Whither psychoanalysis in computer culture? (original) (raw)
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Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society Journal, 2022
These two recent studies on digital culture and psychoanalysis demonstrate the truism that not only do we need Lacan to understand the digital, but also that we need cybernetic culture to truly understand Lacanian psychoanalysis. Clearly written, and with examples drawn from the most up-to-date popular and digital culture, both texts are essential reading for any scholar who wants to comprehend why the sinthome, the sexual non-relation, the lathouse and the alethospheres, arcane concepts, to be sure, from the Lacaniverse, are as necessary for internet theory as more familiar notions like the algorithm, the platform, social media, and artificial intelligence. In the conclusion to The Psychoanalysis of Artificial Intelligence, Isabel Millar declares that her study of the ''extimate'' (more on that term below) relation between those two concepts has been ''largely experimental and speculative in nature'' (p. 194). This modest constraint is hardly a limitation, in this reviewer's view. In nine briskly-paced chapters , and drawing on cutting-edge varieties of Lacanian theory-from Alain Badiou on ''L'Étourdit'' to Jacques-Alain Miller and Lorenzo Chiesa on jouissance and Alenka Zupančič on sexuation-as well as such cultural objects as Black Mirror, Blade Runner 2049, and Ex Machina, Millar makes a convincing argument that intelligence qua human attribute is already artificial (as are, perhaps, sexuality and language?).
From the Couch to the Screen: Psychoanalysis in Times of Virtuality
Psychoanalysis, 2021
The purpose of this chapter is to study the implementation of technology in today's psychoanalytical scenario. Many historical and cultural changes have taken place since Freud up to these days. To the contemporary subjective constitution, the human being is complex and determined by a myriad of biological, psychological, and social factors. Thus, culture is not external to the dimensions making up the subject, and technology plays a key role in people's current lives. Within the psychoanalytical technique, the setting has changed and adapted to the different social contexts, to the needs of each subject and also of the analyst. Contemporary psychoanalysis faces the challenge of setting up new scenarios to fit a new present that is taking shape. These are mixed settings, where the physical and virtual presences complement each other, simultaneously and alternately. Both the virtual and the physical realities are different and, therefore, do not replace each other. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to reflect on the conditions that make possible the analytical encounter mediated by technology.
The Psychoanalysis of Artificial Intelligence
The Psychoanalysis of Artificial Intelligence, 2021
This book examines the crucial role of psychoanalysis in understanding what AI means for us as speaking, sexed subjects. Drawing on Lacanian theory and recent clinical developments it explores what philosophy and critical theory of AI has hitherto neglected: enjoyment. Through the reconceptualization of Intelligence, the Artificial Object and the Sexual Abyss the book outlines the Sexbot as a figure who exists on the boundary of psychoanalysis and AI. Through this figure and the medium of film, the author subverts Kant’s three Enlightenment questions and guides readers to transition from asking 'Does it think?' to 'Can it enjoy?' The book will appeal in particular to students and scholars of psychoanalysis, philosophy, film and media studies, critical theory, feminist theory and AI research.
2024
When it comes to presenting a psychoanalytic perspective on technology, Freud’s essay Civil- isation and Its Discontents provides an obvious point of departure (1930/1948). In this psycho- analytical classic, Freud describes how human beings, equipping themselves with “auxiliary organs,” may evolve into “prosthetic gods,” although such organic extensions evidently in- troduce new challenges and frustrations as well—which explains why technology, allegedly beneficial to humans, at the same time triggers ambivalence and discontent. Freud’s view on technological entities as organic extensions is complemented by a somewhat different approach, initiated in a manuscript dating from the early days of psychoanalysis and known as the Entwurf. Here, Freud proposed the outlines of a philosophical anthropology which is fleshed out in more detail many years later in another psychoanalytic classic, namely Be- yond the Pleasure Principle (Freud 1920/1940). After presenting the core ideas developed in these texts, the focus of my contribution will shift to the work of Jacques Lacan, who will also guide our reading of Freud. Lacan’s famous programmatic “return to Freud,” I will argue, does not solely consist of close textual re-reading. Rather, Lacan combines textual analysis (the retour to Freud) with an imposing series of detours, reframing Freud’s concepts and discoveries by connecting them with important developments in twentieth-century research fields, such as structural linguistics, ethology, cybernetics, informatics and molec- ular biology. Whereas Freud’s own understanding of science remained very much indebted to research practices in which he himself had been initiated during the final decades of the nineteenth century (notably neuro-physiology), Lacan demonstrated the relevance of psy- choanalysis for coming to terms with contemporary technoscience, resulting in a psychoan- alytic philosophy of technology, albeit in outline (Zwart 2017, 2019a). My contribution will notably zoom in on the role of technology in what Lacan refers to as the “symbolisation of the real.” Finally, I will focus on Lacan’s assessment (or rather: diagnostic) of information technologies, especially paying attention to the role of gadgets, as technological entities with a specific profile of their own.
The Algorithmic Unconscious. How Psychoanalysis Helps in Understanding AI
This book applies the concepts and methods of psychoanalysis to the study of artifi cial intelligence (AI) and human– AI interaction. It develops a new, more fruitful approach for applying psychoanalysis to AI and machine behavior. It appeals to a broad range of scholars: philosophers working on psychoanalysis, technology, AI ethics, and cognitive sciences, psychoanalysts, psychologists, and computer scientists.
Algorithmic unconscious: why psychoanalysis helps in understanding AI
Palgrave Communications, 2020
The central hypothesis of this paper is that the concepts and methods of psychoanalysis can be applied to the study of AI and human/AI interaction. The paper connects three research fields: machine behavior approach, psychoanalysis and anthropology of science. In the “Machine behavior: research perspectives” section, I argue that the behavior of AI systems cannot be studied only in a logical-mathematical or engineering perspective. We need to study AI systems not merely as engineering artifacts, but as a class of social actors with particular behavioral patterns and ecology. Hence, AI behavior cannot be fully understood without human and social sciences. In the “Why an unconscious for AI? What this paper is about” section, I give some clarifications about the aims of the paper. In the “Unconscious and technology. Lacan and Latour” section, I introduce the central thesis. I propose a re-interpretation of Lacan’s psychoanalysis through Latour’s anthropology of sciences. The aim of thi...