Disembodied Intimacies: Identity and relationship on the Internet

This panel explored the psychological impact of today's expanding computer technology. Speakers addressed such phenomena as computer-mediated relationships, experimentation with different aspects of self via the Internet, and changes in children's play due to the new technology. The impact of the digital revolution on psychoanalytic treatment itself was also explored, including the prospect of computer-mediated therapy.

Sections I and V joined forces this April at the Division 39 Meetings to sponsor a panel titled “Disembodied Intimacies: Identity and Relationship on the Internet.” The panel was a beginning attempt to understand the psychological impact of the meteoric expansion of computer technology in our age. It addressed such questions as How does the new technology change the nature of human relationships? How does it shape the experience of self? What signs of these new developments are therapists seeing in their practices? In the future, how is the digital revolution likely to affect psychoanalytic practice itself?

After an introduction to the panel by Elliot Adler, Helen silverman gave the first presentation. Identifying this time in society as a “liminal moment”—a period of great flux and transition in which new cultural