The Psychodynamics of Social Networking

Connected-up Instantaneous Culture and the Self

Dr. Aaron Balick

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781780490922
• eBook ISBN: 9780429921902
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Over the past decade, the very nature of the way we relate to each other has been utterly transformed by online social networking and the mobile technologies that enable unfettered access to it. Our very selves have been extended into the digital world in ways previously unimagined, offering us instantaneous relating to others over a variety of platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In The Psychodynamics of Social Networking, the author draws on his experience as a psychotherapist and cultural theorist to interrogate the unconscious motivations behind our online social networking use, powerfully arguing that social media is not just a technology but is essentially human and deeply meaningful.

CHAPTER ONE
Psychodynamics

“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true”

(Hawthorne, 1850)

This chapter will set out the main underlying psychodynamic principles that I propose are operating within the intersubjective system of online relating. I open the chapter by discussing how psychodynamic concepts may be deployed outside the clinic to gain insight into unconscious relational processes, before going into the main psychodynamic paradigm of relational psychoanalysis. This will be the most theoretically dense chapter of the entire book, as it lays out the conceptual basis for further developments of theory and the applications to social networking that will follow. The main aim of the chapter is to provide an overarching lens through which one can apprehend online interpersonal interaction from a relational psychodynamic perspective.

Psychodynamic applications outside the clinic

Psychoanalysis developed from within the clinical situation. It was Freud’s observations with individual patients that provided the initial scaffold for the theory of psychoanalysis that was revised and worked over again and again in the light of new experiences and new evidence. No doubt theoretical dogmatism often obscured new possibilities and prevented fresh thought, ultimately creating a constellation of schools of psychoanalysis rather than a single theory undergoing successive revisions. However, the ideal of learning from clinical experience remained. Historically, applying the scientific method to psychoanalysis has been problematic, notably because the object of enquiry, the unconscious, is elusive to empirical observation. This, however, does not release psychoanalysis from the duty to offer evidence of its efficacy as both a treatment and a theory. Dreher (2000) addresses the problematic nature of putting the same nomothetic and quantitative tools so popular in social and empirical methods to use in psychoanalytic research. Dreher suggests an alternative to conventional research methods for psychoanalysis in which a conceptual approach may be preferred. That is:

a class of research activities, the focus of which lies in the systematic clarification of psychoanalytic concepts . .. such research is both about the history of concepts, so as to trace a concept’s origin and development, and equally about the current use of a concept, its clarification, and its differentiation. (Dreher, 2000, pp. 3–4)

She then notes that conceptual psychoanalytic research such as this is a constructive as well as a critical tool.

Psychoanalysis has a long history as a constructive and critical tool, not only in the clinical situation, but also as a cultural application, beginning with Freud’s (admittedly often problematic) readings of cultural influences, including literature (Freud, 1907a), art (Freud, 1910c, 1914b), and religion (Freud, 1939a).

Nowadays, psychoanalytic conceptual research is being applied more and more in the development of qualitative research methodologies (Frosh, 2010; Hollway & Jefferson, 2010) in sociology, anthropology, and other social research applications. Frosh (2010), in particular, is interested in how a discipline such as psychoanalysis, which emerged from the very particular nature of the clinical encounter, can be utilised outside that rarefied space that is the psychoanalyst’s consulting room. Frosh poignantly wonders what happens when psychoanalysis is taken out of the clinic and asks whether it would still be considered “psychoanalysis”. For extra-clinical material, Frosh maintains, with some reservations, that psychoanalysis

offers a distinctive and productive approach to interpreting human actions, social phenomena and cultural products ‘outside’ the clinic. If the theoretical constructs generated inside the clinic by psychoanalysis have any robustness, why should they not be at least suggestive aids to comprehension of complex events that in their unexpectedness or emotional intensity seem to show the traces of the unconscious? (Frosh, 2010, p. 4)

With respect to the psychodynamics of social networking, we will indeed be utilising psychoanalytic theory to aid us in the “comprehension of complex events” that seem to be occurring at the nexus between the medium of social networking (that is the SNSs themselves) and what might be unconsciously motivating those of us who use them.

The aim, then, is to read the phenomenon of social networking psychoanalytically, outside the clinical context, and within the larger socio-cultural sphere. This approach examines social networks themselves, inclusive of their cultural epiphenomena: the profusion of “talk” in the media about social media, which is itself distributed and promulgated over social networks. Previous psychological and quantitative research in the field of social networking will naturally be incorporated, making this work, in a sense, a meta-analysis. However, rather than seeking to create a conventional quantitative metaanalysis, described as “a statistical procedure which brings together findings from similar studies to estimate overall effects” (Cooper, 2008, p. 22), this approach will utilise existing studies by focusing a psychoanalytic lens upon them in order to interpretatively deduce psychoanalytically relational themes that may be present, both explicitly and implicitly embedded in the research.

