ABSTRACT
In one of the most famous Chinese mythological novels, Journey to the West, two omnipotent figures in the heaven, Thousand-Mile-Eye and Wind-Accompanying-Ear, have supernormal powers of receiving information from far away. This chapter explores the vulnerabilities, problems, and limitations of Internet communication in terms of its technical fragility and impact on analytic process, the virtual setting and the analytic frame, and the loss of access to the dynamics of slow entry into, as well as away from, the analytic session. It addresses the risks of misperception, fragility of communication, and insecurity of the analytic setting and space, and illustrates them from clinical experience with patients in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. When the patient complains frequently about the teleanalysis situation, the patient’s dissatisfaction amplifies any uncertainty, confusion, and doubt in the analyst. The analyst struggles with how much this complaint is coming from reality, and how much is coming from the patient’s projection.
