ON THE EDGE OF POSSIBILITIES: PSYCHOANALYTIC THOUGHTS IN SEARCH OF SUPPORT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/upj/2024-1-9Keywords:
psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, war, trauma, emotions, transference, countertransferenceAbstract
The war became a test for psycho-emotional, physiological, interpersonal, etc. possibilities of psychotherapists and patients. This article integrates three psychoanalytic works that help raise awareness of the issue of psychoanalytic practice during wartime, including its potential. This is how P. Fonda reveals the peculiarities of the mental functioning of the group during the war through the prism of a paranoidschizoid, depressive and undifferentiated position. Each of them reflects mental content, object relations, defense mechanisms, and anxiety. M. G. Frawley O’Dea shares her experience of working with trauma using the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York as an example. In particular, the psychoanalytic vectors of research are outlined, which are also relevant for the Ukrainian community: immediate and long-term consequences of terror; cognitive, affective, somatic, interpersonal and psychophysiological consequences of trauma; transference and countertransference, if both the therapist and the patient are traumatized; vicarious trauma. Philip Bromberg’s concept of “tsunami” provides insight into the affective state of a person who feels “on the edge.” He emphasizes such a therapeutic interaction between the analyst and the patient, which increases the patient’s ability to distinguish between the likelihood of mental shock and disturbing experiences “on the edge.” The purpose of the article is to analyze the emotional state “on the edge”; determine the factors of integration of traumatic experience into the inner world of a person and further growth; highlight the experience of foreign colleagues and the possibilities of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in working with persons who have survived violence, terror and war; suggest ways to improve the ability to cope with war-related stressors. In the course of reflection, we have the following ideas for practice: creating a sufficiently good and safe therapeutic environment; the therapist’s acceptance of his own vulnerability; attentiveness to the patient’s readiness for in-depth analytical work; to develop the patient’s ability to distinguish the probability of shock from disturbing experiences “on the edge”; development of emotional intelligence; analysis of own adaptive and protective strategies; close and secure relationships with other people and with internal objects.
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