key: cord-0953393-yxrt4lgd
authors: Schellinski, Kristina
title: Essential anxiety: COVID‐19 in analytic practice
date: 2021-07-07
journal: J Anal Psychol
DOI: 10.1111/1468-5922.12690
sha: 0d0e20265852efd9688b0c57be049d98afb6863f
doc_id: 953393
cord_uid: yxrt4lgd

This paper explores the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on my relationship with analysands and my inner world. I reflect on the role of the archetypal Self during times of existential anxiety that may lead to an experience of ‘essential anxiety’. This term refers to a meeting by a fearful ego with an inward recognition of the Self, when faced with threat. The efforts to curb the spread of the pandemic changed our ways of life, while the virus itself threatened our existence in debilitating or outright destructive ways. But what also came into view, in sessions of analysis and supervision, was the creative instinct, and a celebration of life. The soul‐to‐soul relationship, and the connection with images of the archetypal Self, made the experience of existential anxiety at times an essential experience that facilitated psychological growth. I discuss some advantages of on‐line Jungian analysis where, despite distance and partial view, the body still serves as container to hold important psychological material, conferring a sense of wholeness for analyst and analysand. The COVID‐19 crisis is terrible and terrifying but it also provides an opportunity for self‐regulation and individuation.

In times of anxiety, when we fear to lose our life, the life of a loved-one, our health, our job, or even when we lose our known ways when prescribed a so-called 'new normal' we can discover or re-discover a deeper link to our existenceour connection with the inner world, with our soul. With activities and divertissements curtailed, we sought solace in the great-outdoors and when confined indoors we looked for unexplored inner space. Our mouths muffled by masks, our gestures restrained, the question is: if we cannot reach out as usual, can we reach within?

Was my role as an analyst different in COVID-times? In one way, I don't think so because I am primarily concerned with the process of reaching within, and working with unconscious content, helping analysands to reach greater consciousness, examining conflicts and complexes rooted in their personal, family or collective unconscious. But, yes, I do think something was different. My attitude changed: I was confronted with my own existential anxieties and those of my analysands: we asked each other 'are you safe?' and probably thought, each one of us respectively: 'are the other people you are working and living with also safe?' The question of life and death, a staple in my thoughts, became all of a sudden more than a thought; it conditioned my behaviour. For five months in 2020, I worked exclusively online. Before and after each analytic hour, I checked whether I felt activated in my existential anxiety? I sat with the question: what does this term actually mean for me: 'existential anxiety', 'annihilation anxiety?' My fear of falling ill or ceasing to exist? Was anxiety per se a sign of my existence? Was it endemic in the culture and made visible with the pandemic? Was our wish to be free of anxiety a kind of wishful thinking?

The pandemic of COVID-19 brought me, again, face-to-face with the sense of powerlessness when looking at the end of my existence from the point of view of the ego. Decades ago, my friend and Jungian author, Susan Tiberghien, had said to me: 'What does it matter to my Self if my ego ceases to exist?' That was a powerful but puzzling statement; at the time, I could not quite understand what she meant but coming from Susan, these words were neither spiritually-escapist nor an intellectual chin-up. Over time, I caught glimpses of what she meant. I came to explore more her words and to gain a deeper understanding of her statement in the times of COVID-19 when we were all being engulfed by some existential anxiety. While justly guarding ourselves against the paralyzing aspect of fear and anxiety, these emotions have their place; they warn us, and keep us on our toes. 'What does it matter to the Self if my ego ceases to exist?' For me, this means I came into this world from a place I do not know. Will I go back there, when I leave? That question then transformed into another: have I done what I came into life for? Better still: have I been fully in my life? The answer I found was a tentative 'yes'.

