“The feeling of strangeness because of the emptiness and the weight of the silence, the immobilization of everything. This immobilization is one of the signs of the traumatic situation in the psychic life - we can think of the dream of the Wolf Man.”

 

Description: Harvey Schwartz welcomes Dr. Bernard Chervet who is a psychiatrist and a Full Member and Training Psychoanalyst of the Paris Society of Psychoanalysis where he has served as President. Dr. Chervet has also served as a scientific secretary of the Congress of French-Speaking Psychoanalysts. He is a member of the European Group for the IPA Encyclopedic Dictionary, a member of the task force ‘IPA Constituent Organizations’, and a member of the Freudian Legacy Task Force. Dr. Chervet has devoted his life not only to institutional analysis but also to deep clinical analysis. Dr. Chervet has won many awards and published more than 240 articles, chapters, papers and books with a special focus on metapsychology.

 

In today’s episode, Dr. Chervet demonstrates his commitment to understanding the mind of his analysands and he does it in his French way, by bringing together theory with a deep understanding of the present and the past and how they relate to each other. Dr. Chervet shares his perspective on the concept of latency in the mind of the analysand when one is overwhelmed by trauma, and the role of the analyst as a facilitator, creating the capacity to pause, reflect and gain perspective.

 

Key takeaways:

[7:35] How Dr. Chervet listens to patients when both current and past trauma are present.

[10:43] The current context in France after 4 weeks of social isolation.

[13:38] The deprivation of freedom.

[13:55] Social and political context in France.

[15:07] The denial of the pandemic.

[18:06] People’s insecurity is increasing as a result of the high level of information they are receiving which is mostly not congruent.

[18:55] Traumatic neurosis and the importance of latency.

[22:05] The role of the analyst in creating the possibility of latency for the patient.

[25:55] Dr. Chervet shares a demonstrative case example.

[34:01] The analyst is the guardian of latency.

[37:45] The transition to online sessions is not a choice.

[38:40] The new setting: what has been lost and what has been won.

 

Mentioned in this episode:

IPA Off the Couch www.ipaoffthecouch.org