ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the nature of the analytic relationship between Alana and Dr. Setton with reference to clinical vignettes. It offers reflections of the analytic process and the way Alana uses the telephone adaptively and defensively in relation to the in-office sessions. When the patient feels too incapacitated by depression to commute to the office, Dr. Setton offers Alana the option of telephone psychoanalysis. The theory that informs Dr. Setton’s technique, and the ensuing analytic process illustrated in these phone sessions, reflects the principles of treating traumatized patients. Thoughts about Alana’s transference have been exclusively inferred from process material, without access to Dr. Setton’s explicit countertransference responses. It is very interesting to learn more about the ways the negative transference was analyzed, and particularly whether there was any divergence in the interpretative approach utilized between distance-mediated sessions and the in-office setting.
