Male, female, email : the struggle for relatedness in a paranoid society

How does the Internet serve to blur maleness and femaleness into a more neutered, techno-gendered emailness? And why have so many come to favor these cyber relationships over face-to-face interactions? In a book that is as readable as it is rich in implication, Michael Civin reveals the extent to which these relationships reflect adaptations - adaptive as well as maladaptive - to the experience of pervasive, psychologically threatening conditions of living. In one of the final chapters, he extends his discussion to the workplace, exploring how these cyber representations impact both the individual employees and the organizations themselves. To borrow from Morris Eagle, Male, Female, E-mail is, quite simply, a book that sheds much light on the way we now live.

Choice 评论

Civin offers a view of the Internet world from the psychiatrist's couch. Using case studies, Civin (a scholar and a practicing psychoanalyst) examines Internet sex, electronic stalking, the simulation of alternative cyber identities, and other mediated relationships that replace face-to-face contact. He argues that the cyber system plays a facilitative or transitional role for some; thwarts relatedness and produces paranoid-schizoid behavior in others; and has no valence or potentiating consequences for still others. Civin first examines individuals' use of the Internet and e-mail in the private aspects of their lives, then extends his discussion to the workplace, where the cyber world can increase productivity and control while at the same time destroy the relatedness important to the individual's relationship to the organization. Civin recognizes that the Internet can be liberating and expand a person's potential, but it can do the opposite. Applying psychoanalytic theories to his case studies, he reveals that people with psychological problems are not liberated by the Internet but instead use the technology to deepen paranoid responses. This title offers a unique view of the uses and outcomes of the Internet, a view not found in the usual media book touting the new technologies. Despite psychoanalytic jargon, undergraduates and graduates will profit from Civin's original, provocative insights. R. Cathcart; CUNY Queens College

《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评

Many people have heard or read of the scientific study that links Internet use to depression. This book expands on that notion, attempting to place Internet use in the context of a "paranoid society" beset by increasing personal isolation, bewildering technology, and end-of-the-millennium pressures. Civin, a professor at Adelphi University and a practicing psychoanalyst, uses a number of case studies to illustrate his belief that the Internet serves different functions for different users. On the one hand, he suggests, it can serve as a means of connectedness, facilitating complex exchanges among the self and others. On the other hand, it can insulate the user from meaningful contact with others, providing only one-dimensional exchanges that simulate or substitute for real, full relationships. Civin's ideas--which combine case studies with postmodern theory, personal experiences, and different branches of psychological thought--are well presented. Throughout, he explains the somewhat dauntingly academic language, making this book fascinating reading for anyone with a passing interest in both technology and psychology. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.--David E. Valencia, Federal Way Regional Lib., WA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
1. Male, Female, and Email--New Conceptions of Relatedness	p. 1
2. The Interface of Janus: Internet Relationships at the New Millennium	p. 29
3. Cleansing the Web of Perception	p. 57
4. Between Flesh and Thought: The Substance of Internet Relationships	p. 81
5. Being Between Two Lives: On the Vicissitudes of Cyberspace as Potential Space in Organizations	p. 139
6. At the Still Point of the Turning World: Transformation and Potentiation or Constriction and Annihilation	p. 191
Notes	p. 203
References	p. 221
Index	p. 231

可借阅:*

链接这些题名

已订购

摘要

摘要

评论 (2)

Choice 评论

《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评

目录