ABSTRACT
Institutes for the training of psychoanalytic therapists are mostly limited to major metropolitan centres. This presents a problem for the training of psychodynamic psychotherapists and psychoanalysts. Psychoanalytic training programmes have three components: a personal analysis, a didactic curriculum, and intensive supervised psychoanalytic clinical work. The didactic education and supervision may be easier to provide online, as compared to conducting psychoanalysis over Internet. However, psychoanalytic treatment over the Internet by video conferencing presents somewhat different problems than most other psychological treatments. Fishkin et al. reported on the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance, which provides treatment, education, and supervision to Chinese mental health professionals over the Internet. Many psychoanalysts are concerned that psychoanalytic treatment cannot translate well over the Internet and that cultural differences might significantly diminish the effectiveness of the treatment. Nonetheless, the findings demonstrate that distance psychoanalytic/psychodynamic training is perceived by graduates as highly effective and can produce therapists who use psychoanalytic formulations and techniques in their work with patients.
