When working with teenagers, the association “ en-Jeux ” (its name plays on the two meanings “ game on ” and “ at stake ”) gives priority to virtual reality games. For these constantly evolving subjects the world of video games encourages a journey of self-discovery and the discovery of others. The young players move from a solitary use of the games to a more collective use, in a more social setting. However, achieving this aim involves an adult contribution to the adolescents, and technical supports are essential. Thus, video games become tools of understanding the way the psyche works and, used on line, they are an excellent way to acquire new technical an inter-personal skills. At en-Jeux, virtual reality games bring out the hidden potential in adolescents.
Archives par mot-clé : Video games
Bernard Guillot : computer-assisted psychotherapy, PsyaO
PsyaO, “ computer-assisted psychotherapy ”, is legitimized when the virtual game, by stimulating faulty insight, provides an imaginary dynamic graft that can awaken the numbed depressive or the child who is failing out of school … The parent can be reinserted via the ludic interactive relation that liberates vital energy through the pleasure shared with the therapist.
Michel Hajji, Frédéric Tordo : avatars and i ! the psychological function of the multiplicity of avatars in video games
The authors attempt to demonstrate the impact on an individual of different psychological functions of the creation of multiple avatars in video games, more particularly in MMORPG. The avatars are either fragmented representations of the self that provide, as a whole, an image of the player personality, or they may come as a crude quest for sensations and motor stimulations. These different relational aspects of the avatar will be illustrated using adolescent clinical cases.
Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°3, pp. 657-665.
Elizabeth Rossé : the figure of the avatar in contemporary identity construction
Testimonies of video games’ excessive players lead to questions about the human condition: How can forge an identity for oneself and build an itinerary within the « societies of the instant », characterised by uncertainty and disinclination ? The desire for recognition is carried out in new inter-subjective structures which control even the autonomy of individuals. Highlight of the culture of the image and of the interactiveness wherein the body occupies a particular position – missing in the flesh, but at the helm of the avatar, the pixelated body. Insofar as they offer the possibility of living experiences with others, video games appear to be a favourable place in which to fabricate an identity.
Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°3, pp. 611-620.
Gilles Deles : anthropological and cultural figures in the game world of warcraft
The universe of the popular network game World of Warcraft is characterized by the originality of cultural references it uses and recomposes, but also by the virtual use of animist thought. These anthropological components like mana, totem animal, or demons were once vectors of fear and social distance as Freud analyzed in Totem and taboo. They are now commonly used objects for the player’s avatar in virtual reality. In a similar way, science and technology occupy a special status which is in many ways similar to the ancient Presocratic metaphysics.
The analysis of these symbolic dimensions and the ethical considerations involved are keys to a better understanding of what holds the player’s interest in his avatar, and may be tools for adults and therapists.
Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°3, pp. 601-609.
Frédéric Tordo : psychoanalysis of action in video games
The author recognizes action as a fundamental element of the video gamer’s psychology because, on the one hand, the gamer projects himself dynamically, through action, into the moving character, and, on the other hand, the gamer is going to have to represent these actions to himself as his own. But only in part, since it is important for the playful dimension that the player have fun seeing the representation of actions that are impossible for his own body. The virtual character is thus described as another self, both the double of oneself and necessarily different from oneself.
Adolescence, 2012, 30, 1, 119-132
Yann Leroux : metapsychology of video games immersion
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.
Pascal Minotte : internet addiction and other prophecies of decline
Considering the important place they occupy in youth recreation, video games and the way they are used have become unavoidable objects of study. Among the questions raised by this research, two are particularly sensitive because of their ideological and political implications. The first is the over-investment these games can generate, sometimes called « Internet addiction » or « obsessive passion ». The second, revived every time incidents occur involving minors, focuses on the possible exportation « Into Real Life » of the violent content of some games. In this context, the Walloon Institute for Mental Health carried out at the request of the Walloon Minister of Health, Social Action and Equal Opportunity (Belgium), an inventory of what is known about these two issues. The article provides a summary of this work.
Adolescence, 2012, 30, 1, 89-99.
d. j. kuss, m. d. griffiths : internet video game addiction
a systematic review of empirical research in the literature
history, and the Internet has emerged as a playground whose playing population is continually growing. Studies suggest that Internet gamers present symptoms traditionally associated with substance addiction, such as mood changes, increased tolerance and behavioral outbursts. Because today’s scientific knowledge of Internet games is abundant and appears relatively complex, this review of the literature aims to reduce the confusion by providing an innovative framework in which all the studies conducted up till now may be categorized. A total of 58 empirical studies are included in this review. There are polemical debates abouThe activity of « playing » has always been part of human t Internet gaming addiction running the gamut from the existence of a past etiology and risk factors, to the development of full-fledged addiction, followed by ramifications in terms of negative consequences and possible treatments. The results are evaluated here and propositions for future research are advanced.
Adolescence, 2012, 30, 1, 17-48.
David Le Breton : on school massacres carried out by adolescents
Young school shooters are far from fitting a common psychological style: some are described as sociable, others as loners. Some live in intact families, others in divorced or separated families. A set of sociological features unites them : the fulfillment of a virility rite when nothing else gives them a sense of self-worth, the impossibility of identifying with others, the wild hatred which in them takes the place of membership the world.
Adolescence, 2011, T. 29 n°2, pp. 325-337.