“We don’t know when it is going to end, it’s an endless story, and this is the worry… Will everything come back to normality? In the beginning, we thought it would, but now we think nothing will ever be the same.”
Simonetta Diena, MD
Milan
Episode Description:
Harvey Schwartz welcomes you to the 41st episode of Psychoanalysis On and Off the Couch In these times when we are all facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions we are going to be changing the focus of our podcast. Now we are going to be interviewing psychoanalysts from all corners of the globe to discuss how their local communities are coping with this situation; how their clinical work has been affected by this situation; and also how the internal worlds of both the analysts and the patient have been impacted by this virus as it reaches both our real and imaginary fears.
Dr. Harvey Schwartz welcomes Dr. Simonetta Diena to this episode. She is a psychiatrist and a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at the Italian Psychoanalytic Association and she is also a Fellow of the Research Training Program of the International Psychoanalytic Association. Dr. Diena’s interests are wide, she has published and spoken on eating disorders, on art, films, and trauma. Dr. Diena’s latest book published in English is named Psychoanalysis Listening to Love: Passion and Bonds.
In today’s episode, the conversation is on the pressing crisis, Dr. Diena lives and works in Milan, and she shares how she finds herself doing “things she never has done before.” This is a reality for us all, we will find ourselves doing things we have never done before. The challenge is to being able to integrate a focus on metaphor and analytic reality during this times of global crisis.
Key Takeaways:
[4:38] Dr. Diena talks about the current situation in Milan, Italy.
[5:30] Dr. Diena shares how the psychoanalytic community has been affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
[9:50] The role of intuition.
[10:55] The differences now in the clinical setting.
[13:30] The problem of the worries.
[15:45] This time the worry is shared by both the patient and the analyst.
[18:32] We will be doing things we have never done before.
[19:20] Dr. Diena shares some clinical examples.
[23:08] Being alone in a different way.
[25:31] Dr. Diena shares how the feeling of belonging to a community is sustaining her in this process.
[28:25] Celebrating holidays in a different way.
Mentioned in This Episode
IPA Off the Couch – www.ipaoffthecouch.org
Hi Sara! thank you very much. Hope to be both able to come back to our normality. Good luck to everybody, Simonetta
Thank you my brilliant, loving dear friend, Simonetta.
As you know, I am an LICSW psychotherapist, but not an analyst . What you say here with courage, …must surely ring true for many people in helping professions who are trying to balance their energy and best to others- remotely at the time of this world wide pandemic. Your voice comes though loud, clear, and I like Harvey Schwartz’s good voice, and interviewing style as well. Bravo!
Now for La Scala with you next fall..and some dance with the sandpipers on the beach next summer, we hope…in honor of your mother and mine, and our fathers who all survived WWII and inspired us with their energy, love, and forgiveness..and love anew. xo, Sara
PS I have been rereading Elisabeth Kubler Ross on “Death as the Final Stage of Growth” which I find illuminating…and also helps me to better understand the waves of different emotions I am experiencing now. Oh yes..weeping and so on…integration and healing.
Hi Simonetta!
Thank you for sharing your story!
We actually met in London 20 years ago in this IPA research group and you gave an advice that changed my life!
Keep up the good spirit!
Anna Krantz
Hi Anna, I’m curious! which advice was it? Of Course I remember you,
how are you doing? All the best AND STAY HOME! Simonetta