As outlined in the introduction, this is not meant to be a comprehensive piece of research in its own right (I have carried out no new empirical research in the preparation for this book) but, rather, an interpretation of the existing research, cultural artefacts, and an ethnographically influenced reading of the state of social media and the self. In relation to the research applications of psychoanalysis as delineated by Hollway and Jefferson (2010), researcher subjectivity is a crucial tool in bringing understanding to material in which observation among human subjects plays a major role. The psychoanalytic encounter has long taken the effect of countertransference, that is, the feelings that an analyst has in relation to their patient, as an important source of information about the patient’s internal world as picked up within the unconscious person-to-person communication between analyst and patient (Heimann, 1950; Maroda, 2004). Countertransference, in particular, is noted as one of the ways in which “the psychoanalytic principle of unconscious intersubjectivity [can be used] to theorise the effect of research relationship(s) on the production and analysis of data” (Hollway & Jefferson, 2010, p. 151). Countertransference from the clinic to application outside the clinic is, however, not simply a transferable skill. Frosh (2010), for instance, is cautious about how its clinical use can be applied outside the clinical setting:

the practice Hollway and Jefferson describe is in some important respects significantly different from the kind of exploration of unconscious material characteristic of psychoanalytic reflection on the countertransference in the clinical situation. What the researchers do is notice how a participant made them feel . .. without the necessary limitations of the analytic session and contract which would allow one to understand the validity of this response. (p. 214)

Psychodynamic therapists are trained over several years to work with countertransference and have had the opportunity to work through their own unconscious material through a long commitment to their own psychotherapy, which is something few, if any, qualitative researchers will be required to do; even so, working through what material is transference, countertransference, or to what degree they are co-created is a notoriously difficult task, even for the experienced clinician. Despite all these caveats, however, I would stress that the dynamics that are occurring are identical in all human-to-human interactional settings; it is the nature of how they are provoked and worked with that limits the important differences: both contexts are mutually co-constructive in nature. I agree with Frosh’s concern about the direct application of a psychoanalytic process to other kinds of research. However, I also agree with Hollway and Jefferson that thoughtful subjectivity can be utilised in ways that enhance meaning, or, at the very least, reveal researcher bias. Although I will not be taking a countertransference approach to my analysis here, I will be using psychoanalytic language to try to understand the online interaction and relational dynamics I believe to be occurring there. Mostly, however, I will be applying a version of the conceptual approach described by Dreher (2000), above. Notably, as mentioned in the introduction, I have found it important to immerse myself in SNS use throughout this process as a way to have a fully subjective experience of that which I am analysing here.

This is undoubtedly an unconventional methodology, and, by utilising it, I accept that I may be opening myself up to criticisms of being overly speculative in my approach. If this is the charge, then I accept it. Large-scale quantitative studies, as useful as they are, do not offer us much insight into the idiographic nature of an individual’s psychological motivations, meaning-making, and phenomenologically subjective experiences. They do, however, offer tantalising clues as to what might be going on for individuals and in between individuals on a personal and interpersonal level. A critical psychoanalytic approach to this existing research offers a degree of flexibility and freedom to open up new ways of working through this complex material, providing a kind of insight that is not available by other means. It is here that a psychoanalytic methodology offers something new and exciting because it contains within it an interpretative approach that aims to access not just what can be witnessed and collected with hard quantitative data, but also allows access to the dynamics that operate under the level of consciousness. While any reader or fellow researcher ought to be wary of unbridled supposition, a degree of speculative freedom (particularly with reference to the unconscious) is necessary to free a flexible and creative approach required to address this issue from a psychoanalytic point of view. Freud (1900a), in his pioneering work The Interpretation of Dreams, notes that “[we psychoanalysts] are justified . .. in giving free reign to our speculations so long as we retain the coolness of our judgement and do not mistake the scaffolding for the building” (p. 536). Freud, no doubt, can be criticised for having, on several occasions, mistaken the scaffolding for the building; however, he unmistakably cracked open a new way of thinking about the human psyche in ways that continue to resonate to this day. My aim throughout this work is to demonstrate as much as possible the theoretical connections I will be making in an endeavour to maintain transparency and clarity; while I aim to be describing the building, I hope to provide enough evidence to allow the reader the opportunity to judge for themselves when the scaffolding is obscuring the edifice itself. It is my hope to provide a psychoanalytic framework in which to approach online social networks that further research may need to amend, adapt, criticise, and refine for further study in the future. Furthermore, it is my hope that this book will encourage more qualitative research into this interesting area. Throughout this text, theory will be illustrated time and again with existing material to ground the theoretical thinking within the data; to put it in the vernacular of a poker player, I hope to show my hand at all times.

Context

While the phenomenon of social networking is of great interest to a variety of psychological and sociological researchers, it is most heavily researched by those with a commercial interest in the domains of brand development and marketing research. The vast majority of the material I encountered in my research for this book made little reference to psychodynamics outside of the odd journal article or book chapter and the significant exception of Turkle’s (2011) work, which has been highly influential, and a special edition of the Psychoanalytic Review published in 2007—by social media standards, already far out of date. Malater (2007a), in his introduction to the special issue of the Psychoanalytic Review lays out the challenges that the Internet offers to psychoanalysis:

we find very different ideas on the extent to which cyberculture should be seen as posing basic challenges to current psychoanalytic thought and practice. Some authors ask what psychoanalysis can make of the Internet, while others ask what the Internet has made and will continue to make of psychoanalysis. (p. 4)

This notion that psychoanalysis needs to respond to, and be responsive towards, developments in technology is an important one, but this is a challenge that psychoanalysis as a whole has been reluctant to take up. This text will be more concerned with what psychoanalysis can offer to the understanding of online social networking than the other way round. Mental health professionals, and particularly the talking therapies, must also develop strategies with regard to both theory and practice to meet the particular challenges their clients are facing in relation to the online world.

