Presidential Reflections on Psychoanalysis with Virginia Ungar, MD (Buenos Aires)

Psychoanalysis On and Off the Couch

“First, when we started to work online, it was exhausting. Now, I cannot say it is exhausting at the same level but it is still exhausting. You feel very tired and you miss the in-person contact. It has been more than one and a half years...I think that we will be able to think about the consequences and the impact of working in this way, and in the upcoming years we will have a lot of material.”

Episode Description: We begin with a review of our first two podcast conversations - the first being the inaugural episode and the second coming one year later at the beginning of the COVID lockdown. Now we are able to look back at what we hope is the worst of the pandemic and its impact on our lives and on analytic practice. The clinical implications for online and in-person contact will be studied for some time ahead. Virginia discusses her views on the politics of the IPA, the meaning of being the first woman president, and the importance of her being a child analyst. We close with an affirmation of her optimism for our field which is seen as more essential than ever.

Our Guest: Virginia Ungar M.D, is a Training Analyst at the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association (APdeBA) where she lives and practices. She specializes in child and adolescent analysis, was the former Chair of the IPA’s Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis Committee (COCAP) and of the Committee for Integrated Training. Dr. Ungar was given the Platinum Konex Award for Psychoanalysis in 2016.

She has just completed her term as the President of the International Psychoanalytic Association, 2017-2021.