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In response to letter to the editor:
Practising as an analyst in Berlin in times of the coronavirus: The core components of psychoanalytic work and the problem of virtual reality. A commentary on the paper: “Clinical issues in analyses over the telephone and internet” by Jill Savege Scharff (Int J Psychoanal (2012) 93: 81-95) in the light of the present crisis.
Many thanks to the correspondent for drawing attention to the impact of the novel corona virus on the economy, on international relations, and on the practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Resulting from the international interdependence of the global economy, the spread of the virulent novel corona virus has enveloped the world in the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, we are now more aware than ever that we need good relationships to maintain our physical, emotional and social health. We need collaboration across national boundaries to deal not only with pandemics but with related climate change, social inequality, racial prejudice, and health. Elected officials and wealthy volunteers will be able to work for global collaboration in bodily presence but most of us will rely on technology to reach out across the globe to engage in meeting this urgent need – not as a second best, but as an adaptation to the reality principle.
In the limited clinical realm of analytic practice, the impact is felt in the membership of all regions of the International Psychoanalytic Association. Based on experience in Berlin, the correspondent questions whether technology-mediated treatment is effective, superficial or deleterious to individual and society. There are very real concerns about online security possibly compromising confidentiality and working without non-verbal clues about (Churcher 2015; Russell 2015). This has meant that teleanalysts face anxiety, guilt and risk of censure. Yet suddenly teleanalysis that has been avoided as unsafe is now recommended! Yet, for many analysts there has been no time to prepare. As an anal