Digital Technology and the Third Reality: Its Ubiquitous Presence in the Analytic Space

The use of digital technology by children, adolescents, and adults is now ubiquitous. Unfortunately, many child analysts have had little training in how to understand and work when their young patients introduce such technology into the clinical setting. In this article, I present two cases describing my work with latency-age children who engaged with me using digital modalities. Separated by almost a decade, the two cases together exemplify how the interaction among technological advances, changing cultural attitudes, and my personal and professional development impacted how I worked with each child. I discuss the importance of tuning into emergence and use of digital technology in the analytic space, which I refer to as the “third reality,” which is separate from the child’s experiences of his/her inner world and environment. I demonstrate how allowing my child patients to access digital devices and media within sessions facilitated more meaningful connection, deeper exploration of identities, and opportunities for expression and transformation of powerful feelings. I emphasize the importance of these analytic encounters in influencing the developmental trajectory of my professional identity.