ABSTRACT
Teletherapy, the practice of psychotherapy conducted remotely using the telephone and the internet, is increasing in response to more mobility in the population. In psychoanalysis, more than in psychotherapy, there has been tremendous worry about violating the purity of the classical method when sessions are conducted on the telephone or over the internet. Some have said that any analytic treatment done by an analyst working with an analysand on the telephone may do some good but it cannot be analysis: it must be supportive psychotherapy (Argentieri & Mehler, 2003). I find this remark rather unfair to the practice of psychotherapy, but rather than get distracted by jumping to defend psychotherapy, I want to use this chapter to focus specifically on the value of psychoanalysis conducted over the telephone and the internet. Since teleanalysis occurs three to five times a week, those of us who practise it have an opportunity to study its pros and cons in depth over time. Our findings can be helpful to psychotherapists who do not have the luxury of time, and analysts who have not tried to work with patients at a distance using the telephone or the internet.
