Abstract

GOLDFAJN, Denise Salomão. The e-setting: an ordinary day in a psychoanalyst's office. Rev. bras. psicanál [online]. 2011, vol.45, n.3, pp. 61-68. ISSN 0486-641X.

Everyday, in our clinical practice, we witness the growing occurrence of electronic communication between patients and analysts. Such communications range from e-mails to text messages. They vary from the use of tools such as Google and Skype, to invitations for the analyst to join virtual communities and on line chats. The virtual world, or cyberspace, is seen in the manifest material brought by the patients in the session, challenging the traditional psychoanalytic setting, where patient and analyst meet physically at the psychoanalyst's office, at previously arranged hours. What can we gather from this type of communication? How to transform it into part of the clinical process? Starting from an assemblage of clinical vignettes, this paper touches upon some aspects of cyberspace in the clinical setting, namely the evolution of cyberspace in psychoanalytic culture and discourse. Taking this outline, some of Bion and Winnicott's ideas are adopted, especially using the concept of transference as a primary pathway to create meaning for the manifest clinical material, broadening the transferential relationship beyond the time and the space of the clinical session.

Keywords : cyberspace; setting; transference; transience; paradox.

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