Telephone Analysis: Compromised Treatment or an Interesting Opportunity?

Abstract

Under the pressure of societal changes, today many analysts agree to conduct parts of an analysis over the telephone. However, little has been written about particular ways in which use of the phone affects the psychoanalytic process. The author focuses on the impact of the phone on psychoanalytic treatment and particularly on one of its potential advantages, i.e., the combination of a continuity that intensifies the treatment and physical distance between analyst and patient, making this intensity less threatening. Two detailed case reports illustrate how this combination facilitated the growth of affective tolerance and enabled these two patients to bring their emotional experiences from phone sessions into the consulting room.

• Telephone analysis
• treatment interruptions
• analytic technique
• use of the couch
• immigration
• parental sexuality
• early trauma
• overstimulation
• analytic process
• transitional space
• sleeping in sessions
• psychosis
• hysterical symptoms