COPS
Committee on Psychoanalytic Study Groups (COPS)
Gail Glenn
Gail Glenn, MA, Ed, is chair of the Committee on Psychoanalytic Study Groups.
Adjusting to the impact of Covid-19 on psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts is front and center in the minds of all psychoanalysts and psychotherapists.
COPS, formerly COPE, which creates study groups to enhance and enrich the multiple missions of psychoanalysis is working diligently on this challenge, as illustrated in the following reflective article.
Recently we approved a new study group, Ethical Dilemmas, chaired by Anita Schmukler. “This group examines material from the perspective of unconscious pressures that leave one vulnerable to ethical lapses. This is distinguished from boundary violations and other egregious actions that could cause harm….”
We also examined options for three additional study groups, explored seeking younger participants, and discussed the overlap with other conference programing. For this issue we include a report from one COPS Study Group that richly exemplifies our work.
Study Group on Psychoanalytic Writing
Mary Landy and Ellen Pinsky, Co-chairs
Introduction
Frances Lang
I was happy to receive an opportunity to share a piece of writing in TAP from our Study Group on Psychoanalytic Writing. Only a week earlier I had urged the author, a candidate in the writing seminar I teach at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, to submit his piece on the pandemic for publication.
While the seminar’s chief goal is to help candidates in writing case reports, I try to stir an interest in writing more broadly. For the first class meeting, I ask candidates to read the short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid. The story lists instructions given by a mother to her daughter. Candidates are asked to use it as a template for their own writing. Themes have varied over the years. This year, writing during the quarantine, the candidate offers instructions on how to be with his patients on Zoom.
Psychotherapy in a Pandemic
Theodore Murray
Look at the lens.
Or maybe it’s better to look at their eyes.
Put your phone out of reach.
Ask about their health; their family’s health.
Ask how they really are and assume it is worse than what it might otherwise be But don’t assume too much.
Some will prefer life this way.
Some have always lived this way.
It’s ok to say how things are for you.
Really.
But don’t say more than they can tolerate.
How much can they tolerate knowing?
How much do they need to know?
What happens if those two things don’t overlap?
Or maybe do keep your phone nearby.
You never know what kind of news might happen.
Something might happen.
But keep your phone off – maybe you can screen the quiet alerts without losing your focus.
Keep your focus.
What is there to focus on?
Nothing is normal.
Everything is frozen This needs to be talked about.
But we are still ourselves. We still need to be listened to.
You will want to coax the ones who feel too insignificant to speak of themselves.
You will want to shout at the ones who feel too indignant to think of others.
You will not feel like yourself, doing what you have always done.
It’s ok, they aren’t actually as close as they appear.
Are you too close? How do you look to them?
Maybe keep your self-view closed.
But will you look as attentive as you feel?
You should look attentive.
Will they worry you are multitasking?
Don’t multitask. You will want to.
You should not look at your phone.
Has your wife texted you? Are the children doing adorable things? Are they all losing their minds?
It will be all the more difficult to feel what the patient is feeling.
Be present.
Looking into their eyes feels so much more intense than it does in the room.
Maybe pull back just a touch.
The silence will feel harder to name – pregnant? ponderous? peaceful?
Also it will be harder not to fill.
You should ask more questions to not leave them feeling alone or stared at.
You should not jump so quickly to fill the silence. It may only be your anxiety.
Make sure they don’t hear your screaming toddler.
Try to ignore your screaming toddler.
Ignore the family downstairs.
Ignore the family upstairs.
Think about those you have and cherish them.
Notice the urge to share with your patients.
Share with your patients.
Only don’t share too much.
This new way of talking, can it contain all that the old way could?
Can I contain all that I used to hold?
There is no way to know what might happen.