COVID-19 Pandemic, Online Therapeutic Setting and Transference Phenomena

Abstract

The article proposes a reflection based on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the psychoanalytic therapeutic setting and raises considerations about its consequences in the manifestation of transference phenomena, regarding the handling of the analytical relationship. It is based on the results of a clinical-qualitative investigation, conducted through interviews with 16 participants, including analysts and psychotherapists with a psychoanalytic approach. Taking the content analysis technique as a way of interpreting the obtained content, it was noticed that despite the transference phenomena being constitutive of psychoanalytic treatment, they presented particularities in their manifestation and handling in the online psychoanalytic therapeutic setting. The reactions of the participants (analysts/ psychotherapists) to the beginning of the pandemic were different, as well as the way they dealt with the period of suspension and transition from face-to-face care to the online setting. The psychoanalytical treatment proved to be possible to be carried out in the online setting, but not without difficulties, especially considering the gravity of the context and the situation of uncertainty/ social urgency – which at time revealed itself ass excess and entered the analyzing situation. With this, an appreciation was also made about the countertransference reactions, the challenges of their handling and the strategies for their appearance to be put at the service of the analytic process.