Psychoanalytic practice in Times of War

ukrainian Panel discussion via Zoom

Saturday, July 22nd - Part II

10:00 A.M. - Noon, Pacific Time
Noon - 2:00 P.M. Central Time
1:00 P.m. -3:00 P.m. Eastern Time

Free for IFPE Members!

Non-Members: $25 for July 22nd Session
registration link is located below panelist presentation dEscriptions

Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic practitioners in Ukraine faced numerous challenges to save their lives and maintain their practice in analytic and non-analytic approaches. The events entitled “Psychoanalytic Practice in Times of War” will illustrate and conceptualize these challenges, observed phenomena, and current solutions devoted to war-related trauma and growth. Ethics, losses, relationships, and  shift to crisis intervention will be discussed, along with insights from supervision. Each two hour event allows time for discussion.

Co-Moderator: Dr. Mariana Velykodna, Ph.D., EuroPsy registered psychologist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist certified by the European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies,
Head of Psychoanalytic Psychology and Psychotherapy Division of the National Psychological
Association (Ukraine), Associate Professor of Practical Psychology Department at Kryvyi Rih State
Pedagogical University.

Co-Moderator: Oksana Yakushko, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, psychoanalyst, and Ukrainian immigrant. She is a faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute and a psychoanalytic practitioner in Santa Barbara, CA. Her scholarship focuses on histories of psychoanalysis in relation to social Darwinism and eugenics. Since the start of the recent Russian invasion, she has been involved in varied ways to support Ukraine and Ukrainians.

Oksana is Co-facilitator of the Suppliants Project Ukraine and translated the play into Ukrainian for Theater of War Productions. The Suppliants Project: Ukraine presents live, dramatic readings of Aeschylus’ play The Suppliants on Zoom—featuring professional actors and a chorus of Ukrainian citizens—to help frame global discussions about the War in Ukraine and the unique challenges now faced by the people of Ukraine and those who support them. The play may be viewed here: https://youtu.be/jU0iXjZI2AU

Presenters:

Natalia Nalyvaiko, clinical psychologist, a Ph.D. student at Free Ukrainian University (Munich), training analyst, and supervisor of the European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies, member of the Psychoanalytic Psychology and Psychotherapy Division of the National Psychological Association of Ukraine. 

Presentation: Challenges to Ethics in Psychoanalysis during the Wartime.

The unjust war of aggression launched by Russia against Ukraine on February 24, 2022 posed many challenges to Ukrainian psychotherapists and, in particular, to psychoanalysts. One of them - if not the biggest - was a challenge to psychoanalytic ethics by calling into question the cornerstone rule of psychoanalysis: adherence to abstinence. In her presentation, the speaker will share how Ukrainian psychoanalysts respond to this challenge during the ongoing war.

Ruslana Rudenko, psychologist, training analyst, and supervisor of the Odesa Psychoanalytic Society, Delegate from Ukraine at the Board of the European Federation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies, and member of the Psychoanalytic Psychology and Psychotherapy Division of the National Psychological Association of Ukraine.

Presentation: Reorganizing the setting to preserve the therapeutic space during the war.

When Russia's long-running war against Ukraine escalated into large-scale aggression across the country overnight, the lives of all Ukrainians were thrown into turmoil. But preserving the psychotherapeutic space proved to be a great challenge for psychoanalytic psychotherapists. How did we perceive this challenge, and how did we change ourselves and change the psychoanalytic setting in order to keep safe space and trust, to remain reliable objects of attachment for our patients?

Sergii Ugrium, psychologist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, certified EuroPsy psychologist, researcher, Master's student at the Department of Psychoanalysis at the University of Paris 8, and member of the Psychoanalytic Psychology and Psychotherapy Division of the National Psychological Association of Ukraine (NpA), who works on the NPA’s psychological hotline.

Presentation: War trauma: psychoanalytical perspective in crisis intervention.

Psychoanalytic concepts allow for a deeper understanding of intrapsychic and interpersonal processes observed in Ukrainian society under conditions of war, radical changes in the way of life, and a readjustment of life investments. Short-term crisis interventions, or "psychological first aid", is in high demand and illustrate the current psychological work. This presentation will cover the application of psychoanalytic concepts on a large scale with war-affected people and in a non-analytic setting.

Saturday, May 20th - ParT i - Presenters:

Olga Pavlovska, clinical psychologist, training analyst of the European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies, and member of the Psychoanalytic Psychology and Psychotherapy Division of the National Psychological Association of Ukraine, 

Presentation: Psychoanalytic work with losses during the war.

Psychoanalysis during the war is not contained within the framework of predetermined symbolic constructions. Today our work is less focused on rediscovering psychic elements: thoughts, feelings, wishes, and memoirs, which were earlier imagined and mentalized, but more on another, different type of experience. The experience of war is concerned with psychic states which were never represented earlier; we can identify them as unimagined or poorly imagined. The uncertainty of the future during war plunges the psyche of both psychoanalyst and analysand into the void of the absence of an answer from the imaginary guarantor of the future. This can be experienced by both as a destructive indifference articulated at the level of the psyche, either as complete chaos or as a prohibition of the future.

Valeriy Dorozhkin, Sc.D., professor, psychologist, certified EuroPsy psychologist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, Theoretical and Practical Psychology Department at the Lviv Polytechnic National University, and member of the Psychoanalytic Psychology and Psychotherapy Division of the National Psychological Association of Ukraine. 

Presentation: The war and its influence on relationships in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

The war created a special background for psychoanalytic therapy and its interdiscourse. This interdiscourse encompasses the therapeutic encounter from all sides and causes a number of phenomena and features of the therapeutic relationship. Among these phenomena is the inversion of relations with the new system of circulation of power and positions of self-disclosure, overloading of the session with feelings of guilt, new dimensions of mental regression, and exhaustion of the analysand's Ego. This report is devoted to these phenomena.

Volodymyr Mamko, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, training analyst, and supervisor of the European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies, head of the Institute of Professional Supervision, and member of the Psychoanalytic Psychology and Psychotherapy Division of the National Psychological Association of Ukraine. 

Presentation: Wartime research through the experience of permanent psychodynamic supervision.

The Institute of Professional Supervision (Kyiv) established a project of crisis assistance for Ukrainians and supervision for Ukrainian clinicians, "Wartime Research", which I managed. The project began its work on March 3, 2022. The rules and operating mode of the project is daily group supervision once per day or more. In fact, the project supports at least 8 group supervision per week. For 1 year and 2 months of the war, the project carried out more than 450 group supervision for a group of psychoanalysts and crisis psychologists of about 25 constant participants and welcome all clinicians-psychologists who needed supervision in an open group without restriction.

Elina Yevlanova, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, training analyst of the Institute of Professional Supervision, and member of the Psychoanalytic Psychology and Psychotherapy Division of the National Psychological Association of Ukraine. 

Presentation: Professional supervision as a therapist's self-care during wartime.

It has become usual and common to perceive supervision as an obligatory element in the training of psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. On March 3, 2022, I joined the project of the Institute of Professional Supervision, “Wartime Studies”. Working in supervisory groups during the war greatly changed my attitude towards supervision, and allowed me to see the features and characteristics of phenomena I could hardly think about in times of peace.

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