In the context of the overwhelming presence that SNSs have in the life of contemporary individuals, it is hardly surprising that the majority of resources going into social networking research comes from the commercial sector, a sector that is naturally interested in utilising the enormous amount of data currently available for the purposes of maximising profit. This undoubtedly raises many questions about the potential for the exploitation of people as consuming objects, with commensurate concerns for privacy and social control.⁵ As if these concerns were not important enough to consider with regard to relatively market-savvy adults, there is further concern for children and young people. Fortunately, not all of the research interest in children’s SNS use is limited to seeing them as current and future consumers. Psychologists and sociologists are drawn to studying children to see what kind of differences may be observable in the these young people, referred to as “Digital Natives” by Palfrey and Gasser (2008), who have grown up saturated within an environment of online social networking. Technological divides that cross generational thresholds have always provoked concerns in the older generation, and online social networking is no different. It is through research, however, and not knee-jerk emotional reactions to what we do not understand, that will lead us towards a clearer understanding of what is actually going on. For younger people, current research appears to be mixed in its conclusions about the health- or pathology-giving qualities of SNSs. This is probably due to the complexity of online social networking and the difficulty of designing research to accurately reflect what is going on. Furthermore, due to its complexity, it is fair to assume at this stage that different sorts of engagements with different aspects of SNSs will dictate to a large degree how healthy or unhealthy the engagement is, making overall statements about the value of online relating unhelpful. Clarke’s (2009) work demonstrates the ways in which technology has the capacity to enhance creativity and identity development in young people:

Emerging identity is an important aspect of early adolescent development, and in our existing digital culture children have an immense opportunity to explore their world, be creative, play with identity and experiment with different social mores. Using SNSs is not only entertaining for children, but also highly creative and allows them to assert their identity in a totally unique way, checking out what their friends think of their creative endeavours. (p. 74)

Clarke’s research has demonstrated many of the positive qualities that SNSs have for young people, a finding that runs contrary to the fearful beliefs that many born after the digital revolution, those whom Palfrey and Gasser (2008) term “Digital Immigrants”, hold about the Internet use of the generations below them. Contrarily, Seligman (2009) notes that although there is much more research to be done with regard to the relationship between online social connection and physical health (morbidity and mortality), he, none the less, categorises our growing reliance on virtual socialising as a growing public health problem, particularly for young people. Summarising the work of Kraut et al. (1998) on the effect of Internet use in families, Seligman states that:

greater use of the internet was associated with declines in communication between family members in the house, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their levels of depression and loneliness . .. Children are now experiencing less social interaction and have fewer social connections during key stages of their physiological, emotional and social development. (p. 19)

It is important to note the date of this study, which was carried about before Web 2.0 really came into force, meaning that the nature of the ease of relationality within the Internet had not yet developed to what it is today. On the other hand, the recent proliferation of tablets and smartphones (which will be addressed in Chapter Three) that have emerged since this research has taken place is likely to negatively affect family life, if only through the sheer constant distraction (and here I am referring to parents even more so than their children) they offer, which can get in the way of face-to-face relating. With the phenomenon of social networking technologies being at the same time so vast, so new, and so rapidly changing, competing conclusions about its health or pathology (mental, emotional, and physical) continues to be contradictory and research into it fraught with difficulty.

Taking a process-orientated approach offers us a fresh point of view and provides an alternative perspective in the examination of unconscious human motivation and online social networking. Psychotherapists have long known that, with the exception of behaviours that are a danger to the self and/or others, behaviour alone is not necessarily indicative of health or pathology: it is how that behaviour manifests itself within the overall experience and meaning-making of that individual. A helpful metaphor to enable us to understand the relation between behaviour and the online social network would be to think about behaviour and its relation to food. Food is necessary for life, while, at the same time, it is imbued with individual and cultural meaning. Food surrounds us and it is fundamentally plugged into everyday human experience and motivation: from sating our basic biological needs to offering itself up as a symbol of our connection to the earth, each other, and, for some, spirituality. Given its ubiquity and necessity, one could not say that eating is itself a healthy or pathological behaviour; it is the manner, purpose, and meaning of the eating that becomes the locus of interest into its health or pathology (Orbach, 2002, 2006). There is a wide...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• Dedication
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• SERIES EDITORS' PREFACE
• INTRODUCTION: Putting it into context
• CHAPTER ONE Psychodynamics
• CHAPTER TWO On searching and being sought
• CHAPTER THREE The matrix
• CHAPTER FOUR Who's afraid of being an object?
• CHAPTER FIVE Being in the mind of the other
• CHAPTER SIX Identities are not virtual
• Conclusion
• NOTES
• REFERENCES
• INDEX