And then I left the consulting room...

Abstract

Considering the gradual return to the onsite sessions at her consulting room, the author ponders about the experience of exclusively holding online sessions for eighteen months, during the recent pandemic caused by coronavirus. She tries to make sense of the repercussions on the psychoanalytical technique, particularly taking into account the fact that virtual sessions made treatment continuity possible, but in an external arrangement that is strikingly different form the usual, starting with patients becoming responsible for finding a suitable place to hold their sessions, thus inverting the traditional provision, that is, a private space provided by the analyst, one that is specially designed for psychoanalysis. Analyst/analysand roles, characterized by the use of the couch, have become diverse due to this change. Through clinical vignettes, the author starts acknowledging the possibility of making psychoanalysis, the psychoanalytical process happen in this “alternative” model. And she wonders which would be conditions to make this happen. The method’s characteristic listening might be the most recognizable invariable. The search for turning latent into audible content, for giving meaning to the experience remained, as well the experience of intense emotions in this field. However, more inquiries remain to be considered, we are left with more questions than answers. What has also become clear is that the analytical method can indeed take place regardless of factual reality. Such confirmation imposes several considerations. The paper proposes that the study of practice vicissitudes in this other dimension, which is virtual, established through technology, in particular the questioning of enshrined principles as definers, may lead to the production of more knowledge and to the development of this discipline. Yet, this can only happen if we encourage ourselves to cast doubt on those enshrined principles.