The only way: virtual experience becomes emotional reality

ABSTRACT The pandemic has seen tele-therapy become ‘the only way’ for all of us, but the author has been using it since 2004 in her parent infant work. While she acknowledges and enumerates some of the frustrations inherent in tele-therapy, associated with its deviation from the classical psychoanalytic method, she also poses several questions: does it broaden the scope of psychoanalysis? Is it consistent with Freud’s ‘hope’ that ‘the increasing experience’ of psychoanalysts will include adaptations on behalf of patients, for instance those who cannot attend sessions in person? [Freud, S. (1912). Recommendations to physicians practising psycho-analysis, section (f). SE, XII, p. 120]. Also, are there aspects of tele-therapy that actually aid rather than hinder the aims, for example, the lessening of inhibition in virtual space? In the discussion, the author focuses on the screen as the defining aspect of tele-therapy. The screen becomes an intermediary point in the therapist–client interaction and relationship, which facilitates new aspects of mental functioning. These new aspects can include assimilating facial expressions (Darwin, 1872), the construction of a virtual space that activates internal objects, the speed needed to handle face-to-face psychoanalytic dialogue, and the surprise felt when internal obstacles or trauma are repositioned, lessened or neutralised in tele-therapy sessions where clients don’t expect their repressed unconscious conflicts to be noticed. In conclusion, the author puts forward a notion that tele-therapy can foster a ‘virtual space that becomes real’, in other words, a virtual experience that can become an emotionally-felt reality.