仮想空間における「分身」についての心理臨床学的考察

Abstract

An avatar is the other self in a virtual space. This paper discusses the relationship between an avatar and the self in today's adolescents. First, the author considered communication between avatars. It is pointed out that the other's presence is weak in communication and that an avatar has a one-sided character, which is projected from one side of the user's personality. Next, the author considers the virtual space where avatars exist, and claims that the space is almost unlimited spatially and temporally, and that the boundary between the self and others is vague in this space. These features are related to the characteristics of dissociative disorder and developmental disorder, which are often discussed in today's clinical psychology. People who have these disorders are said to find it hard hold a mental conflict within themselves, and it seems that the same applies to an avatar. An avatar in a virtual space has an aspect that functions as a system that makes adolescents evade mental conflict by artificially diffusing their own selves. However, it is important to understand an avatar and the self of today's adolescents themselves, and not to regard them as something pathological or different from us.