Screen Relations: The Limits of Computer-Mediated Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy - Softcover

Isaacs Russell, Gillian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782201440 ISBN 13: 9781782201441

Publisher: Routledge, 2015

Synopsis

Increased worldwide mobility and easy access to technology means that the use of technological mediation for treatment is being adopted rapidly and uncritically by psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. Despite claims of functional equivalence between mediated and co-present treatments, there is scant research evidence to advance these assertions. Can an effective therapeutic process occur without physical co-presence? What happens to screen-bound treatment when, as a patient said, there is no potential to "kiss or kick?" Our most intimate relationships, including that of analyst and patient, rely on a significant implicit non-verbal component carrying equal or possibly more weight than the explicit verbal component. How is this finely-nuanced interchange affected by technologically-mediated communication? This book draws on the fields of neuroscience, communication studies, infant observation, cognitive science and human/computer interaction to explore these questions. It finds common ground where these disparate disciplines intersect with psychoanalysis in their definitions of a sense of presence, upon which the sense of self and the experience of the other depends.

About this title

About the Author

Gillian Isaacs Russell

Review

"This book is not anti-technology; it is pro-psychoanalysis. Gillian Isaacs Russell comes up with a deeply humanistic, forward-looking book that does not deny the power of technology but insists that we use it to more thoroughly understand our human purposes. As an analyst or therapist, before you use Skype or FaceTime, read this. You’ll better understand the new human terrain on which you work." (Sherry Turkle, author of Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet and Director, MIT Initiative on Technology and Self)

"Gillian Isaacs Russell explores vast territory, including patients’ and therapists’ experiences, clinical theory, and intriguing research in cognitive neuroscience, information communication theory, and virtual reality. Her skillful explication and incisive analysis of how the technological medium affects our patients, ourselves, and the analytic process makes it readily apparent that simulated treatments have limits and consequences, and knowing this enables clinicians to make smart choices about whether and when to conduct such treatment. This very well-written book is essential for anyone who wants to think carefully about computer-mediated treatment." (Don Greif, PhD, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Contemporary Psychoanalysis; Faculty)

"This is a pioneering work that gives a balanced, nuanced, and comprehensive picture of how the screen affects therapeutic dialogues and makes a strong advocacy for the necessity of the co-presence of two persons in the consulting room. It is a must-read for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists who find technologically mediated treatment necessary in their work with patients." (Sverre Varvin, MD, PhD, past President of the Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society; Chair of International Psychoanalytical Association China Committee; Professor)

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1782201440
• ISBN 13: 9781782201441
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224