Psychoanalytical Investigation of Clinical Phenomena in Psychosis, in the Pandemic Context of COVID-19

Abstract

Recent international studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health motivated the writing of this article. The article presents the preliminary results of the research conducted by me at the Laboratory of Fundamental Psychopathology in Studies on Subjectivity and Humanitarian Emergencies, of the Graduate Program in Psychology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ, Brazil). There were five months of theoretical survey of the theme based on the following research problem: what is the impact of social isolation and uncertainty about the future, on the functioning of the self in psychosis? The purpose of the article is to expose the results of the first phase of research on the topic, which consisted of a systematic review of the scientific literature on the topic of humanitarian emergencies, locating pandemics in this classification and specifically asking about the impact of COVID-19 on disorders related to the functioning of the self in psychosis, I finally maintain the relevance of developing a clinical protocol for the psychological approach of these situations, within the framework of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic about subjective functioning.