The Psychodynamics of Social Networking: Connected-up Instantaneous Culture and the Self

ISBN-13: 9781780490922 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 224 str.

Aaron Balick

Opis

This is a timely book looking at the enormous impact that social networking has had on our society and how it is profoundly influencing our lives. While there is currently a great deal of thinking about the psychological ramifications of these sorts of changes, there has been little work looking at the psychodynamics of individuals who use and depend upon these social networks, and the consequences for themselves and their important relationships. Popular hubs of social networking such as Facebook and Twitter feature centrally in this text, as well as the impact of the ubiquity of access through smartphones; the nature of this impact on interpersonal relationships and the formation of the -self'- is of particular interest.

The author takes a psychodynamic approach: that is, investigating the nature of social networking on the personal and social unconscious and its relationship to how we create, build, and maintain relationships. Insights from relational psychoanalysis inform the text; relational psychoanalysis defined as that which concerns itself primarily with relating to others as a primary human motivation, taking in both unconscious object relational perspectives alongside relationships with real others. Social networking is interpreted as a new and relatively under-researched ground in which relational dynamics are played out.

Psychotherapists encounter the inside story and personal narratives of individuals living more and more of their lives online, hence the psychotherapeutic perspective gives a particularly unique insight into this matter. The Psychodynamics of Social Networking uses contemporary psychoanalytic theory to investigate the processes involved particularly in the ways in which individuals engage with each other through social networking, ultimately constructing how individuals perceive themselves both within and outside this context. Psychodynamic theory as applied to a variety of existing research and personal narratives is used to illustrate theory.

Spis treści

Series Editors' Preface , Introduction: putting it into context , Psychodynamics , On searching and being sought 15 , The matrix , Who's afraid of being an object? , Being in the mind of the other , Identities are not virtual , Conclusion

O autorze

Aaron Balick