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The impetus for this issue was the overwhelmingly positive response to a May 2, 2020 conference that we (SGH and JS) co-chaired, sponsored by The Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy + Psychoanalysis, in Washington, DC. Dr. Adrienne Harris presented theoretical and clinical material related to practicing in the time of COVID-19, and Dr. Alison Howard, who herself contracted coronavirus and suffered with COVID-19, presented clinical material to illustrate Dr. Harris’s ideas. The conference interwove issues related to the coronavirus pandemic, the sociocultural/political crisis, and the personal impact of Dr. Howard’s illness on her and her patients. The audience felt the program to be both emotionally and intellectually compelling.
In the intervening time (it is now December 2020 as of this writing), many powerful events have gripped us all. George Floyd’s death occurred on May 25 and sparked uprisings in the streets and on social media, protests against police brutality, and widespread support of the Black Lives Matter movement. All of this transpired in the context of the most divisive U.S. presidential election in memory. The crushing weight of these pandemics continues to bear down on us as coronavirus infections rates are careening out of control with over 19,500,000 people infected in the U.S. and over 82,000,000 globally. Over 337,000 persons have died in the U.S. and 1,800,000 deaths are reported worldwide as of December 30, 2020. The differential, drastic impact of COVID-19 on poor people, and people of color, emphasizes the existing tragic disparities in the culture and only promises to worsen with time. Air and breath itself take on new meanings, both real and metaphoric: seeing people on ventilators, a policeman’s knee on George Floyd’s neck, images of gasping for air and holding one’s breath float among us, conveyed through screens, news footage, phone lines and dreams, as we work remotely, in our isolated spaces. We know that by the time this journal