Psychoanalysis, Identity, and the Internet: Explorations into Cyberspace

273 Pages·2016·5.08 MB·English

by  Andrea Marzi

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CHAPTERTITLE I
PSYCHOANALYSIS, IDENTITY,
AND THE INTERNET
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Library of Technology and Mental Health
Series editor: Jill Savege Scharff, MD
Distance Psychoanalysis: The Theory and Practice of Using
Communication Technology in the Clinic
by Ricardo Carlino, translated by James Nuss
Psychoanalysis Online: Mental Health, Teletherapy and Training
edited by Jill Savege Scharff
Screen Relations: The Limits of Computer-Mediated Psychoanalysis
and Psychotherapy
Gillian Isaacs Russell
Psychoanalysis Online 2: Impact of Technology on Development,
Training, and Therapy
edited by Jill Savege Scharff
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PSYCHOANALYSIS,
IDENTITY, AND
THE INTERNET
Explorations into Cyberspace
edited by
Andrea Marzi
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First published in Italy by Franco Angeli Editore, Milan, 2013 with the title
Psicoanalisi, Identità e Internet
First published in 2016 by
Karnac Books Ltd
118 Finchley Road, London NW3 5HT
Copyright © 2016 to Andrea Marzi for the edited collection and to the
individual authors for their contributions.
The rights of the contributors to be identified as the authors of this work
have been asserted in accordance with §§77 and 78 of the Copyright Design
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 78220 431 2
Edited, designed and produced by The Studio Publishing Services Ltd
www.publishingservicesuk.co.uk
email: [email protected]
Printed in Great Britain
www.karnacbooks.com
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CONTENTS
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS vii
SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE xi
FOREWORD: People, characters, holograms xv
by Antonino Ferro
INTRODUCTION xxiii
PART I
CYBERSPACE, CYBERNETICS, AND SOCIETY
CHAPTER ONE
Cyberspace: the metaphor of metaphors 3
Riccardo Sorrenti
CHAPTER TWO
From Prometheus to Big Brother: a prosthetic god, 33
truly magnificent
Valeria Egidi Morpurgo
v
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vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER THREE
Exploring the subtle mental boundary between 51
the real and the virtual
Marco Longo
PART II
IDENTITY IN CYBERSPACE
CHAPTER FOUR
Identity work in the time of cyberspace 77
Giuseppina Antinucci
CHAPTER FIVE
Cyberghosts from the depths 111
Andrea Marzi
PART III
VIRTUAL SPACE AND CLINICAL PSYCHOANALYSIS
CHAPTER SIX
“Lorenzo”: psychotic addiction to video games 135
David Rosenfeld
CHAPTER SEVEN
“On my days off, I’m an elf”: psychic pain and 167
resolution in cyberspace
Marcus Johns
CHAPTER EIGHT
Epistemophily–epistemopathy: use of the internet 181
between normality and disease
Michele G. Sforza
INDEX 209
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ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
Giuseppina Antinucciis a Fellow of the BPAS and a Full Member of
the IPA. She trained and worked in London, in private practice and at
the Anna Freud Centre, where she ran a mother and toddler group
within the umbrella of the under-three services, for many years. She
taught on the Msc on Psychoanalytic Theories of Child Development,
run jointly by the Anna Freud Centre and UCL. She worked as an
honorary consultant on the Directorate at the London Clinic of
Psychoanalysis. She served two mandates on the European Editorial
Board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, for which she still
acts as a reader. In the past five years, she has been very involved with
the Adelaide Psychoanalytic Society, lecturing, running theoretical
and clinical seminars, and supervising candidates, through telecom-
munication media. Among her publications are. “Another language,
another place. To hide or be found?” (2004), International Journal of Psy -
choanalysis, 85(5); “Nina Coltart the consultant: hospitality conditional
and unconditional”, in Rudnytsky and Preston (Eds.), Her Hour Come
Round at Last(London, Karnac, 2011); “The alter(n)ation of lang uages
and their relation to the unconscious. The trilingual poetry of Amelia
Rosselli” (2015), Bulletin of the British Psychoanalytic Society, 51(7);
“Beating phantasies: mourned and unmourned” (2015), International
Journal of Psychoanalysis, 97(3).
vii
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viii ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
Antonino Ferro lives and works in Pavia. He is a psychiatrist and
training and supervising analyst of the International Psychoanalytic
Association and of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI), of which
he is currently President. He has done much in-depth work on the
