Digital Communication in Psychoanalysis: An Oxymoron?

Abstract

Texts and e-mails can create treatment dilemmas. This is especially the case when impulsively employed by patient and/or therapist, constituting an enactment. The opportunities for miscommunication are rife because of the lack of opportunity to converse in person and because tone of voice, body language, and other nonverbal cues are missing. They can also have a depersonalizing effect on sender and receiver. This article addresses how these problems occur and ways to deal with them.

Keywords:

• e-mail
• texts
• digital communication
• impulsivity
• enactment

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge the following for their astute comments, steadfast helpfulness, and clinical acumen: Jewel Frankfeldt, Paul Geltner, Eugene Goldwater, Stanley Hayden, Lucy Holmes, Marilyn LaMonica, Barbara Mitchell, David Pauley, Susan Sherman, Cathy Siebold, and Nancy Stiefel.