Love in the Age of the Internet : Attachment in the Digital Era

This highly topical book explores the new technological environment we have created, and our adaptation to it, twenty-five years after the death of John Bowlby. In the space of just a couple of decades, the world has changed radically, and we are changing too: personal computers and smartphones mediate our lives, work, play, and love. Relationships of all kinds are now conducted through mobile phones, email, Skype and social network sites. Attachment theory is concerned with the impact of the external world on internal reality, where twenty-first century experiences encounter the powerful, primitive, and ancient instinct for attachment and survival. This book is written by psychotherapists whose practice, with individual adults and couples, is informed by attachment theory. It contains theoretical, observational, and clinical material, and will be relevant to all psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, counsellors, and psychologists interested in the profound impact of digital and communication technologies on human relationships. Introduction : Looking Back And Looking Forward / Linda Cundy -- Attachment, Self-experience, And Communication Technology : Love In The Age Of The Internet / Linda Cundy -- A Tangled Web : Internet Pornography, Sexual Addiction, And The Erosion Of Attachment / John Beveridge -- Net Gains And Losses : Digital Technology And The Couple / Anne Power And Linda Cundy -- Desire And Memory : The Impact Of Internet Pornography On The Couple Relationship, And Processing Of Early Trauma In Therapy / Jenny Riddall -- Surviving As A Psychotherapist In The Twenty-first Centry / Linda Cundy -- The Use Of Telephone And Skype In Psychotherapy : Reflections Of An Attachment Therapist / Niki Reeves -- Finding Words : The Use Of Email In Psychotherapy With A Disorganized And Dissociating Client / Tony Hanford -- The Ethereal M/other / Linda Cundy -- It Takes A Village : Co-creation Of Community In The Digital Age / Lindsay Hamilton. Edited By Linda Cundy. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This book is written by psychotherapists whose practice, with individual adults and couples, is informed by attachment theory. It contains theoretical, observational, and clinical material, and will be relevant to all psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, counsellors, and psychologists interested in the profound impact of digital and communication technologies on human relationships: the bond between children and parents in which the child's sense of self develops, attachment between adult couples and within friendship groups and communities, and our relationships with ourselves. The particular kind of "love" between the practitioner and patient, increasingly influenced by new ways of communicating, is also examined. The implicit question posed is this: does digital technology enhance secure attachment or fuel insecurity, alienation, and psychopathology?"--pub. desc