Editorial

In January, 2020, the novel coronavirus appeared. The Covid-19 epidemic hit the United States and Europe and was soon declared a pandemic. Couples and families were in a state of disbelief and denial, or fear. But it was not until March 2020 that the leadership took action. Governments instituted quarantine to control or at least delay the spread of the virus and flatten the curve of its progression, and professional associations provided support and advice on how to maintain continuity of care for couples and families reeling from the impact of Covid-19. Social distancing helped to control the spread of the coronavirus in its physical expression, but its emotional impact was immense: no more hugs from grandchildren, no weddings for engaged couples, no funerals for grieving family members to find solace in mourning together. The constant threat of infection and loss of contact and ritual created a pandemic trauma stress experience in everyone and a pandemic of emotional breakdown in the most vulnerable of couples and families. It was a challenge for everyone, couples and families in treatment and therapists alike. But no-one then could really believe how many surges would follow, and how long a tail the virus would have. Two years later, as this journal issue goes to press, we see the enormous emotional, physical, and economic impact on individuals, couples, families, and societies—and fortunately we also see great opportunities for learning.

This special issue of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis leads off with Elizabeth Palacios' brief description of a collaborative project in which well-trained psychoanalysts in Spain agreed to donate time for crisis intervention using technology-mediation for couples and families distressed by Covid. She provides a clinical illustration of her work with a couple whose financial security, emotional stability, individual sense of self, and couplehood were threatened, and shows what she learned about the teleanalytic space and its el