links between narration and psychoanalysis with particular attention
to the “forms” of the analytic dialogue and to the interpretative meth-
ods. He is the author of many scientific articles published in the lead-
ing international journals of psychoanalysis and also of various books,
translated into a number of languages. Among the latter are: Cura e
autocura con la psicoanalisi—Un seminario con Antonino Ferro (edited by
V. P. Pellicanò) (Borla, 2012), Tormenti di anime. Passioni, sintomi, sogni
(Cortina, 2010); La terra di nessuno fra psichiatria e psicoterapia. Terapia
bipersonale nella clinica psichiatrica (Bollati Boringhieri, 2010), Rêveries
(Antigone, 2008); Evitare le emozioni, vivere le emozioni (Cortina, 2007).
He is invited to hold seminars and supervisions in psychoanalytic
societies in Europe, North America, and South America.
Marcus Johns is a psychoanalyst, a Fellow of the British Psycho -
analytical Society, and a psychiatrist who trained at the Maudsley
Hospital and the Tavistock Clinic. He worked with children and their
parents for many years and was Chairman of the London Child
Guid ance Training Centre and Consultant responsible for the Day
Unit for Seriously Disturbed Children at the Tavistock Centre. He was
Acting Director of the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis and Editor of
the Bulletin. He has always had an interest in the books, films, and
telev ision programmes for children and has been a consultant to BBC
Television on the psychological implications of children’s literature
and the child’s response to horror and thrills. He is now retired from
clinical practice.
Marco Longo, MD, lives in Rome and specialises in clinical psycho -
logy. He is a psychoanalyst, SPI and IPA, group analyst, and President
of the COIRAG (Confederation of Italian Organisations for Analytical
Research on Groups), founder of the SIPtech (Italian Society
of Psychotechnology and Clinical Study of the New Media), founder
and editor of Psychomedia.it, and an expert in psychotrauma -
tology and psychoemergency.
Andrea Marzi, MD, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, has a PhD in
Medical Ethics and is a full member of the Italian Psychoanalytical
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ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ix
Society (Società Psicoanalitica Italiana) and of the International
Psychoanalytical Association, holding in these fields several national
and international functions in groups and committees. He worked at
the University of Cambridge as Visiting Fellow, worked in the Depart-
ment of Forensic Psychopathology, and is a former Professor of
Developmental Psychology at the University of Siena. He is also a
supervisor in institutions and the National Health Service (NHS). He
has published very many scientific articles in national and international
journals, and several books, the latest of which are: Ciak si gira,
Psicoanalisi al cinema, about the relationship between cinema and
psychoanalysis, and, as Editor, Psicoanalisi, Identità e Internet [Psycho -
analysis, Identity and the Internet], the first survey in Italian about
virtual reality and psychoanalysis.
Valeria Eigidi Morpurgo is a board-certified psychologist and
psychoanalyst and is a full member of SPI and of the IPA. She lectures
on outreach activities at Milan Psychoanalytic Centre, a part of the
Italian Psychoanalytical Society, and teaches candidates for SPI train-
ing. Since 1999, she has been the general editor of a collection of
psychoanalytic books for Franco Angeli, the Milan publishing house.
She is a member of the IPA Committee on Ageing (PPAPP). Among
her recent publications are: “Specchi fatali. Il narcisismo tra vanita’ e
melanconia”, in M. Breccia (Ed.), Narciso e gli Altri (Rome, 2014);
“Alpes and “Le langage de l’ absent. L’analyste et l’ecriture du trau-
matisme collectif” (2015), Revue Belge de Psychanalyse, 67.
David Rosenfeld is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and is a train-
ing and supervising analyst of the IPA. He has trained in Buenos
Aires, in the UK, in France, and in the USA. He is a professor of
mental health in the faculty of medicine in Buenos Aires. He has been
vice president of the IPA. Author of many articles and books on the
subject of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, he has won numerous inter-
national prizes, such as the President Jefferson Award (1993), the
Sigourney Award (1996), the prize for The Boyer House Foundation
(1999), and the Hayman Prize (2007). Among his publications are: The
Psychotic: Aspects of the Personality (London, Karnac, 1992); The Soul,
The Mind, and The Psychoanalyst (London, Karnac, 2006).
Michele G. Sforzais a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and group psycho -
therapist. He is a member of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI)