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I thank the editor for inviting me to contribute to this unique and vital section. I am grateful to our anonymous analyst-at-work, Dr. Y, for offering us this generous gift of her work as a springboard for learning from detailed clinical process and studying the opportunities for analysis that teleanalysis affords. This rare occasion to juxtapose process from in-office and teleanalytic sessions is particularly welcome now as we urgently try to find our analytic bearings during this teleanalysis-only COVID-19 era. In addition to receiving these process notes as a gift, I read this material as Dr. Y’s invitation to assist her in her continuous effort to better understand her patient and their work together. I proceed with the working hypothesis that the data Dr. Y selected from the vast clinical material she had available from this five-year analysis represent her associations to the most currently pressing unconscious or preconscious transference/countertransference manifestations and enactments. In response, I articulate how this material takes shape in my own mind and forms threads of meaning that connect the historical material and each of the three sessions. Mindful of our urgent collective interest, I offer my perceptions on how meeting on the phone might have affected the analytic process and address differences and similarities between the in-office session and the two telesessions.
In her selection of historical material, Dr. Y introduces J as someone who can establish long term relationships (e.g. with his wife and with his current analyst), but for whom relationships evoke inner conflict and are fraught with interpersonal struggles. Specifically, she describes him as someone who finds himself in situations where others are committing boundary crossings or violations (two previous therapists and a babysitter). Dr. Y also highlights for us that J has difficulty extricating himself from problematic or unsatisfactory situations, such as two previous thera