The Vectors of Contemporary Freudian Thought
A Second Widening Scope for Psychoanalysis?

The Virtual Turn in the Frame and the Fate of Termination for the Analytic Relationship

Introduction by Ellen Marakowitz, PhD, LP

Speaker: Joseph A. Cancelmo, MSEd., PsyD, FIPA

Discussant: Paul Geltner, DSW

March 22, 2026 10am-12pm

via Zoom

2 CE Credits Available

COVID-19 forced us to adopt the virtual realm, a digital life preserver thrown to a drowning world. And Psychoanalysis crafted a virtual turn in the frame for its own survival, confronted with the unthought yet certain reality normally kept at bay. The analytic relationship inevitably ends, whether by mutual agreement, unilateral decision, or in death. While the Pandemic has officially ended, the virtual frame persists, fostering a potentially endless process. This sea change in our frame may affect termination as a construct, a shift that began with the first Widening Scope and a trend toward longer analyses. Especially in these most perilous and uncertain times, analyst and patient may jointly “drop anchor”–a blind eye turned from both sides of the couch—to avoid separation, loss, and the existential dread of death. This paper considers the impact of this global, systemic shift toward technologically mediated experience as a second Widening Scope of psychoanalysis. The collective trauma of The Pandemic, and the adaptation of a virtual and/or hybrid frame, may foster a shared illusion of the analyst’s endless availability as a defense against acceptance of the limits of analysis and our very existence.

 

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Joseph A. Cancelmo, MSED, PsyD, FIPA is Past President, Training and Supervising Analyst and Faculty of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), a graduate of IPTAR, of IPTAR’s Socio-Psychoanalytic Organizational Program and past Co-Director of the Gould Center for Psychoanalytic Organizational Study and Consultation. He has authored professional articles on transitional space and clinical process around trauma, loss, mourning and termination (The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, The British Journal of Medical Psychology, Psychoanalytic Psychology and Psychoanalytic Inquiry) and essays on politics, gender and the impact of systemic trauma (ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action). His book credits include Terrorism and the Psychoanalytic Space: International Perspectives from Ground Zero (Pace University Press, 2003, Co-Edited with I.Tylim, J.Hoffenberg, and H.Myers); Warmed by the Fires: Selected Papers of Allan Frosch (International Psychoanalytic Books, 2018, Co-Edited with B.Monder and H.Myers), and a novel, Detroit Unrequited (Heliotrope Books, 2023), a tale of lives and a City derailed by traumatic loss, protracted mourning and attempts at resolution and reinvention. He maintains a private practice in New York City with adolescents, adults, couples and in consultancy with executives and organizations.

 

 

Paul Geltner, DSW, Psychoanalyst, is the author of Emotional Communication: Countertransference Analysis and the Use of Feeling in Psychoanalytic Technique (Routledge, 2013), and papers on child analysis, dreams, and an evolutionary understanding of the theory of countertransference. Emotional Communication has been published in ebook format in Spanish and Russian. Translations of the countertransference sections of the book in French, Portuguese, and Uzbek are also available, and full translations in Persian and Korean are in progress.

He is a graduate of The Center for Modern Psychoanalysis in NYC and is Past Director of Psychoanalytic Education at the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center. He has taught courses on Freud, transference and resistance, and psychoanalytic technique at the Northern Rockies Psychoanalytic Institute, Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies, Mid-Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis and Group Therapy, and the Colorado Center for Modern Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Geltner is in private practice in New York City working with individuals and specializes in individual and group case consultation and professional development with psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. He is currently offering virtual courses in psychoanalytic theory and technique that are internationally attended.

 

He is also the author of a novel, Live Dangerously, a psychoanalytic mystery, and is currently at work on another novel that links the Spanish Inquisition, downtown NYC in the late 70’s, hidden identities, quantum physics, French pastry, gender transformation, and the importance of playing in the snow.

Learning Objectives:

 

1) Participants will be able to describe the shifts in psychoanalytic theory and technique since the First Widening Scope was documented by Leo Stone (1954)—the extension of our analytic reach to those suffering from the effects of early trauma and developmental failure.

 

2) Participants will be able to consider the impact of the forced adoption of technologically mediated experiences due to the Global Pandemic as a Second Widening Scope—the Virtual Turn in the psychoanalytic frame.

 

3) Participants with be able to consider the synergy between the first and second Widening Scope in potentially shaping the trajectory of psychoanalytic practice.

 

4) Participants will be able to recognize the impact of the Virtual Turn on termination—the potential for an endless process as an existential defense against awareness of the limits of analysis, loss of the analytic relationship and the unthinkable reality of our time limited existence.

 

2 CE credits will be granted to participants who have registered, have documented evidence of attendance of the entire program and have completed the on-line evaluation form. Upon completion of the evaluation form a Certificate of Completion will be emailed to all participants who comply with these requirements.

 

The Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (1651 3rd Ave, Suite 205, NY, NY 10128) is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists (#PSY-0026), and the State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers (#SW-0226) and the State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychoanalysts (#P-0011), Licensed Creative Arts Therapists (#CAT-0037) and Licensed Mental Health Counselors (#MHC-0112). This certificate is not applicable to any other New York State profession.

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