Forms of presence and absence in a digital age

ABSTRACT

The structural importance of absence for human development is considered crucial in psychoanalytic thinking. The necessary conflict between the principles of pleasure and reality is situated in the intersection of presence/absence, gratification/frustration. However, nowadays a physical encounter with an-Other always contains a tangible aspect of partial absence, when the person you are with is in potential simultaneous interaction with someone else, through the portable screen. The author argues that digital technology has a profound impact on our daily existence, where a central aspect is this displacement of the dimension of presence/absence. Certainly, a relationship between two people has always contained a third, but we may now be facing something qualitatively different. In a world of omnipresent connectedness, we are never completely alone and never completely together. This constant connectedness can be seen to cause a transformation of the third position, altering the structure of triangular space. Furthermore, the digital presence of the other has specific imaginary qualities, rather than symbolic, and the full implications of this are yet to be discovered. The author discusses these issues in relation to everyday social settings as well as symptoms presented in the consulting room.

KEYWORDS:

• Presence/absence
• digital technology
• triangular space
• connectedness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. A couple of years ago, Facebook changed its algorithms to give privilege and precedence to posts with pictures, making verbal posts less visible in the feed of the user. As expected, this has increased the use of photographs enormously, almost no-one publishes unillustrated posts.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charlotta Björklind

Charlotta Björklind, Member and Training analyst of the Swedish Psychoanalytical Association.