What is it about?
The article discusses functions that can be activated in the psychoanalyst in their clinical work during social unrest. The author uses the COVID event as the backdrop to explain how the analyst's "my-person" can activate in response to the social issue and offer the possibility of moving forward in the work with the patient, understood as the Magical of the analytic space.
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Why is it important?
The article is important to understand how the social has a role in the unconscious accessed in the dyadic work between the patient and the psychoanalytic practitioner. However, the role of the social is most evident during times of mass unrest. The fact that the event impacts both the psychoanalyst and the patient brings to bear the presence of the social in both. The psychoanalyst is typically tasked with dissociating the social from the session. Once the unrest breaks down the barrier the psychoanalyst had kept up, the work with the patient can struggle to remain in the status quo, shut down and stagnate, or grow. The Magical of the session is when the psychoanalyst and patient find a way to grow from the moment of unrest.
Perspectives
The concept of "my-person" is incomplete, in my opinion. I started to develop these ideas by appreciating that the psychoanalyst contributes much more of their unconscious to the work. However, the intersubjective and relational perspectives are incomplete in understanding the intrapsychic contributions of the psychoanalyst. Since I worked on these concepts of "my-person" and "The Magical" of the session, I have gravitated to Laplanche's notions of the enigma, specifically on the analyst's enigma.
Paola Contreras
William James College
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Magical and the My-Person in Psychoanalysis During the Covid Pandemic, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, December 2020, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0003065120981733.
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