Abstract

Digitalization as a transformative process of cultural change is increasingly affecting the culture of healing. In particular within the disciplinary field of psychology, options of online-psychotherapy, e.g. for persons suffering from depression, prominently attest to this trend. The putative attractiveness of internet-based forms of therapy is fueled partly by commercial interests of the health-industry, partly by an unreflected enthusiasm for technical progress. The attractiveness of internet-based therapy has a cultural background that can best be understood in terms of a second phase of postmodernity. From a psychoanalytic angle there are massive reasons justifying a skeptical attitude towards options of online-psychotherapy. The present article provides a coherent articulation of these reasons.