News/Research

The Distance Cure Reviewed in The Jacobin

20 Apr, 2022

The Distance Cure Reviewed in The Jacobin

Hannah Zeavin's book The Distance Cure: A History of Teletherapy (MIT Press, 2021) is carefully reviewed in the Jacobin by Jess Cotton!

From the article:

The COVID-19 pandemic occasioned two shifts in psychoanalytic practice: the demand for therapeutic treatment increased, and analysts came to rely on online technology in unprecedented ways. Digital forms of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis provided an immediate remedy for national crises in mental health across both sides of the Atlantic that was intensified by the experience of living through a time of crisis and upheaval.

The Distance Cure speaks to this unfolding debate about these new mediated forms of psychoanalysis. At stake in both discussions is the question of whether these adaptations open the path to a more democratic model of treatment which does not only cater to the middle-class but recognizes the importance of offering affordable psychic care to all.

In making the case for a more flexible and low-cost mode of psychoanalysis, Zeavin turns to the innovations that are often obscured in more conservative narratives of the profession’s history. The image of psychoanalysis that emerges from Zeavin’s studies is of a constantly adaptive rather than static profession, which moves forward by reckoning with the limitations of its own practice.

To read the full review, please visit here!