Given the current COVID-19 pandemic and the online work with which our analytic community has now had to engage, an updated research review on this topic is required. Within the psychoanalytic school there has been substantial debate on the efficacy of working analytically online. Consequently, findings prior to the pandemic will be reviewed alongside recent research that has been prompted by it, including practitioners’ experiences. The key findings are that productive psychotherapy alongside working with transference and countertransference phenomena are not precluded, so long as analysts are cognizant of the specifics of the online modality. Conclusions to do with training, ethics and supervision will be drawn.
John Merchant, Ph.D., (Australia) is a Jungian analyst in Sydney and an accredited supervisor with the Psychology Board (Australia). John supervises clinicians in Australia and overseas and runs courses in Analytical Psychology at Sydney University. He has delivered professional presentations in Australia, New Zealand, UK, Europe and the USA. His publications include Shamans and Analysts: New Insights on the Wounded Healer (Routledge, 2012), chapters in Psychotherapy and Counselling: Reflections on Practice (OUP, 2015), Research in Analytical Psychology (Routledge, 2018), Jung’s Red Book for our Time (Chiron, 2020) and the Jung entries in the online Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences (Springer, 2018).
See www.johnmerchant.com.au.
Email: john.merchant@sydney.edu.au