Susan's words found a fitting echo when I visited the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy, the summer before the pandemic. The neon inscription in the museum's garden read: se la forma scomparsela radice e éterna or 'If the form disappears, the root is eternal'. Or could it be read in an even more encompassing manner: 'When the form disappears, the root is eternal?' Sounds familiar? Yes! Jung wrote: 'Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. … I have never lost a sense of something that lives and endures under the eternal flux'. (Jung 1961, p. 4) This is what I learnt in the times of COVID-19: we experience existential anxiety when we fear loss of health or loss of existence for ourselves or our loved ones, but this experience of existential anxiety can paradoxically lead us to an experience of what is essential, what lies beyond, what holds us together within ourselves as well as in the relationship with others. The term 'essential anxiety' describes my work with patients and analysands in the moment of the anxiety caused by the pandemic. Such a term allows for the paradoxical nature of anxiety to be viewed as a way to draw us inwards as well as adapting to the challenges of the outside world. COVID-19 led me, and individuals I worked with, back to the 'inner kernel' (Gieser 2005) . When existence is threatened we focus on survival and, at the same time, the prospect or experience of an existential threat can re-focus and help us look for this essence which is in us; we can re-connect with ourselves and recognize when the archetypal Self comes into view. From that perspective, I could relate soul-to-soul with my analysands, even when fears jolted our respective egos. The COVID-19 crisis can prompt us to turn inwards and look towards our fellow human beings in a different way. If we do not look inside to find a place safe enough to be, we might experience others, outside, as threatening, reminding us of Hobbes' homo homini lupus, 'a man is a wolf to another man'. But if we do manage to reconnect with ourselves at a deeper level, at least from time to time, we might recognize a glimpse of what Jung referred to with the image of the rhizome in ourselves and in the others: there, in the rhizome, we can fathom the essence of our being.

After decades of expansive living in a seemingly endless way within an extraverted period, and with much focus on the ego and its perceived needs or impulses, this pandemic imposed a radical return. The need to focus on pure existence surprised us in many ways but also reoriented us, bringing into view another side of our existence: what we can glean from a focus on the inner world. This is an invitation to become less one-sided, more whole, with repercussions for both our looking inward as well as for our outside orientation. One young analysand expressed a reorientation in her professional work during COVID-19 by shifting from training to become a beautician to training to become an interior decorator. She was fully aware of the symbolic dimension, that this would require re-investing also in her inner living space.

Some had a wink from the unconscious as to what was coming: Robert Tyminski spoke on 'Apocalyptic themes in times of trouble' at the 2019 International Association for Analytical Psychology Congress, held in Vienna, where he pointed to the loneliness and marginalization that occurs when the connection to the inner world is missing. While attending that Congress, I had a dream where I received a hint from my inner world that gave form to something I did not yet know; only in hindsight can I see the dream was prognostic. I dreamt of a huge tsunami wave coming towards us. There was no way to escape it, it was going to affect us all. The existential threat was clear in another image in that dream: I was standing on top of a tall building; one step forward and death was certain. When I woke I associated images from 9/11, how some had taken their last liberty by stepping forward into the void, after the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York in 2001.

My dream and my association referred to a disaster, one man-made, the other natural, but each threatening human life. In late August 2019, I could not know whether these images referred to something in the past or something in the future. During the months that followed, well before the pandemic unfolded, increasingly more clients told me of their dreams of disaster and brought their existential anguish to our sessions. I was reminded of my dream and witnessed the unconscious perception in the dreams of my clients, the collective and the individual intercommunicated, pointing out the conscious and unconscious connection in the analytical dyad as well as our connection with the rhizome, Jung's image of the archetypal Self.

For people in Switzerland, the virus appeared far away at first, with the first lockdown in Wuhan, China. Yet the threat quickly became more imminent. The long line of army trucks transporting coffins at night out of Bergamo, one of the hardest-hit towns in Italy, made it clear that the virus was going to affect us all. Soon, the ambulances' sirens howled every hour through the streets of downtown Geneva, and more than 730 people died from the virus from March to early September 2020 in Geneva and Vaud alone, the two cantons in which I work and live. More than 1700 people died in that period in a country of barely eight million people. One world was affected by one virus. But where was unus mundus?

