Psychoanalysis Identity And The Internet

This book is comprehensive and profound, concrete and symbolic, a Herculean integration of the technical and the psychoanalytic. It explains technology and definitions of cyberspace, virtual reality, and social media, and presents the view that technology is a destructive force in psychoanalysis.

This book is comprehensive and profound, concrete and symbolic, a Herculean integration of the technical and the psychoanalytic. It explains technology and definitions of cyberspace, virtual reality, and social media, and presents the view that technology is a destructive force in psychoanalysis.

The contributors and the articles presented in the book suggest that the main psychoanalytical theories are the most adequate means to understand the nature of the new subjects that appear in the present world on the Internet and cyberspace era. Not only does psychoanalysis read the multifaceted nature of virtual reality, but cyberspace also affects and influences seminal reflections about psychoanalysis itself and the virtual space of the mind. This timely volume, first published in Italian in 2013, explores the consequences of virtual reality in the analytical field and the peculiar characteristics of the encounter with the particular state of mind of internet-addicted patients; it also shows in detail the path of the therapy, psychotherapeutic or analytic, and the path of the analyst with the net-surfer, a castaway in the realm of virtual reality. Considering all the points of view expressed in the book, cyberspace appears, on the one hand, as a mirror that traps vulnerable people in a pseudo-reality, while on the other hand it appears as a particular dimension which sets creative phantasy free.

The New International Library of Group Analysis Drawing on the seminal ideas of British, European, and American group analysts, psychoanalysts, social psychologists, and social scientists, the books in this series focus on the study of small and large groups, organisations, and other social systems, and on the study of the transpersonal and transgenerational sociality of human nature. NILGA books will be required reading for the members of professional organisations in the fields of group analysis, psychoanalysis, and related social sciences. They will be indispensable for the “formation” of students of psychotherapy, whether they are mainly interested in clinical work with patients or in consultancy to teams and organisational clients within the private and public sectors.

During discussion of psychoanalysis and virtual reality in the new millennium, it was predicted that in the next century the differences between the conscious, unconscious, and the pre-conscious will have to be reconsidered in view of the ever-expanding concepts created by virtual reality. There will be virtual sexual acts over the Internet, ovum parthenogenesis will be possible without the intervention of the male, and clonic reproduction of the human being will be carried out in the laboratory. The child born in these circumstances will relate to a widening array of potential parental figures: the classic heterosexual couple, the single-parent family, the homosexual couple, the transsexual figure, etc. All this will of course alter the classic Oedipal constellation and without doubt the gender identity of the child. There will be attempts to undergo psychoanalysis via the Internet in the same way that other kinds of psychotherapy are being virtualized. But this will force us to redefine transference. On the other hand, it seems likely that psychoanalysis as a psychotherapeutic tool will, in the 21st century, relate more to somatic, medical patients or to the `worried well' than to psychiatric patients. These brief considerations on the scope of our deliberations in some way explain the diversity of this book, but also justify its interest.

Alessandra Lemma - Winner of the Levy-Goldfarb Award for Child Psychoanalysis! By now the internet and other forms of virtual communication have been in place for at least twenty years. However, surprisingly little has been written about the use of new technologies in the psychoanalytical literature. As such, Psychoanalysis in the Technoculture Era is a timely exposition on the subject of both virtual and analytic space. Bringing together the work of several psychoanalysts, the Editors Alessandra Lemma and Luigi Caparrotta illustrate how new technologies have become an integral part of our everyday lives and how they have silently and subtly permeated the psychoanalytic setting. The contributors explore how new technologies have affected psychoanalytic practice and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of its use. Psychoanalysis in the Technoculture Era unravels some of the meanings of virtual world terms, and opens this field to greater scrutiny, stimulating and promoting discussion about new technologies in psychoanalytic practice. This book will be of interest to the psychoanalytic community including psychotherapy professionals, psychoanalysts, post graduate, graduate and undergraduate students.

Over the past decade, the Portuguese Psychoanalytical Society took the opportunity to restructure and redefine their organisation. As part of this process, they invited outstanding psychoanalysts from all over the world to present their thoughts, reflections, and clinical investigations. These conferences, workshops, and working groups helped shape the modern society, bringing in vibrant new ideas. The Lisbon Lectures showcases the best of these significant contributions with chapters from David Bell, Franco Borgogno, Luis J. Martin Cabre, R. D. Hinshelwood, Howard B. Levine, Andrea Marzi, Sergio Eduardo Nick, Leopold Nosek, Fernando Orduz, Eric Smadja, and Virginia Ungar. Each chapter begins with an introduction from one of the editors, Rui Aragao Oliveira, Maria Jose Goncalves, and Joao Diniz, which contextualises their impact at the time, the transformations they brought about, and their continuing relevance to the psychoanalytic community. Grouped into two stimulating sections - Psychoanalysis and contemporaneity and Theory of psychoanalytic technique - the book is an absolute must-read for all psychoanalysts and will be of interest to other mental health professionals, students, and anyone interested in engaging with contemporary psychoanalytic concepts.

Winner of the 2022 Gradiva® Award for Best Edited Book! This book explores the role of bodily phenomena in mental life and in the psychoanalytic encounter, encouraging further dialog within psychoanalysis, philosophy, and the humanities, and contributing new clinical and theoretical perspectives to the recent resurgence of psychoanalytic interest in the body. Presented in six parts in which diverse meanings are explored, Body as Psychoanalytic Object focuses on the clinical psychoanalytic encounter and the body as object of psychoanalytic inquiry, spanning from the prenatal experience to death. The contributors explore key themes including mind–body relations in Winnicott, Bion, and beyond; oneiric body; nascent body in early object relations; body and psychosensory experience; body in breakdown; and body in virtual space. With clinical vignettes throughout, each chapter provides unique insight into how different analysts work with bodily phenomena in the clinical situation and how it is conceived theoretically. Building on the thinking of Winnicott and Bion, as well as contributions from French psychoanalysis, Body as Psychoanalytic Object offers a way forward in a body-based understanding of object relations theory for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists.