Couples Under Lockdown

The psychotherapist and beloved podcaster Esther Perel arrived with  Couples Under Lockdown  at this year’s height of global panic. When mandated quarantining hit much of the world, so too did new feelings about isolation, marriage, moving, safety, and contro. Perel demonstrates how to deal with these emotions by putting the root cause of relationship woes under a microscope. Just before the crisis, one couple relocated to Lagos, Nigeria, where they wrestled with balancing their emotional needs against their American privilege and the poverty surrounding them. Another couple in New York started to divorce before COVID-19 and now can’t fully separate, heal, or pursue new relationships while also safely co-parenting their children. While their situations might be unique, the issues underlying each couple’s conflict are resonant. Episodes start out like an impossible knot that, by the end, become less tightly wound. The message to listeners is that whatever they’re tied up in can be loosened a little, if only they, like Perel, can isolate the threads.