Interconnected 'Stay connected', I told myself. 'Stay connected both on the outer and on the inner levels'. The internet connection allowed me to continue the work with analysands in the safety of our respective homes. Zoom, Skype, phone? Those were the choices to keep up a relationship which in many cases had been built over years. Some analysands preferred the telephone; the image on Zoom or Skype was too distracting for them, while the voice offered a better bridge for keeping up the inner connection. 'No place for small talk, now', said one analysand.

This new mode of working was tiring, at first. So much attention went into being present, to feel and find a connection which used to be a 'given' in my consulting room. Working online required gazing at that little green light on top of the screen so that the analysands would see me looking at them, which meant, in fact, I was not looking at them, but caught in a rather paradoxical situation. In a few instances, I missed by a fraction of a second that my client was moved to tears. Meeting at a distance meant we saw each other much closer, another paradox. I preferred the gallery function of Zoom, seeing each other side-by-side; this gave me a feeling of meeting at an equal level like the 'old' face-to-face, in my office.

It was a new kind of intimacy. We were mutually invited into each other's homes. My consultation room that I regarded as a container for analytic work initially felt as if it were split into two. The analysand had their space holding them and I had my room as my own. Most of our body was offscreen. Surprisingly, this turned out not to be a problem; while the visible was restricted to mimic and gesture, we could actually feel the invisible via images we shared or emotions felt via sensations we noted in our bodies. These sensations were transferred between us as the body has its own way to make itself be known and its presence be felt. The phenomena of somatic transfer and countertransference helped us to feel present to each other (as our colleagues from Authentic Movement or Somatic Experiencing know so well). For instance, I might feel the client's tension in my head, the client's fears found a resonance in my kidneys, or the 'gluglu' gurgling sounds in my belly found an echo in their belly when we were touching a complex. I could sense a tingling in my feet when we connected, and the analysand might feel the same tingling. All this even in front of a screen with both of us sitting miles away from each other.

A colleague had once told me that two hearts can align their beats when they are three metres away and, if that is the case, this will still 'work' within the imposed social distancing of 1.5-2 metres in COVID-19 times. It turned out that the body can be a 'tuning fork' (Stone 2006 ) also when we work online. I began to better sense when my body was in synch with the emotion or the content touched upon by the analysand or supervisee. As I paid increasingly more attention to the sensations in my body while listening to the words, I started enjoying more and more the work in the safety of my home. What I enjoyed most was the feeling of connection: despite the space that distanced us we felt touched. A kind of oneness. The Self manifested in the unity of body and soul, beyond the boundaries of shared space.

In this COVID-19 period, we witnessed how the destructive is affecting us while waiting and hoping for the creative to also come into view. Closing eyes, or remaining in silence, miles apart, we still felt connected. Sometimes, we would wait for an image to arise, then each of us would doodle its outline onto a piece of paper and share the sketch holding it up to that tiny camera. Magic was when the images coincided.

Some patients missed coming to my office. They missed the reflective time and space before and after the session, the time before going back to work or returning home, and so did I. I had to now allow for extra time (and inner space) between patients. For others, online work proved more convenient; no commute, no hassle, no 'loss of time', especially for those further away. It was a reprieve for the environment as I did not use my car for months. In some sessions, I felt the need to assure myself of the privacy of our meeting: 'are you alone?' When a client spoke about infidelity, this seemed more unnerving with the partner right next door. Some clients retreated to the bubble of their car for the session, in cases where spouse or children at home did not allow for the necessary peace of mind. One client walked in nature during the session, with the occasional 'Oops, there was cow poo, here..!' Geneva is surrounded by farmland. Nature proved a container for many analysands in this COVID period, not just in this case, but for many who sought refuge in and emotional resourcing from nature. One client consulted me while walking his dog that was vying for attention, a nod to the issue at hand. Another client's cat appeared in a meaningful moment of the analysis, straddling the ledge of the sofa. A re-connection with nature was another chance to get in touch with the Self. The form of our meetings was new, the substance of the analytical relationship not only stayed but deepened.

