Media and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Introduction

“At last, the book we have been waiting for – that comprehensive text that bites off as much as it can chew from our ragingly complex contemporary media and technology landscape, and then subjects what it finds to the psychoanalytic gaze. From AI to Žižek, the authors have tamed a dizzyingly diverse body of theory into a brilliant, comprehensive, and significant text. Johanssen and Krüger have crushed it.” Dr. Aaron Balick, psychotherapist and author of The Psychodynamics of Social Networking Our lives are saturated by media that we use in conscious as well as unconscious ways. Spanning a wide range of examples, this critical introduction guides readers through the growing field of psychoanalytic media studies in a clear and accessible manner. It is an indispensable read for anyone who wants to understand the complex relationship between humans and technology today. Jacob Johanssen and Steffen Krüger show how media function beyond the rational. What does it mean to speak of narcissism in relation to social media? How have the internet and online platforms shaped work? How do apps like Tinder and online pornography shape our experience of love and sexuality? What are the potentials and pitfalls in our relationships with AI and robots? These questions, and many others, are discussed and answered in this book. Aimed at students, academics and clinicians, this book introduces readers to key media and the ways they have been approached psychoanalytically, and presents major concepts and debates led by scholars since the 1970s.