WHICH THEORIES AND CONCEPTIONS DO PSYCHOANALYSTS AND PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPISTS CONSIDER HELPFUL IN THEIR PRACTICE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC UNFOLDING IN UKRAINE?

The unavoidable tense situation of the COVID-19 pandemic dictates psychoanalysts to face with the range of questions, to which they have to find or invent their own responses. To some of these questions associations have formulated their clear guidelines. However, a certain unique case and circumstances of a certain country may not be covered by them. We believe it important to study all the processes which psychoanalysts observe and theorize on during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper presents the results of an anonymous survey of psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists (n=71) from different institutions, associations and theoretical schools, which was conducted online after a month of lockdown in Ukraine to assess first observations and considerations of practitioners, which were related to the period of uncertainty and the COVID-19 pandemic unfolding. Among the surveyed psychoanalysts who continued practicing during the quarantine, around twothirds admitted that they had been focusing or shifting toward certain conceptions in their theoretical thinking more than they used to, which did not correlate with their experience or certification status. The obtained data content analysis has shown that these theories were referring to the following two main issues on (1) how the psychic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine in a particular case can be explained, and (2) how a psychoanalyst can deal with it through his or her own analytic stance and interventions. Practitioners were referring to the theoretical viewpoints of “Classic psychoanalysis”, “Object relations”, and the variety of particular theories, such as conceptions of © Mariana Velykodna, Halyna Tsyhanenko DOI (Article): https://doi.org/10.31108/1.2020.6.8.7 99 PSYCHOLOGICAL JOURNAL Volume 6 Issue 8 2020 Volume 6 Issue 8 2020 http://www.apsijournal.com/ ISSN 2414-0023 (Print) ISSN 2414-004X (Online) DOI (Issue): https://doi.org/10.31108/1.2020.6.8 mourning, anxiety, trauma, defense mechanisms and coping, manifestation of neurotic conflicts, Self issues, complexes, early traumatic experience, etc. Besides, psychoanalysts noted some valuable conceptions for supporting their analytic stance and for certain interventions, e.g., the significance of their own analysis, as well as containing, holding and transforming the analysand’s material. An unexpected finding was that 8% of psychoanalytic practitioners admitted that they were focused on some non-analytic theories and concepts during their practice in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as cognitive techniques of stress-management or stabilization. This may be interpreted both in terms of psychotherapy integration in order to obtain better results, as well as the evidence of lack of psychoanalytic theories or interventions for some important phenomena which take place during the real traumatized and depriving periods like the pandemic unfolding.

Introduction. The tense situation of the COVID-19 pandemic dictates to providers of psychological support and psychotherapy to change substantially their common format of practice, e.g. to conduct remote sessions (Inchausti & et al., 2020;Perrin & et al., 2020), to deal with chaotic schedules (Velykodna, Frankova, 2020), and to shift to urgent and educative interventions or even to suspend their practice (Velykodna, 2020;Tsyhanenko, Velykodna, 2020), etc. However, such observed phenomena may be less significant in those approaches for which working in person, a stable setting and slow, not rushed, processes are not as crucial as for psychoanalysts.
In spite of the rich history of the aforementioned changes and developments, we would venture to state that psychoanalysts were not prepared for further urgent modifications to conduct their practice during the pandemic and the limitations of the quarantine. Not in the sense of lack of technological tools or their own braveness to try a remote format or to make rearrangements on the setting, but  Therefore, two-thirds of the practitioners admitted that they had been focusing or shifting toward certain conceptions in their theoretical thinking more than they used to. Interestingly, it was not associated with the years of their experience (r=0,18, p=0,08) and certification status (χ 2 =1,35, p=0,72).
Overall, the surveyed practitioners made 87 mentions of such theories in their written responses.
Content-analysis of the responses showed noticeable diversity of mentioned theories and conceptions (54 conceptions among 87 mentions). Thus, finding a way to summarize them into categories or groups turned out to be a challenge. Firstly, we distributed the mentioned theories into categories based on their authors and general approach, i.e. psychoanalytic school ( Table 2).
As we see from Table 2, the most frequently mentioned categories were "Classic psychoanalysis" (39,61%), "Object relations" (25,3%), the variety of particular theories from Jungian to subjective and relational schools (27,6%), and, surprisingly, non-analytic theories and concepts (8%). To be more illustrative, we  have created Figure 1, which shows the distribution of the aforementioned categories.
In an attempt to find a more informative way of data analysis, we tried to systematize the mentioned conceptions by their key references to a certain phenomenon, process, or issue, i.e. "what do these theories talk about?". For this purpose, we ignored the mentioned names and theoretical schools, therefore, we analyzed 39 content units with 50 mentions in total (Table 3).  Although we tried to share the announcement of the survey to a wider group of psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, perhaps it was still easier to reach our colleagues. At the same time, it may also refer to "alienation" and some evident or latent splits in psychoanalytic society, recently described by M. L. Ellis (2020); representatives of other associations might have been merely less enthusiastic to participate in a research conducted by "strangers" or "enemies".
Analyzing the aforementioned 5 categories of key references from Table 3, we would conclude that ⅔ of the surveyed psychoanalysts (69,5%) and psychoanalytic psychotherapists in general are concerned about two main issues (Table 4).
Thus, the most helpful theories and conceptions for the surveyed respondents were those which can respond to these two questions. These mainly were theoretical viewpoints of "Classic psychoanalysis" (39,61%), "Object relations" (25,3%), and the variety of particular almost onetime-mentioned theories (27,6%). To answer the first question, the practitioners were referring to the various theories of mourning, anxiety, trauma, certain mechanisms of defense and coping, as well as to conceptions for some partial issues of analysands manifested due to the current circumstances, such as manifestation of neurotic conflicts, Self issues, complexes, early traumatic experience, etc. As for the second question, the psychoanalysts referred to some conceptions which were valuable for supporting their analytic stance and for certain interventions, e.g., the significance of their own analysis, as well as containing, holding and transforming of the analysand's material. Some surveyed practitioners mentioned psychoanalytic approaches which they considered helpful these days.
Interestingly, 8% of psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic Table 4 The main issues which the mentioned theories and conceptions are referring to

How can the psychic response to the COVID-19
pandemic and quarantine in a particular case be explained and theorized on?
2. How can a psychoanalyst deal with it through his or her own analytic stance and interventions?
Category "Individual psychic response to the COVID-19 pandemic or quarantine" (42%) Category "Analytic stance" (18%) Category "Social psychic response to the COVID-19 pandemic or quarantine" (8%) Category "Interventions" (16%) Category "Manifested issues" (16%) 66% in total 34% in total themselves with some non-analytic theories and concepts during this period, such as techniques of stress-management or stabilization. This also corresponds with the current position in psychotherapy, which claims that it is necessary to study which approach and setting will optimally serve the needs of people during the COVID-19 pandemic (Swartz, 2020  Among the surveyed psychoanalysts who continued practicing during the quarantine, around twothirds admitted that they had been focusing or shifting toward certain conceptions in their theoretical thinking more than they used to, which did not correlate with their experience or certification status. The obtained data content analysis has shown that these theories were referring to the following two main issues on (1)