SEDUCTION, DECEPTION AND TECHNOLOGY:
Book ticketsOrganised by:
Association Of Jungian Analysts
Description
The lure of online addiction with speaker, Susan Tyler, Jungian Analyst.
(Original image of Ixion by bgds reproduced courtesy of Mark Cartwright)
This paper was originally written during lockdown when our lives migrated online in so many ways, and shines a light on aspects of the online existence which has become a constant of our contemporary life. It describes Susan’s work with a male patient who had become addicted to internet pornography. The patient was able to address his problem with pornography and significantly address his addiction but remained cut off emotionally.
Susan became interested in the addictive processes he employed to mask his fear of connection. She learnt to view the content of the sexual scenes he was compelled to search for as if she were thinking of a dream. This became a portal to discovering what, for him, was so terrifying about the other.
The paper looks at how we might begin to humanise these alienated parts that the addictive use of pornography brings to life.
Susan states: “This piece of work, undertaken at the same time as undergoing analytic training, profoundly influenced my way of working. I want to invite discussion about the concept of the wounded healer and how we relate to fears of intimacy in cases such as the one described”.
Susan Tyler is a Jungian Analyst and supervisor in private practice in Brighton. She is also a co-founder of London Analysis, Psychotherapy and Counselling (LAPC), a therapy clinic in central London. Interested in addiction, she is the author of the papers ‘Transcending the Alcoholic Shadow’ (BJP, 2022) and ‘Seduction, Deception and Technology’ (JAP, 2023).
