Though the case of Arthur, a video game addict, we examine the rewriting of an adolescent fantasy using the screen, in the “après-coup” of the mirror phase, as a projective and reflexive surface. We consider a “video game phase”, as a rehearsal for the relationship to the Other, the Other sex. Here, the game is a transitional space that simulates relationships to both objects and subjects. It falls short, however, of providing a substitute for the encounter (tuchê) with the external world or for a real, physical relationship.

Adolescence, 2016, 34, 2, 309-318.