Patient-Targeted "Googling:" When Therapists Search for Information About Their Patients Online.

The ubiquitous nature of the internet and of online social networking has created new opportunities but also challenges for the psychotherapist. Former notions of anonymity and privacy are now infeasible as a result of massive information sharing through electronic media. The clinical repercussions of these changes are being extensively debated, but issues involving patient privacy and anonymity have not been sufficiently explored.

Therapeutic relationship on the web: to face or not to face?

In this age of unprecedented expansion of media and information dissemination and sharing, the use of electronic means should be reconsidered. The use of new technologies should be studied to understand how it may affect the relationship between patient and therapist during psychotherapy or psychoanalytic treatments. This study offers a critical discussion of the effect of technologies on clinical practice, and vignettes are used to describe their impact on frame, anonymity, abstinence and therapeutic neutrality.