Psychoanalytic work online and back to the couch: Italian psychoanalysts

What is it about?

71 analysts of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society were asked to fill out an online survey about patients who found the transition easier and patients who found it more difficult. Online psychoanalytic therapy was widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients with insecure attachment styles had greater difficulties in adapting to setting alternations, thus confirming that insecure attachment is a vulnerability factor not only for psychopathological problems but also for a well-functioning therapeutic collaboration. Patient’s personality configuration did not influence their adaptation to the setting alternation. The supportive and interpretive styles did not undergo significant changes in the transition from in-person setting to remote setting and vice versa, thus suggesting a continuity in the analysts’ “internal setting”.

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