The Techno-Body and the Future of Psychoanalysis

Abstract

The technological revolution brought on by video recording, digital devices, and the Internet meat market has transformed the way individuals access and express their sexual needs, erotic longings, and relationships. What once was a matter of deviant, closeted activity is today a for-sale object on virtual supermarkets of desire. The advent of computers and the introduction of virtual or simulated processes have changed the way individuals relate to, and think about, sexuality. Is contemporary science leading people on a dangerous journey into a postbiological realm?

Notes

⁷Bernardo Bertolucci called Crash “a religious masterpiece.” (Newsweek, March 24, 1997, pp. 79)

¹ Naked Lunch (1991), Crash (1997), eXistenZ (1999).

²For an in-depth analysis of Naked Lunch, see Downing and Kerbis (2000).

³See Tylim (2000).

⁴The games are addictive, perhaps a reference to fin-de-siecle addiction to computers, the Internet, e-mail, Nintendo, and cellular phones.

⁵Unlike robots that are entirely mechanical, cyborgs share human or organic components.

⁶Cyberpunk music is about music created with electronic tools.