Empathy: A Bridge Across the Digital Divide

Abstract

The digital divide is defined as the distance between those individuals and communities that have access to digital resources such as high-speed internet and user-friendly, sophisticated computing interfaces and those that lack such resources. If empathy is understood as being fully present with another person without judgment, evaluation, or anything else added, then being present in the same physical space (such as a therapist's office) is arguably the optimum approach. Yet the genie is out of the bottle. This article engages with new forms of countertransference, parapraxes (slips), and breakdowns in empathy occasioned by taking psychodynamic therapy online including the advantages and disadvantages, the trade-offs, of each approach. It is just as misguided to require therapists exclusively to perform in-person therapy as it would be for everyone exclusively to perform online therapy. There is no turning back the clock.