From the Couch to the Screen: Psychoanalysis in Times of Virtuality

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to study the implementation of technology in today’s psychoanalytical scenario. Many historical and cultural changes have taken place since Freud up to these days. To the contemporary subjective constitution, the human being is complex and determined by a myriad of biological, psychological, and social factors. Thus, culture is not external to the dimensions making up the subject, and technology plays a key role in people’s current lives. Within the psychoanalytical technique, the setting has changed and adapted to the different social contexts, to the needs of each subject and also of the analyst. Contemporary psychoanalysis faces the challenge of setting up new scenarios to fit a new present that is taking shape. These are mixed settings, where the physical and virtual presences complement each other, simultaneously and alternately. Both the virtual and the physical realities are different and, therefore, do not replace each other. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to reflect on the conditions that make possible the analytical encounter mediated by technology.

Mediated psychotherapy, transitional space and cybernetic capitalism

“…Presence, in the digital domain, is shaped by the medium which, previously, never needed much explicit attention. Now, as Corbella (2020) describes, it has become central. In so doing, it highlights the medium as intrinsic to interaction.…”

“…In this respect, we can usefully extend Corbella's (2020) account of four metaphors of analytic encounter to a fifth. Following Farate (n.d.) and Civitarese and Ferro (2017), she describes the fourth metaphor as the analytic field.…”

The phone in the room: How technology is reshaping analytic space.

“…Among countless other dynamics, it lives in a world of blurred distinctions between public and private that has fundamentally altered the nature of intimacy and connection, and shifted our expectations as we tend toward immediate action, often at the cost of reflective, thoughtful communication (Balick, 2018;Trub & Magaldi, 2019;Turkle, 2016). These dynamics have been mirrored in changes to the psychoanalytic frame, which has become more porous, flexible, and difficult to maintain as separate from the outside world (Corbella, 2020;Gabbard, 2013;.…”