Development Of Analytic Process Research Articles

Clinical issues in analyses over the telephone and the internet

There is professional consensus that teleanalysis, the practice of psychoanalysis conducted remotely using the telephone and the Internet, is increasing in response to more mobility in the population. But there is controversy as to whether the use of technology leads to a dilution of analysis or to adaptive innovation that is clinically effective and true to the tenets of psychoanalysis. The author reviews the psychoanalytic literature and shows the development of analytic thinking about this technology‐assisted practice of psychoanalysis. She summarizes analysts’ perceptions and experiences of the advantages and disadvantages, and considers the indications and contra‐indications. She focuses on the clinical concerns that arise in terms of the frame, resistance, and the development of analytic process through the unconscious communication of internal objects, unconscious fantasy, transference and countertransference. She gives vignettes from the analysis of a man with trauma‐related depression to address the concerns raised and to support her argument that analysis using the telephone and the Internet is a viable, clinically effective alternative to traditional analysis where necessary.

The Role of the Robustness/Ruggedness and Inertia Studies in Research and Development of Analytical Processes

The knowledge of the robustness/ruggedness of analytical processes is an essential feature in the analytical validation. The definitions and the different aims of such studies are given. A dual general procedure for checking robustness/ruggedness in both intrinsic and extrinsic validation is presented and the different steps are discussed. The denomination of “inertia study” is introduced to designate this methodology in extrinsic validation and precision and trueness tests are proposed inside the inertia study. Several experimental designs, depending on the goal of robustness/ruggedness study and the type of variables (quantitative or qualitative) are considered.