I was fraying at the edges, though. As the COVID months bore on, my days were measured in work and walks and meals. I looked for more nourishment in reading, taking in new books and revisiting older texts by authors who had found the words to help us connect with the archetype of the Self: The Secret of the Golden Flower (Wilhelm/Jung 1929) , Man of Light (Corbin 1994) , and authors such as Martin Buber, Gitta Mallasz, Teilhard de Chardin and Dante were nourishing my soul. Staying in contact with colleagues gave me a sense of community as did the morning prayers of nuns of the ecumenical monastery, La Communauté de Grandchamp in Neuchâtel, that was audio-transmitted live via internet. I meditated more. At times, I could feel in my body a surge of warmth, travelling upwards from the soles of my feet, just like the tingling in an analytical session when we felt a connection and affirmation that we were working on the 'right issue'. Now, when meditating, the same sensations occurred; when I opened myself to spirit there was this feeling of warmth rising up, it felt like a foundation, a support I could trust, and even call upon. I was grateful. I felt held and trusted my ability to offer this 'holding' for my clients. Many times, I felt privileged to work as an analyst during this time when individually and collectively we were all concerned with our safety and our existence. When an insight arose, or when another reality broke into our daily livesit brought a new image into view. These were moments of awe; when the essence was shining through, essential anxiety was leading to novel insights and psychic development.

One colleague, concerned about the challenge of honouring the newly imposed distance, shared a dream image that he felt was 'beyond his understanding'. It Essential anxiety: COVID-19 in analytic practice did indeed seem to come from another place. In the dream, he saw an Italian artist who had created an immense sculpture; the moment of inauguration had come. It was a big wall, like the facade of a temple, the colour of the earth. On top of the oval wall were ancient frescoes of saints, and in the centre, the Holy Virgin was in the process of being crowned. The dreamer knew that his vision contained an important message, but what was it? The artist had smiled, unperturbed. Then it 'clicked' as the dreamer focused on what was at the centre of the dream: Mary was at the centre and the temple was the earth, but the other frescoes on the oval wall also formed a crown. A friend then asked the dreamer: is not the virus called 'corona'?

What was the message here, from another realm? A crowning of humanity in a world ravaged by this virus? That was hardly the message, amidst the reality of the suffering and loss. Rather, looked at from a symbolic perspective, the dream image pointed towards a coronation of a reconnection at another level. With Mary and the earth temple at the centre, the message was tantamount to a crowning of the feminine, the holy. This was the insight for the dreamer, gained in this time of essential anxiety.

Not only is this virus referred to as Corona, crown, but also as COVID; co meaning 'together' and vid meaning 'see', in other words, together we see. Around that time, I had dreamt seeing three green frogs with a red crown coming towards me on penguin-like wings; another colleague shared a mandala image on 'what I can and on what I can't control'. In her traversing of the crisis, it appeared clear to her that these times called for 'introspection and integration of our common darkness through love of ourselves and other'.

Again and again, I was reminded how deeply we can connect if we pay attention to our inner connection and our connection with others, particularly when we are willing to enter into such intimate relationship with soul, with this dimension, call it by whatever word you wish. I love this way of being, of intimating a connection that can be easily lost, or rather overlooked, in a too busy life. COVID slowed us down and made space and time for this reconnection, for some of us even in the face of grief. One analysand I have worked with for a long time, a brilliant rational scientific-minded individual, was surprised that he was to undertake a pilgrimage in his dreams. Actually, several analysands felt inspired to walk some distance of the El Camino Santiago de Compostela. Another analysand who was by nature rather introverted, and even mystical, spoke vividly in session about the scientific evidence and requirements of the COVID-19 crisis. Many of the individuals I worked with in this time made a leap to an opposite side, in one way or the other. Whilst the third, the in-between, was beckoning, it was hard-won, requiring patience and faith, with the reward of a 'numinous experience … of the Ground of Being' (Stein 2014, p. 39 ) that shone through.

