Introduction

In the last days of August 2021, as the Taliban was closing in on Kabul following the precipitous US withdrawal, the American University of Afghanistan was thrown into disarray. All in-person classes were halted, many of the faculty and staff left the country in haste and desperation. The Afghan students were left behind, terrified, traumatized and in fear for their own and their families’ lives. There was terrible danger, loss, and betrayal, both for those who eventually escaped and for those who remained. A group of clinicians from the Post Doctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy at NYU, led by program director Spyros Orfanos in collaboration with the American University, committed to doing what was initially conceived of as short-term crisis intervention over Zoom. That work evolved into much more, profoundly impacting all involved in complex and unanticipated ways.

In this panel, we bring you the narratives of three of the clinicians who worked on this collaboration: Spyros Orfanos, Lisa Lyons, and Martin Cooper. We are also proud to deliver a “letter to humanity” penned by Shaista Shams, describing her long journey from student in Kabul, to displaced person, and concluding with her recent arrival in New York to complete her Master’s degree. In one form or another, everyone on this panel met as strangers in a strange land. Shaista Shams and the analysts who contribute to this panel reflect on and query the complexities, challenges, disillusionments, moments of fear, doubt, and hope they have encountered along the way.

Amy Schwartz Cooney Ph.D., Jack Foehl Ph.D., Stephen Hartman Ph.D., and Lauren Levine Ph.D.

Joint Editors-in-Chief, Psychoanalytic Dialogues