Episode 067: Creativity in the Analyst and Analysand in Times of COVID with Ilany Kogan

Psychoanalysis On and Off the Couch

“I think that the analyst has to be in touch with his anxiety in order to be able to understand the patient's anxiety. But he has to not be drowned in such anxiety in order to be able to be the helpful object.”

Description: Dr. Harvey Schwartz welcomes Ilany Kogan, who is a Training and Supervisory Analyst at the Israel Psychoanalytic Society. She is one of the founders of the Psychotherapy Centre for the Child and Adolescent in Bucharest, Romania. She worked as a supervisor of the IPA study work in Istanbul and she currently supervises throughout Germany and in Rumania.

Ilany Kogan worked for many years with Holocaust survivors and she has published extensively in this area. She was awarded the Elise M. Hayman Award for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide (2005) and the Sigourney Award (2016) for her lifetime work. She is the author of many books, most recently in 2020: Narcissistic Fantasies in Film and Fiction: Masters of the Universe, prior to that Canvas of Change: Analysis Through the Prism of Creativity, The Struggle Against Mourning, Escape from Selfhood: Breaking Boundaries and Craving for Oneness and others.

In today’s episode, you will hear about Ilany´s devotion to her patients and the ways she identifies their life forces. She dives deep into the essence of hope and creativity since many of her patients, as we all do as humans, struggle with locating the good objects inside us. Ilany is devoted to freeing up the positive, hopeful, and creative energies in individuals. This is especially vital when we are limited by neurotic distortions, families that have struggled with the effects of the Holocaust, and for all of us now since we are struggling with terrible uncertainties in the midst of this pandemic.

Key takeaways:

[7:45] Ilany Kogan shares what her clinical and theoretical work has taught her about the vital role of creativity in life and especially in critical times.

[9:35] Resistance is the best way the person knows how to deal with conflicts at a particular moment which deserves respect.

[12:31] What is the meaning for the dyad when both analyst and analysand share the same danger?

[13:55] Analysts have to work through their own anxieties in order to be able to help the patient dealing with his own anxiety.

[15:46] Ilany Kogan talks about the concept of death anxieties.

[18:05] She believes that the creativity of the analyst is dealing with the changes imposed by the pandemic.

[19:32] Interpretation can be difficult to use during a period of stress.

[20:58] Ilany Kogan talks about the challenges that some analysts encounter in metabolizing the anxieties of the patient and returning it to them in tolerable form.

[21:43] Ilany Kogan shares a clinical example.

[29:14] Through analytic work the past can be left in the past.

[29:50] What sustains her during these difficult times?

Mentioned in this episode:

IPA Off the Couch www.ipaoffthecouch.org

Recommended Readings:

Narcissistic Fantasies in Film and Fiction: Masters of the Universe, Ilany Kogan

Canvas of Change: Analysis Through the Prism of Creativity, Ilany Kogan

The Struggle Against Mourning, Ilany Kogan

Escape from Selfhood: Breaking Boundaries and Craving for Oneness, Ilany Kogan