So far, so good, but there was also the shadow. I shared in the fear and despair of elderly clients who were well beyond their 80's, of those who lost a dear person, and of those who lived and feared alone, or who felt the ravishing effect of their reduced mobility. I felt their fright of nearing an ending, and this with no or very little presence provided by loved ones. Even I was reachable only via a phone or a screen, which constellated a sense of powerlessness and guilt. Regretfully, some analysands stayed away, their process interrupted.

For some analysands, the anguish with regards to their elderly parents, afar and alone, was a huge burden that nothing could alleviate. We visited this place together, the place of 'no sense' of 'no sense, at all, to life' in the face of death. The connection to Self, while tentatively available early on during the crisis, seemed to fall to the wayside as the crisis continued, with no end in sight. The frustration grew, the anger, the opposition, the mistrust in authorities, a whole wave of anti-feelings after the fear, after loss and grief. Selfishness, not the archetypal Self, seemed on the rise: 'If it does not affect me, why should I care?' 'You old people stay home!' was heard on the streets. 'Where is my fun?' glared into the face of the question 'Where is my life going?' I heard of friends and colleagues who had fallen ill, and some colleagues had died. Each day an apprehension. I had nightmares of a door closing, shutting me in, into utter darkness, and of an owl, the bird of wisdom, flying out. And of me undergoing a mud bath, or trying to reach the other side of the river. My back was not in good shape, too much sitting, too much tension stored. I knew it was important to keep my own powerlessness silently but consciously in focus during sessions since many analysands felt very much the same. 'What can you do?' 'Nothing'. 'Really, nothing?' 'Well, no. I do not think so …'. There was the experience of nothingness, of disconnection, the threat of resignation and apathy.

As I reflect and look over dreams, mine and those of clients, I can see new growth, like that fresh green of a dewed meadow revealed when the fog lifts again. The symbols of the creative, the fertile and the fruitful appeared in dreams and in everyday life. Dreams of flowers and trees, and quite a number of love relationships and babies are on their way, attesting to the creative force in the face of a threat by the destructive. The inner connection also being a source of creativity led several clients to begin to write a book, while others started to paint or to dialogue with their soul in new ways. 'Celebrate life! It is an extraordinary giftevery day', one client exclaimed. I noticed a new innerconnectedness as well as a new inter-connectedness. We had a 'matrix of support' with colleagues sharing our experiences, dreams and thoughts, to help each other centre ourselves and from that point reach down to our own depths, and from there, out again, to our analysands. 'The lockdown made us slow down and reflect. It put us against the wall!', a colleague wrote. 'This crisis brought us to recognize our darkness and the spark that is our life. Our neurotic side can no longer be overlookednor can be the numinous traversing us, right through the middle of our being! Where our power and our powerlessness intersect, there lurks the light of wisdom and of grace'.

The earth and our humanity has many faces like in the frieze of saints in the dream of my colleague mentioned earlier. In COVID-times we are reminded to see the destructive and the creative together, and that we are truly present when we catch a glimpse of that wholeness. In the first wave, we tried to defend against the intruding virus by keeping others out; we shut borders and ourselves in the home; in the second wave, the virus teaches us that we must be responsible, as an individual, in the way we behave with each other and towards ourselves, as a 'whole'. We can go and look deep down within ourselves, to our soul, to what holds us together, we can connect with what is essential in us, in the midst of our existential anxieties, and from that place, our eye can rise to meet the Other. This is not a hymn to the beyond but a song for the 'I', so that when we come to the end, the 'I' has found the connection with Self. As in the saying of my friend, Susan: 'What does it matter to my Self if my ego ceases to exist?' During these months, I have dreamt of construction, of crossing bridges and of going down, down a so-called man-hole, lowering myself to reach groundwater. I have dreamt of cheese that had ripened in the earth for a hundred years and I was given a portion of it to eat; in another dream, I was given golden curcuma bread. Symbolically, such dreams point to the wisdom-of-the-old through compensatory images of nourishment that are needed during times of anxiety, uncertainty and focus on survival. For Jung, the goal of psychic development is individuation that comes from recognizing and holding the tension of the opposites. Our 'psychic totality, the self, is a combination of opposites. Without a shadow even the self is not real. It always has two aspects, a bright and a dark' (Jung 1964 (Jung /2014 . The corona pandemic has brought this point home. Some existential anxiety transformed into essential anxiety. zu einer wesentlichen Erfahrung, die das psychologische Wachstum förderte. Ich diskutiere einige Vorteile der Jungianischen Online-Analyse, bei der der Körper trotz Distanz und Teilansicht immer noch als Behälter für wichtiges psychologisches Material dient und dem Analytiker und Analysanden ein Gefühl der Ganzheitlichkeit vermittelt. Die COVID-19-Krise ist schrecklich und furchterregend, bietet aber auch die Möglichkeit zu Selbstregulierung und Individuation.

