Imagination Foreclosed: Searching for Each Other in the Digital Age

Abstract

The digital age has normalized amateur sleuthing. Despite the fact that searching online for information about patients clashes with the analytic ideal, many of us google our patients. Dynamically speaking, what lies behind these searches? Certainly, the act of searching represents a premature foreclosure of imagination; it inevitably changes the relational matrix. It often conceals an unconscious communication that the analyst has not been able to acknowledge or examine. Internet searches can be individually or dyadically informed; in both instances, they disrupt the intimacy of the two-person relationship and our own self-experience as analysts. Even more troubling, they leave us holding secrets that breach an ethical line. This essay moves beyond the problem of boundary violations and explores how obtaining information about the other through online searches informs, enriches, and disrupts the co-created therapeutic experience.

Keywords:

• boundaries
• enactment
• googling
• online search
• privacy

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Vigilant efforts have been made to protect the identity of the patient via disguise.

² This term invokes the concept of functional equivalence within psychotherapy, which argues that screen-mediated sessions and in-person sessions have the same clinical consequences. This assumption collapses distinctions between these methods of analytic work and undermines the potential for deeper processing of the impact of screen-mediated sessions on the analytic process (Essig, 2015b; Isaacs-Russell, 2015).

³ Participants included 28 therapists who self-identified as psychoanalytic (25 psychologists, two clinical social workers and one marriage and family therapist; eight of whom were also psychoanalysts). Nine participants were male and 19 were female; 25 identified as Caucasian, one as Black, one as Latinx, and one as Asian, with a mean age of 56.9 (range 36 to 75 years). Participants were recruited through a posting sent through listservs in the psychoanalytic community. Interviews were conducted with all analysts who responded to the post. Interviews were semi-structured and touched on various themes related to digital media in clinical practice, including the use of texting and email, social media, and video-mediated treatment.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leora Trub

Leora Trub, PhD, is a practicing psychologist based in New York City, where she works with adolescents, adults, and couples. She is Associate Professor of Psychology in the school/clinical-child PsyD program at Pace University. At Pace, she founded and runs the Digital Media and Psychology lab, which explores how technologies affect our conceptions of ourselves and our relationships with others, as well as the underlying psychological and emotional needs they meet. Recent projects include a qualitative study of the perspectives and experiences of psychoanalytic clinicians on the impact of technology on psychotherapy practice, and the development of an app aimed at increasing mindfulness during text-based interactions.