Amidst a pandemic and the events following George Floyd\'s murder in 2020, discussions of race have escalated in the psychoanalytic community. One theoretical formulation, Afropessimism, has served as a lightning rod across both psychoanalytic and academic circles. Another, Black Rage, offers a psychoanalytic theory of the psychic effect of racial oppression on traumatized subjects. Using both as catalysts, this essay explores the historicity of the questions raised by the racial unrest of the pandemic--the deep embedding of questions of race and Blackness in unconscious prehistories of modernity, the human, and our understanding of our social worlds.

People with pathological narcisism, with their conflicted sense of grandiosity and vulnerability, often pose a variety of therapeutic challenges, which may impede these patients\' ability to benefit from psychotherapy. To offer a case illustration and provide insight into the intrinsic difficulties of working with this patient group, we examined the treatment of a fictional character, Alex, from the TV series In Treatment. Based on the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 we diagnosed Alex with pathological narcissism, and evaluated the treatment process (seven sessions) by reporting on measurements of session-by-session change in explicit working alliance, implicit language alliance, and ruptures and repairs. Over the course of treatment, the working alliance (Working Alliance Inventory-Observer scale) fluctuated with a particularly low bond at session five, identified as a rupture (Rupture Resolution Rating System). Language analysis (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) showed that the unconscious aspects of the alliance started to deteriorate just before the rupture occurred. The results illustrate how therapists might be pulled to collude with narcissistic patients\' grandiosity, with the risk of neglecting their vulnerability. This fictional portrayal of a treatment with a narcissistic patient may be widely shared with researchers, students and therapists alike, offering a common locus of scholarly attention, and an innovative tool for teaching. Given the lack of empirical treatments for pathological narcissism and the great therapeutic challenges narcissistic patients present, further research and development of clinical guidelines are warranted.

There is still little research on psychological wellbeing, life satisfaction and reported problems in preadolescents and adolescents under therapy for leukaemia, and also little research comparing them with their healthy peers. The present study aimed to analyse the life satisfaction, hope, psychological wellbeing and reported problems\' intensity in 60 patients aged 8-18 during the first year of therapy, to identify those more at risk and to compare their reports with matched healthy peers. A battery of self-reported questionnaires was administered during hospitalisation or day hospital admissions post 6 months and post 12 months from the diagnosis. Younger patients (aged 8-13 years) were more at risk than older ones in their problems\' intensity and psychological symptoms; females and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia patients reported lower current life satisfaction perceptions; hope was associated with lower depression symptoms and mood problems. Healthy peers have a better perception of current life, but reported a lower hope score, more anxiety symptoms and more cognitive problems than patients. The first 6 months were more critical for patients\' psychological health. Basing on these empirical data, the inclusion of mental health care professionals or supportive psychotherapy into the treatment is recognized as extremely useful.