Robert M. Young Online Writings
'Sexuality and the Internet' 59k
I was asked to give a talk in the Public Lecture Series of the Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, University of Sheffield, where I teach. I am doing research for a book on sexuality and object relations and am also interested in the internet. When I got down to thinking about the talk I was struck by the disjunction between net sexuality, which is largely exploitative and onanistic, and the intimacy which occurs in email letters and forums. I also discuss IRC, MUDs and MOOs - ways of being in the same space as others and of experimenting with identity, gender and sexuality (as considered in Sherry Turkle's recent book, Life on the Screen). All of these matters are considered in terms of psychoanalytic object relations theory. There are also some remarks about the role of the web in the present and future.