Analysis and psychotherapy by telephone: twenty years of clinical experience.
Psychoanalysis via telephone is becoming increasingly prevalent while remaining an area of comparatively little study. The author's early telephone treatment of a series of patients living some distance away or engaged in business travel, and his subsequent telephone treatment of nine analytic and five psychotherapy patients following his own geographic move, are discussed in detail. The mechanics of beginning and carrying out such treatment are examined. The theoretical implications of the shift to the telephone and the ambivalence with which it is often met by clinicians are also explored. The role of nonverbal communication in both in-person and telephone analysis is considered, as is the concept of the analytic office as a literal space and a psychological container. Suggestions for future research are advanced.
Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute, USA. Mleffert@aol.com
Mark
M
Leffert
D049673:History, 20th Century; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods*; D013689:Telephone / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States