphere Here-and-now or There-and-then To Act or Not to Act? References 3 The Trauma of Reality On the Relationship between Outer and Inner Realities We Reality Healthy We Reality Perversion of the We Reality: The Trauma of Reality The Fragmentation of Reality Summary References Index