Teleanalytic Therapy in the Era of Covid-19: Dissociation in the Countertransference

While we and our patients have many transferences to the modality of video or telephone therapy, these meanings are ultimately not intrinsic to the medium itself. Rather, they are symbolic meanings we make of the modality. This paper discusses the symbolic meanings that we attribute to teletherapy and the ways we may use these attributed meanings to dissociate the trauma of Covid-19. It also explores the clinical opportunities in identifying these dissociated countertransferential experiences and embodying them in our own and our patients' experiences.