Interface Fantasy: A Lacanian Cyborg Ontology

by André Nusselder

Cyberspace is first and foremost a mental space. Therefore we need to take a psychological approach to understand our experiences in it. In Interface Fantasy, André Nusselder uses the core psychoanalytic notion of fantasy to examine our relationship to computers and digital technology. Lacanian psychoanalysis considers fantasy to be an indispensable "screen" for our interaction with the outside world; Nusselder argues that, at the mental level, computer screens and other human-computer interfaces incorporate this function of fantasy: they mediate the real and the virtual. Interface Fantasy illuminates our attachment to new media: why we love our devices; why we are fascinated by the images on their screens; and how it is possible that virtual images can provide physical pleasure. Nusselder puts such phenomena as avatars, role playing, cybersex, computer psychotherapy, and Internet addiction in the context of established psychoanalytic theory. The virtual identities we assume in virtual worlds, exemplified best by avatars consisting of both realistic and symbolic self-representations, illustrate the three orders that Lacan uses to analyze human reality: the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real. Nusselder analyzes our most intimate involvement with information technology--the almost invisible, affective aspects of technology that have the greatest impact on our lives. Interface Fantasy lays the foundation for a new way of thinking that acknowledges the pivotal role of the screen in the current world of information. And it gives an intelligible overview of basic Lacanian principles (including fantasy, language, the virtual, the real, embodiment, and enjoyment) that shows their enormous relevance for understanding the current state of media technology.

Genres: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Theory, Research

170 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 2009

Reviews

[Ktulis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little gem is a unique adaptation of Lacanian psychoanalysis for the research of modern computer technologies. It does not joke around, Lacan is researched in depth here and I had no problems whatsoever with his adaptation. The technology part is well elaborated, explaining how the computer systems work (coding and decoding of binary information, presentations on the screen, subjective perceptions of cyberspace and so on) from the Lacanian perspective. I have read it alongside McLuhan, Espen Aarseth, Baudrillard and it fits right in there, giving a different explanation of how new media changes our contemporary societies. Totally recommend.

[Rania Zokou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parts of this book were some of the first texts I was exposed to during my first year in university and ever since I wanted to study the whole thing. Six years later I finish this book for my thesis and the pathways of thought it traced on my brain are fully healed. This book will have dominated my early adult years' worldview for better or for worse.

[Lowell AfdahlRice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is essentially a compilation of current scholarship on cyber technology's interface with subjectivity. A good background in Descartes, Kant, Freud, and especially Lacan is needed for a firm understanding of this book. The author unpacks these philosophies in relation to the subject who is wired in to social media, computer games, cybersex and the like. The primary argument that Lacanian psychoanalysis's concept of fantasy explains the attraction of new cyber technology is noted, but to this reader not revelatory or all that interesting.

[Jake Cowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My summary is here: https://seminar28.wordpress.com/2016/...