Schlüsselwörter: Ängstlichkeit, essentielle Angst, archetypisches Selbst, Körper als Container, Online-Arbeit, Jung, spirituell, Träume, COVID-19, Jungianische Online-Analyse, Individuation Questo articolo esplora l'impatto della pandemia da COVID-19 sulla mia relazione con gli analizzandi e con il mio mondo interno. Rifletto sul ruolo dell'archetipo del Sé durante il tempo dell'angoscia esistenziale che può condurre all'esperienza dell'"angoscia essenziale". Questo termine si riferisce all'incontro di un Io impaurito con il Sé, quando si affronta una minaccia. Gli sforzi per frenare la diffusione della pandemia hanno cambiato il nostro modo di vivere, mentre lo stesso virus minaccia le nostre esistenze e debilita in modi distruttivi. Ma ciò che emerge, nelle sedute e nelle supervisioni, è l'istinto creativo e la celebrazione della vita. La relazione "da anima ad anima" e la connessione con le immagini del Sé archetipico rendono l'esperienza dell'angoscia esistenziale a volta un'esperienza che facilita la crescita psicologica. Discuto alcuni vantaggi dell'analisi junghiana online in cui, malgrado la distanza e la visuale parziale, il corpo ancora funziona come contenitore per tenere materiale psicologico importante, conferendo un senso di interezza all'analista ed all'analizzando. La crisi da COVID-19 è terribile e terrificante, ma anche offre un'opportunità per l'autoregolazione e per l'individuazione.

Parole chiave: angoscia, angoscia esistenziale, angoscia essenziale, Sé archetipico, corpo come contenitore, lavoro online, Jung, spirituale, sogni, COVID-19, analisi junghiana online, individuazione В статье исследуется влияние пандемии коронавируса на мои отношения с анализандами и мой внутренний мир. Я размышляю о роли архетипической Самости во времена экзистенциальной тревоги, которая может привести к «сущностной тревоге». Этот термин относится ко встрече испуганного эго с внутренним узнаванием Самости в ситуации угрозы. Усилия, предпринятые для сдерживания распространения пандемии, изменили нашу жизнь, в то же время вирус угрожал нашему существованию изнурительными или откровенно разрушительными способами. Но что также стало очевидным во время аналитических сессий и супервизий -это созидательный инстинкт и празднование жизни. Отношения душа-кдуше, связь с образами архетипической Самости превратили переживания экзистенциальной тревоги в сущностное, необходимое переживание, которое способствовало психологическому росту. Я обсуждаю некоторые преимущества юнгианского онлайн анализа, в котором несмотря на расстояния и только частичное видео изображение друг друга, тело все еще остается контейнером, которое вмещает важный психологический материал, дает ощущение целостности аналитику и анализанду. Вызванный коронавирусом кризис ужасный и пугающий, но он также дает возможность для саморегуляции и индивидуации.

