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SCREEN RELATIONS: The Limits of Computer-Mediated Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy(Link)
Karnac Books, London,
 Apr 1, 2015
  • ISBN 13 :9781782201441
  • ISBN 10 :1782201440

Increased worldwide mobility and easy access to technology means that the use of technological mediation for treatment is being adopted rapidly and uncritically by Psychoanalysts and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists. Despite claims of functional equivalence between mediated and co-present treatments, there is scant research evidence to advance these assertions. 
Can an effective therapeutic process occur without physical co-presence? What happens to screen-bound treatment when, as a patient said, there is no potential to “kiss or kick?” Our most intimate relationships, including that of analyst and patient, rely on a significant implicit non-verbal component carrying equal or possibly more weight than the explicit verbal component. How is this finely nuanced interchange affected by technologically-mediated communication? 
This book draws on the fields of neuroscience, communication studies, infant observation, cognitive science and human/computer interaction to explore these questions. It finds common ground where these disparate disciplines intersect with psychoanalysis in their definitions of a sense of presence, upon which the sense of self and the experience of the other depends. This new data reveals surprising and non-intuitive elements, providing a rich knowledge base for better understanding how people experience screen relations based treatments. 
Embedded throughout the book are the movingly clear voices of clinicians and patients themselves, describing their experiences using technology for treatment. Dr. Isaacs Russell, whose own clinical experience using technological mediation inspired her exploration of therapy on the digital frontier, pays particular attention to the specific gains and losses of mediated communication of which clinicians should be aware before undertaking technologically-mediated psychoanalysis or psychotherapy.

Reviews and Endorsements

'This book is not anti-technology. It is pro-psychoanalysis. Gillian Isaacs Russell comes up with a deeply humanistic, forward-looking book that does not deny the power of technology but insists that we use it to more thoroughly understand our human purposes. As an analyst or therapist, before you use Skype or FaceTime, read this. You’ll better understand the new human terrain on which you work.’
— Sherry Turkle, Director, MIT Initiative on Technology and Self

‘This is a pioneering work that gives a balanced, nuanced and comprehensive picture of how the screen affects therapeutic dialogues and makes a strong advocacy for the necessity of co-presence of two persons in the consulting room. It is a must-read for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists who find technologically mediated treatment necessary in their work with patients.’
-- Sverre Varvin, MD, PhD, past President of the Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society; Chair of International Psychoanalytical Association China Committee; Professor at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences

‘Gillian Isaacs Russell explores vast territory, including patients’ and therapists’ experiences, clinical theory, and intriguing research in cognitive neuroscience, information communication theory, and virtual reality. Her skilful explication and incisive analysis of how the technological medium affects our patients, ourselves, and the analytic process makes it readily apparent that simulated treatments have limits and consequences, and knowing this enables clinicians to make smart choices about whether and when to conduct such treatment. This very well-written book is essential for anyone who wants to think carefully about computer-mediated treatment.’
— Don Greif, PhD, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Contemporary Psychoanalysis; Faculty, William Alanson White Institute, New York

‘This well-written book is a must for analysts and therapists conducting therapy online or planning to do so. It contains many valuable insights into aspects of “the communicating cure”, which many of us tend to overlook in practice, including: aspects of embodied intersubjectivity such as shared physical space, shared temporality, moving to and from the consulting room, and, above all, “being in the presence of someone” as essential for becoming oneself.’
— Jon Sletvold, PsyD, Faculty, Training and Supervising Analyst, Norwegian Character Analytic Institute; author of The Embodied Analyst: From Freud and Reich to Relationality

‘Gillian Isaacs Russell raises searching questions that need considering by anyone concerned with the future of psychoanalytic therapy, and especially by those involved in the training of therapists. In its thoroughness and range, her book is a remarkable achievement. It needed to be written, and it needs to be read.’
— Michael Parsons, British Psychoanalytical Society; French Psychoanalytical Association


EVENTS
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2018

Saturday, 3 February, 2018, Atlanta, Georgia

Screen Relations: From Wishful Thinking to Research Informed Decisions
Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association/8:15 a.m.
Winter CME Meeting
The Whitley Buckhead Hotel 
3434 Peachtree Rd, Atlanta, Georgia  30326

