A study about changes in psychoanalytic setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic

• Grant number: 20/08456-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2020
• End date: August 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Isabel Cristina Gomes
• Grantee: Bruno Bones Valdo da Costa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This exploratory research proposal aims to investigate the question of the therapeutic setting management in psychoanalysis in the face of the impossibility of conducting face-to-face meetings due to the quarantine and social isolation measures related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the implications of a psychoanalytic practice established in a remote therapeutic setting will be discussed. With a clinical-qualitative methodology, the research will include the participation of 12 psychotherapists with a psychoanalytical approach, using the semi-directed interview as an instrument for data collection, to be conducted online. The first two interviews will be performed as a pilot phase, to ascertain the consistency of the script, the themes and questions raised. The material will be interpreted using the technique of content analysis, in two stages: floating reading of the transcription to impregnate the discourse and categorization for highlighting with description of the constitutive elements. It is considered a relevant theme in the current context and its expected results are to raise relevant element that can contribute to the discussion of the therapeutic setting in psychoanalysis, especially considering the challenges that the situation of uncertainty and social urgency impose both for those who seek psychoanalytic analysis, as for those who practice psychoanalysis, at a time when personal encounter puts individual and collective life at risk. (AU)