Shared Trauma, the Renegotiation of the Frame, and the Preservation of What Is Essential: Transformations in Psychoanalytic Treatment in the Time of the Pandemic

Abstract

In this paper, the author describes a process, renegotiation of the frame, that emerged as he contemplated with his patients the continuation of work together in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a renegotiation lends itself to the formation of bastions, as described by Baranger and Baranger (1969); attention to these bastions demonstrates that the psychoanalytic process continues and can deepen. An extended clinical vignette is presented to illustrate. If a more broadly defined functional frame is considered, not only may the frame be used as a clinical tool in a more nuanced way, but in addition, aspects of the traditional narrowly defined frame may be seen to contribute to the formation of bastions that, unaddressed, could impede the analytic process.

Keywords:

• Trauma
• frame
• transformation
• pandemic
• renegotiation
• neutrality
• analytic field
• bastions
• remote analysis
• external reality
• unconscious
• anxiety