ABSTRACT

In this short paper, I want to examine the function, and a number of ethical and clinical dilemmas, in deciding to continue to work in the consulting room with an 18-year-old boy during the first Covid-19 lockdown in Cyprus. This patient displayed a borderline organisation of the schizoid type, with a marked false self presentation. To understand this work, I build on Winnicott’s theories, as well as Monica Lanyado’s ideas. Lanyado explores how the presence of the therapist and that of the therapy itself acquire functions beyond those commonly defined within the psychoanalytic framework – in this case, due to the nature of the collectively experienced phenomenon of the lockdown. Local circumstances, restrictions and realities in Cyprus are described, as they occurred at the time of the first Covid-19 lockdown, showing how the patient’s pathology became intertwined with the above conflicts and dilemmas that I faced as his psychotherapist, and as a fellow member of the local and global society. I argue that under such unusual conditions, psychotherapist and patient become part of the same local and global collective, and only if they work ‘hand in hand’ can they survive a collectively experienced trauma, at a time when most human contact was forbidden by law.

摘要

在这篇简短的论文中，我想研究一下在塞浦路斯首次Covid-19封锁期间决定继续与一名18岁男孩在咨询室工作的功能以及伦理和临床上的两难困境。该患者显示出一个精神分裂症型的边缘组织，并带有明显的虚假自我表现。为了理解这项工作，我以Winnicott的理论以及Monica Lanyado的思想为基础。Lanyado探索治疗师和疗法本身的存在由于集体经历的锁定现象的性质，获得的功能超出了精神分析框架中通常定义的功能。描述了塞浦路斯的当地情况，限制和现实，这些情况发生在第一次Covid-19锁定之时，显示了患者的病理如何与我作为心理治疗师和同伴时面对的上述冲突和困境交织在一起本地和全球社会。我认为，在这种不寻常的情况下，心理治疗师和患者会成为同一地方和全球集体的一部分，只有在他们“携手合作”的情况下，他们才能幸免于集体经历的创伤，而这是大多数人类接触被法律禁止的时候。