Love in the Age of the Internet, edited by Linda Cundy,  Karnac Books, London, 2015,  196 pp.

This is what I call a juxtaposition: within days of first sitting down to read Love in the Age of the Internet, I received my weekly edition of Time magazine with the cover proclaiming “Why we're losing the Internet to the culture of hate.” So vast is the topic of the impact, uses, and misuses of the Internet, digital technology, and social media that it is actually not so surprising that the extremes of Love and Hate could be highlighted in separate, concurrent publications.

Before I continue, some disclosure is appropriate: I am too old by decades to be a digital native, but would hardly consider myself a technophobe or technology Luddite. I use email but not in my practice; abhor telephone therapy; used Skype a few times with one traveling patient but will not make it a habit; am not on Facebook or Twitter and have no plans to be; I play no online or fantasy games; I text friends and family only; and I have written about Internet Pornography . And, based on my reading this short volume of largely excellent, thought-provoking papers, I am willing to reconsider my professional uses and avoidance of all modern technologies.

This volume is a collection of nine papers (some co-authored) by seven different writers, all based in the United Kingdom and all identified as dynamically oriented psychotherapists with a marked attachment-based orientation. Several of the authors have trained at or are affiliated with the Bowlby Center, and many have affiliations or experiences with centers or programs that will be unfamiliar to many American readers.