Digital Media as Ambient Therapy

The Ecological Self between Resonance and Alienation
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-10134-7
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 114 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 287 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in New Media and Cyberculture

Digital Media as Ambient Therapy explores the ways “mental illness” can emerge from our relationships (with ourselves, others, and the world), to address the concern around what kind of relationality is conducive for “mental health” and what role digital technologies can play in fostering such relationality.

Exploring the rise of ambient—that is to say, ubiquitous, surrounding, and environmental—technologies and their impact on our understanding of “mental health,” sanity, and therapy, this book critically examines the work of influential contemporary social theorists such as Hartmut Rosa and investigates case studies that reveal new modes of digitally mediated intimacy and attention, such as ASMR and QAnon. It also poses the question of what “mental health” and “mental illness” mean for subjects increasingly faced with a maddening sense of interconnectedness.

This book offers new perspectives for academics and postgraduates interested in critical discussions of alienation, digital technology, and contemporary social theory.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Russell, Francis

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizinische Fachgebiete Psychiatrie, Sozialpsychiatrie, Suchttherapie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Mediensoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Invalidität, Krankheit und Abhängigkeit: Soziale Aspekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Chapter 1: From “Mental Illness” to “Environmental Illness”

Chapter 2: Mute Instruments and Resonant Relations

Chapter 3: The Agonies of Freedom and Control

Chapter 4: QAnon: From the Resonant to the Digitally Sublime

Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Francis Russell is an independent researcher and a trade union official based in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia. He worked as a lecturer in cultural studies for over a decade, and is one of the founders of the School of Critical Arts, an independent organisation for the study of philosophy and contemporary art. He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles on the relationship between alienation, “mental illness,” and neoliberalism. Along with artist David Attwood he co-edited the book The Art of Laziness: Contemporary Art and Post-Work Politics.