E-book: Psychoanalysis, COVID and Mass Trauma: The Trauma of Reality

Psychoanalysis, COVID and Mass Trauma, by Katalin Zana and Tihamér Bakó, is a brilliant and extremely thought-provoking book on the effects of massive trauma.

In light of the recent COVID pandemic, which has produced a worldwide experimental field, among others, the authors re-discuss classic themes of psychoanalysis such as trauma, the relationship between material reality and psychic reality, and the role of intersubjectivity in psychoanalytic theory. On the one hand, they devote particular attention to the intergenerational transmission of psychic suffering; on the other hand, to the ways in which in the here-and-now of the therapeutic relationship it is possible to activate transformative processes starting from the quality of the therapeutic relationship, and this leads them to integrate in their toolbox new tools of contemporary psychoanalysis, such as those elaborated by the post-Bionian theory of the analytic field.

However, the book is also enriched with original concepts, such as that of the "transgenerational atmosphere". One can safely say that it represents an extraordinarily significant contribution to a debate that no analyst can now afford to ignore. Suffice to say that everyone has been touched by the trauma of the pandemic both personally and in professional practice, having found themselves perhaps for the first time reflecting on what the extreme social isolation required by preventive hygiene measures means, as well as disrupting the usual parameters of the analytic setting and learning to work remotely.

We are only at the beginning of radical new changes in the way we think about psychoanalytic treatment. Filled with compelling clinical material and an uncommon ability to delve into complex theoretical concepts, Psychoanalysis, COVID and Mass Trauma is essential reading for all psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, as well as for those more generally interested in the subject of psychic trauma.

Giuseppe Civitarese, SPI, APsaA, IPA member, is author of Sublime Subjects: Aesthetic Experience and Intersubjectivity in Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2017)

This book is a psychoanalytic page turner, impossible to put down. One feels more human and able to be with patients' traumas and one's own trauma reactions. Bakó and Zana offer containment and symbolising with their concept of the "Atmosphere", a psychological space and intersubjective sphere where shock and trauma transform. They use the form of diaries and snapshots to bring forth the emotional encounters with patients during the chaotic upheavals of COVID. Evocative writing about their own deep experience of the pandemic enlightens felt hauntings of annihilation fears and the possibiities of creativity and human contact made available when witnessing is active. The reader is enriched as a therapist working in the trauma atmosphere of now and as a human being desiring connection with others.

Nancy R. Goodman, Ph.D., training and supervising analyst with the Contemporary Freudian Society, IPA member, editor, The Power of Witnessing: Reflections, Reverberations (2012)