Human Virtuality and Digital Life: Philosophical and Psychoanalytic Investigations

Description

This book is a psychoanalytic and philosophical exploration of how the digital is transforming our perception of the world and our understanding of ourselves. Drawing on examples from everyday life, myth, and popular culture, this book argues that virtual reality is only the latest instantiation of the phenomenon of the virtual, which is intrinsic to human being. It illuminates what is at stake in our understanding of the relationship between the virtual and the real, showing how our present technologies both enhance and diminish our psychological lives. The authors claim that technology is a pharmakon - at the same time both a remedy and a poison - and in their writing exemplify a method that overcomes the polarization that compels us to regard it either as a liberating force or a dangerous threat in human life. The digital revolution challenges us to reckon with the implications of what is being called our posthuman condition, leaving behind our modern conception of the world as constituted by atemporal essences and reconceiving it instead as one of processes and change. The book’s postscript considers the sudden plunge into the virtual effected by the 2020 global pandemic. Accessible and wide-reaching, this book will appeal not only to psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and philosophers, but anyone interested in the ways virtuality and the digital are transforming our contemporary lives. Cover Endorsements Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Preface Acknowledgements Permissions Introduction Prelude 1 Human virtuality a Virtuality and psychoanalysis b Virtuality and philosophy 2 Digital life 3 Poison and remedy Coda Notes References Part I: Virtual media Introduction to Part I 1. History of the virtual Prelude 1 A short story of the media a Words: From speech to writing b Images: From photography to digital image i Photography ii Film iii Digital image Notes References 2. Dimensions of virtuality 1 Modulating virtuality a From image to digital image b From the virtual to virtual reality 2 Virtuality and experience a Post-truth b Laboratory of subjectivity i San Junipero Notes References Part II: Evolving conceptions of the virtual and the real Introduction to Part II 3. Two stances on the virtual and the real 1 Stance one: The inherent fakeness of the virtual a Critique of the first stance: The alleged inherent fakeness of the virtual 2 Stance two: The virtual as an upgrade of the real a The virtualization of everyday life b Critique of stance two: The virtual as an alleged upgrade of the real 3 A contemporary phenomenology of digital hyperreality a The hyperrealization of meaning: Limits, addiction, and the incapacity to metabolize experience i Digital addiction ii Loss of quality iii The narcissistic excesses of hyperreality b Digitally induced death anxiety Coda: A brief reflection on the interrelation between the two stances Notes References 4. The inexorable flow Prelude 1 The Deleuzian simulacrum 2 Differentials and microperceptions 3 Rhizomatic play 4 Modulating modulations Coda Note References Part III: Depth psychology in the digital age Introduction to Part III 5. The virtual within Prelude 1 Digital mind in search of a soul 2 Digital narcissism 3 Digital illusion and the virtual-real 4 Digital virtuality and the pleasure principle 5 Sexuality hyperrealized Notes References 6. The virtual as potential space Prelude 1 Three senses of the virtual 2 The psychological origins of virtuality 3 Virtuality and transitional phenomena 4 The re-emergence of virtuality in adolescence 5 Digital adolescence Notes References 7. Virtuality and the other Prelude 1 Digital disavowal 2 Digital eros 3 The absent body 4 Facing the real other 5 Facing the digital other Coda Notes References Part IV: Philosophical issues of the virtual Introduction to Part IV 8. Ontological centaurs Prelude 1 Beyond the Pygmalionic 2 Losses and recoveries a The aura 3 Mimetic faculty, emergence, and seeing aspects 4 Beyond representation a From scribal to digital b The symptom of "post truth" Notes References 9. Digital pharmacology 1 Digital transcendence a Dataism and the mind b Virtual body 2 The logic of transparency a Newton's sleep b Pharmacology of the selfie 3 Digital centaurs a Towards the posthuman b Transhumanism and the Singularity c Digital ethics i Technology ii The question of ethics Coda Notes References 10. The tragedy of the virtual Prelude Introduction 1 Personal losses a Digital mourning b Digital mirroring c Digital melancholy d Digital narcissism 2 Collective losses a Virtual privacy b Virtual containment c Virtual leaking 3 Ontological losses a Digital transparency b Digital aura Coda Note References Postscript: Digital life in the time of the pandemic Note References Index