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It's not the 20th century anymore and the idea that people actually have to physically meet in an office is a passé understanding [of psychoanalytic therapy]. (Fortunati, 2005)
Gillian Isaacs Russell has written an important, well-researched, interdisciplinary book that cogently argues that meeting in the office is anything but passé. Although recognizing that technology infuses every aspect of our 21st-century lives, Isaacs Russell presents strong and persuasive arguments that psychoanalysts should only move from in-office treatment to computer-mediated treatment after careful consideration of the differential impact of these modalities on therapeutic action. An experienced and frequent Skype user herself, Isaacs Russell has been engaged in analyzing and teaching psychoanalysis across continents for over a decade, so she is well-positioned to assess the differences and her intellectual rigor is impressive. Addressing what she sees as the limits and losses in computer-mediated treatment, her book fills a gap in the literature.
In presenting her conclusion that computer-mediated treatments are not functionally equivalent to the treatment of patients who are copresent, Isaacs Russell raises challenging questions that many users of Skype and related technologies may not want to hear, let alone answer.
But Isaacs Russell is not advocating jettisoning technology. Her most important argument is that if we recognize the lack of functional equivalence between the two modes of conducting treatment, we put ourselves in a much better position to think about adjustments that might make technologically mediated treatments most effective.
Drawing on research from neuroscience (Schore, 2005, 2010, 2011) cognitive science (Bucci, 1994, 2002), and infant research (Boston Change Process Study Group, 2007, 2008, 2010) to support her position that therapeutic action is underpinned by implicit processes that are grounded in the body, and are crucial to body-to-body communication, she ad