Making More From Less in a Corona-Encircled Analytic Frame and Situation

Abstract

The author describes how the parasitic coronavirus encircled and disrupted the analytic frame and situation, activating anxiety in both therapist and patient. A patient is described with core intimacy difficulties whose primitive anxieties manifested in him the dis-regulation of the too-far (agoraphobic), too-near (claustrophobic) intimacy dialectic. Drawing on Winnicott, the author describes how these increased dialectic tensions, when contained, created a potentially transformational transitional space that helped to enhance the patient's mental and symbolizing capacity, that is, a capacity to make more from less.