Shared Catastrophe, Resistance, and Learning in the Countertransference

Abstract

In light of the 2020–2021 pandemic and consequent necessity for radical changes in psychoanalytic treatment, the author discusses transference-countertransference, resistance, and the analytic setting, among other themes. In particular, the author explores how elements of regression induced in patient and analyst during times of external challenge sometimes obscures elements of unconscious conflict and fantasy that analysis mobilizes and can help to elucidate. He explores an element of the analyst’s work with his own resistance to learning about what this catastrophe means psychologically to our patients and to those trying to help them. Three illustrative clinical vignettes are present and discussed.