Ключевые слова: тревога, экзистенциальная тревога, сущностная тревога, архетипическая Самость, тело как контейнер, онлайн работа, Юнг, духовное, сновидения, ковид-19, онлайн анализ, индивидуация El presente trabajo explora el impacto de la pandemia de COVID-19 en mi relación con mis analizandos y con mi mundo interno. Reflexiono sobre el rol del Sí Mismo arquetípico durante estos tiempos de ansiedad existencial que pueden conducir a una experiencia de 'ansiedad esencial'. Este término hace referencia al encuentro de un ego atemorizado con un reconocimiento interno del Sí Mismo, cuando es confrontado con una amenaza. Los esfuerzos por reducir la propagación de la pandemia cambiaron nuestro modo de vida, mientras el virus mismo amenazaba nuestra existencia ya sea debilitándola, o en formas directamente destructivas. Pero lo que también se hizo visible, en sesiones de análisis y supervisión, fue el instinto creativo y la celebración de la vida. La relación de alma-a-alma, y la conexión con imágenes del Sí Mismo arquetípico, hizo de a momentos la experiencia de ansiedad existencial, una experiencia esencial que facilitó el crecimiento psicológico. Analizo algunas ventajas del análisis Junguiano online, donde, aún la distancia y cierta parcialidad en el campo visual, el cuerpo sirve todavía de contenedor para alojar importante material psicológico, brindando un sentido de totalidad al analista y al analizando. La crisis por el COVID-19 es terrible y aterradora, pero al mismo tiempo provee una oportunidad para la autorregulación y la individuación. 

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Apocalyptic themes in times of trouble'. XXI International Association for Analytical Psychology Congress

The Secret of the Golden Flower: a Chinese Book of Life

Cet article explore l'impact de la pandémie de COVID-19 sur ma relation avec mes analysants et avec mon monde intérieur. Je réfléchis au rôle du Soi archétypal durant les périodes d'angoisse existentielle pouvant mener à une expérience 'd'angoisse essentielle'. Ce terme fait référence à la rencontre entre un moi craintif et l'acceptation intérieure du Soi, lors d'une confrontation avec une menace. Les efforts pour atténuer la diffusion de la pandémie ont changé nos manières de vivre, pendant que le virus luimême menaçait notre existence de manière écrasante ou carrément destructive. Mais ce qui s'est également profilé, dans les séances d'analyse et de supervision, fut l'instinct créatif, et une célébration de la vie. La relation d'âme à âme et le lien avec des images du Soi archétypal ont parfois fait de l'expérience d'angoisse existentielle une expérience essentielle qui a facilité la croissance psychologique. J'aborde certains bénéfices de l'analyse Jungienne en ligne quand, malgré l'éloignement et la vision rétrécie à l'écran, le corps sert encore en tant que contenant pour détenir du matériel psychologique important, ce qui confère à l'analyste et à l'analysant un sentiment de complétude. La COVID-19 est terrible et terrifiante mais elle offre aussi une opportunité pour l'autorégulation et l'individuation.Mots clés: angoisse, angoisse existentielle, angoisse essentielle, Soi archétypal, le corps en tant que contenant, analyse en ligne, Jung, spirituel, rêves, COVID-19, analyse Jungienne en ligne, individuationIn diesem Artikel werden die Auswirkungen der COVID-19-Pandemie auf meine Beziehung zu Analysanden und meine innere Welt untersucht. Ich beziehe mich auf die Rolle des archetypischen Selbst in Zeiten existentieller Angst, die zu einer Erfahrung von 'essentieller Angst' führen kann. Dieser Begriff bezieht sich auf die Begegnung eines ängstlichen Egos mit einem inneren Erkennen des Selbst, wenn es einer Bedrohung ausgesetzt ist. Die Bemühungen, die Ausbreitung der Pandemie einzudämmen, veränderten unsere Lebensweise, während das Virus selbst unsere Existenz auf schwächende oder geradezu zerstörerische Weise bedrohte. Was aber auch in Analyse-und Supervisionssitzungen sichtbar wurde, war der kreative Instinkt und eine Feier des Lebens. Die Beziehung von Seele zu Seele und die Verbindung mit Bildern des archetypischen Selbst machten die Erfahrung existentieller Angst zuweilen