Screen-Based Treatments: Better Than Nothing? Routinely Good Enough? Functionally Equivalent?
Atlanta Psychoanalytic Society; Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute; Atlanta Foundation for Psychoanalysis/5 p.m.
Emory Brain Health Center Room 331
12 Executive Park Drive NE
Atlanta 30329

2017

Saturday, 21 January, 2017, New York, New York

Practice Building Today: Being in the Same Room? Electronically Mediated Treatment
Presenters: Rebecca Mair, Gillian Isaacs Russell; Moderator: Susan Flinders
Committee Sponsored Workshop/11:30 a.m.
APsaA 2017 National Meeting
Waldorf Astoria, New York


Sunday, 30 April, 2017, New York, New York
​
What's Special, Or Not, About Technologically-Mediated Treatments
Panel: Todd Essig, Gillian Isaacs Russell, Philip Rosenbaum
Liberty 3/ 8 a.m.
Division of Psychoanalysis (39), APA Spring Meeting 
Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel
811 Seventh Avenue at 53rd Street, New York
For further information click here:  Division 39

Saturday, 24 June, 2017, London, UK

Providing Psychotherapy in a Digital Era - the relational and neurobiological implications
Confer live conference event/9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
Speakers: Andrea Marzi, Gillian Isaacs Russell, Catherine Knibbs, Linda Cundy
NCVO, 8 All Saints Street, London, N1 9RL
For further information click here: Confer


2016

Saturday, 23 January, 2016, London, UK

Audiences with Authors
British Psychotherapy Foundation/ 11 a.m.
37 Mapesbury Rd., London, NW2 4HJ
For further information click here: BPF


Sunday, 24 January, 2016, London, UK

Do you use Skype or have a view about its use?Seminar on the Limits of Computer-mediated Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
The Association for Group and Individual Psychotherapy/2 p.m.
1 Fairbridge Road, London, N19 3EW
​For further information click here: AGIP


Tuesday, 26 January, 2016, Bristol, UK

Screen Relations: Do Bodies Matter?
Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy/6:30 p.m.
11 Orchard Street, Bristol, BS1 5EH

Saturday, 9 April, 2016, Atlanta, Georgia

Crashing the Network: Psychoanalysis and Cyberspaces
Panel: Todd Essig, Stephen Hartman, Gillian Isaacs Russell, Ave Schwartz
Stephanie Speanburg, chair
East Paces/ 1 p.m.
Division of Psychoanalysis (39), APA Spring Meeting 
The Westin Buckhead Hotel, 3391 Peachtree Rd., NE, Atlanta, GA, 30326
​For further information click here: Division 39

2015

Thursday, 26 February, 2015, Annandale-on Hudson, NY

Screen Relations: Do Bodies Matter?
Campus Center, Weis Cinema/ 4 p.m.
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY


Friday, 10 April, 2015, Boulder, Colorado

Arts Going Retro in a Digital Age
UMC Center Ballroom/ 1 p.m.
67th Annual Conference on World Affairs
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309


Friday, 24 April, 2015, San Francisco, CA

Screen Relations: The Limits of Computer-Mediated Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
Meet the Author/ The French Parlor/ 12 p.m. 
Division of Psychoanalysis (39), APA Spring Meeting 
San Francisco Palace Hotel, 2 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA


Friday, 1 May, 2015, Denver, CO

Screen Relations: The Limits of Computer-Mediated Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
Denver Psychoanalytic Society Lecture Series/ 7 p.m.
Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church (McCollum Room), 1980 Dahlia Street, Denver, CO 80220 


Tuesday, 30 June, 2015, Free Webinar

Screen Relations: A Stillpoint Exploration presented by the Zurich Lab
Online Discussion/ 7:30p.m. CEST; 6:30 p.m. BST; 1:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time
For more information and to join webinar click on: Stillpoint Spaces 
To access a recording of the Webinar click here: Screen Relations Webinar


Friday, 24 July, 2015, Boston, MA

What's Lost in Screen Relations: Reclaiming Conversation for Consulting Rooms and Living Rooms
Panel: Sherry Turkle, Todd Essig, Gillian Isaacs Russell
Harbour View Ballroom 3/ 4 p.m.
International Psychoanalytic Association 49th Congress
Seaport World Trade Center, Boston, MA







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