Yann Leroux : the video game as support for the therapeutic relation

In the past twenty years, video games have become firmly entrenched in our culture. Adolescents find in them spaces in which adolescent issues can be played out and re-played. Psychotherapists have started using them within the framework of therapeutic mediations. This paper reports the construction of a therapeutic arrangement: video game group therapy. This is conceived of as a working apparatus allowing for the stimulation and reception of affects and thoughts. This type of mediation is particularly interesting in the treatment of children and adolescents whose total inhibition initially compromises the therapeutic project. The notion of « ludo-landscape» characterizes a part of the psychical work which is summoned up by the video game. The case of Julien illustrates the work that was carried out.

Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°3, pp. 699-709.