Serge Tisseron : the virtual in adolescence, its mythologies, its fantasies, and its uses

The word “ virtual ” has at least three possible definitions : that which is potential and in the process of becoming, that which is present but not actualized at a given moment, and that which excludes the body and its turmoil. In all these cases, the virtual establishes itself as a fantasy wherein the desire to be contained in the image, to interact with it, and finally to swap skins with it are all mobilized at the same time. But sometimes, virtual encounters are also used by adolescents as transitional spaces for the purposes of personal symbolization.