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Psychoanalysis is always both expanding and shrinking its territory. On one hand, the spectrum of psychoanalysis is getting broader, starting as it did with neurotics, encompassing a larger diagnostic range including borderline cases, psychotics, and addiction issues. On the other hand, classical modes of conducting orthodox psychoanalysis have been increasingly limited. For instance, the use of a couch is less pervasive.
Nowadays, people's self is not limited or contained only by their somatic body. Cyberspace is no longer only a transitional space (Winnicott, 1951) for many people, but for some it becomes their self-object (Kohut, 1984). It is no longer an option about whether to use the internet or not. Now the question is to what extent will we use it. This suggests that online psychotherapy might not be less real than face-to-face therapy. Everyday news, most of which is unpleasant, such as terrorist attacks, or economic tsunamis, pulses through dozens of apps. If such negativity can be transmitted through the internet, why not transmission that offers rectification as well? The human brain is not good at differentiating the source of the messages.
The question remains, should online psychotherapy become a substitution for the methods of the offline pioneers. Using online methods opens more possibilities, like conducting therapy when the patient is walking in the park, or swimming in the pool. Or should we, as the author of this article suggests, need as much as possible to make the online video therapy setting resemble offline, office therapy as closely as possible. For example, should the patient lie down on his or her couch, put the camera in the right angle, as if his or her analyst sat behind the patient? In my opinion, we should keep the space for possibilities open, without coming to a quick conclusion about which kind of online psychotherapy is the most orthodox.
I agree with the author that differences exist. Through my own experiences as an online therap