The technologically‐mediated self: reflections on the container and field of telecommunications

This paper proposes that exploring the use of internet pornography creates a potentially beneficial, albeit defensive liminal space that can be used therapeutically. The content of compelling sexual scenes can be viewed as the psyche's way of mastering internal trauma and masking an inner emptiness. However, from a Jungian perspective, the use of internet pornography can also be seen as a patient's distorted way of trying to make dissociated affects more bearable by triumphing over them. The sexual use of technology can express intrapsychic conflict encapsulated in what Stoller called 'microdots'. Stoller's microdots are unique scriptsa kind of emotional code that gives clinicians an opportunity to reveal unconscious processes and transcend them through meaning making. Wood's work at the Portman Clinic on the chosen 'compelling scenarios' of pornography-addicted patients is also examined with this Jungian lens. Jung's idea of the transcendent function is used to show the value of holding the tension of fantasy and frustration provoked by intimacy. The paper illustrates how they come together within the therapeutic relationship to stimulate something new.

Section: The Seduction Of the Illusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seduction, deception and technology

Tyler¹

2022

“…Given the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, Merchant recently updated his review (2021), largely reinforcing his previous conclusions, although he makes further note of problematic aspects, such as online exhaustion, contraindications for treating severe personality disorders, and requirements for licensing, as well as multiple issues related to confidentiality of data and privacy. Cwik (2021) and Migone (2013), coming from different analytic traditions, see advantages for online analysis and psychotherapy. They tend to take a position that underscores differences from in-person analysis, while supporting the utility of cyberspace-based therapy as a modern adaptation.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Cwik (2021) and Migone (2013), coming from different analytic traditions, see advantages for online analysis and psychotherapy. They tend to take a position that underscores differences from in‐person analysis, while supporting the utility of cyberspace‐based therapy as a modern adaptation.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…They tend to take a position that underscores differences from in‐person analysis, while supporting the utility of cyberspace‐based therapy as a modern adaptation. Regarding teletherapy, Cwik believes that a ‘technologically‐mediated self’ enters into the analytic field, whereas Migone emphasizes that analysis of transference can happen online and it does not depend upon ‘extrinsic criteria’ such as presence in an office setting (Cwik 2021, p. 413; Migone 2013, p. 291). However, both authors concur that the absence of real bodies in real space can become a challenge in which something – what, exactly, is not specified – is lost (Cwik 2021, p. 423; Migone 2013, p. 295).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Regarding teletherapy, Cwik believes that a ‘technologically‐mediated self’ enters into the analytic field, whereas Migone emphasizes that analysis of transference can happen online and it does not depend upon ‘extrinsic criteria’ such as presence in an office setting (Cwik 2021, p. 413; Migone 2013, p. 291). However, both authors concur that the absence of real bodies in real space can become a challenge in which something – what, exactly, is not specified – is lost (Cwik 2021, p. 423; Migone 2013, p. 295). I describe (2021), however, that for adolescents, the analytic containing function for disturbed and psychotic parts of the personality appears to operate less effectively online than in person; this topic will be explicated as the paper unfolds.…”

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confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Back to the future: when children and adolescents return to office sessions following episodes of teletherapy

Tyminski

2022

Analysts and psychotherapists are beginning to have more thorough and probing discussions about how the COVID‐19 pandemic has affected their work. Shifting to online teletherapy has been necessary due to the public health measures put in place to curtail the spread of the virus. Much of the existing literature addresses how using online platforms for teletherapy works for adults. This paper instead looks at its effects on working with children and adolescents. A contrast between Winnicott’s notion of holding and Bion’s concept of container‐contained is reviewed through a summary of a paper by Ogden. This author finds that holding might be more applicable to online work during a pandemic when the collective relationship to time and its usual parameters is severely upended. Containing could be more arduous and challenging online due to the lack of embodied presence to communicate and detect tiny nonverbal cues. A short questionnaire affirms that child analysts and psychotherapists have struggled with dimensions of online work that are particular to the developmental levels of their patients. Further, teletherapy may often not be a good fit for someone with learning differences.

Opportunities of online analysis¹

Niesser¹

2022

The question of whether tele-analysis is an acceptable way of conducting analysis has been discussed since it has become available. Merchant (2016) and others concluded that 'the essentials of a genuine analytic process are not necessarily precluded' (p. 1). In this paper, the author goes a step further and examines potential advantages of tele-analysis. There may be benefits for patients with a history of physical or sexual abuse who value the distance. The potential for a 'safe place' for work with erotic transference is also examined. In a further section the author is interested in allowing the analyst the freedom to practise in an authentic way, congruent with their personality. Also explored is the concept of the interactive field including the technological medium, which is subject to synchronistic events. Finally, the author gives examples of a deep connection between patient and analyst which came about despite the physical distance.