Theoretical and metapsychological aspects of digital immersion and presence: Towards a psychoanalytic understanding of being “in” a virtual environment and “with” the other on the screen
Lucio Alberto Gutiérrez Herane · The International Journal of Psychoanalysis · 2025
The concepts of immersion and digital presence have been widely used to describe the experience of being intensely engaged and the blurring of the differences between tangible and digital environments (e.g. being "in" the video game or "with" the other person on the screen). Existing theories have tended to explain these from models based on adaptation to the environment, evolutionary automatisms or social construction of the world. Alternatively, a psychoanalytic reading of these concepts will be proposed, including the problem of cathexis, defence, the negative work of the psyche, and the dynamic equilibria involved. This theory will be illustrated by applying it to teleanalysis, video gaming, and to some aspects of social networking. We shall also speculate about states of mind in immersion, psychopathologies of virtuality and some of the risks that digital immersion poses to primitive and early emotional development. Finally, the value of considering immersion and digital presence within the psychoanalytic research agenda on human relations in and with the virtual-digital is raised.