Starting with the distinction made by D. Arsenault and M. Picard between sensory, systemic and fictional immersion, the text tries to provide a metapsychological point of view of the phenomenon. Immersion can be caused by saturation of the senses, mastering of the game or identification to the protagonist. Regression, denial and attractor object correspond to the different types of immersion. As regression, the video game immersion is a fantasy of uterine regression and corresponds to different stages of the construction of reality. As negation, it relies on the suspension of the judgment of existence and a prevailing operation of self-pleasure ; as an attractor objet, video game immersion organizes the psyche around an aesthetic object. The different types of video immersion are linked to the ways each one interiorizes the world and reflect symbolizations by the body, by images and by words.

Adolescence, 2012, 30, 1, 107-118.