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Behind the curtain: Fetishism and the production of virtual reality treatment for PTSD

Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society volume 21, pages 368–385 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan, a virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy designed for the treatment of combat-related PTSD, has generated wide public interest in the wake of growing concerns over mental health problems among service members. Enlisting concepts from the fields of cultural studies and psychoanalytic film criticism, the paper interprets the VR therapy program as a form of technology fetishism within the expanding apparatus of military mental health operations. Even as the program seeks to expose the “invisible wounds of war,” the stories produced through this use of visual culture conform closely to hegemonic military accounts of the psychological effects of combat.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank Robert Roeser and Robert Samuels for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Interviews and historical research for the paper were carried out in the production of Mind Zone: Therapists Behind the Front Lines, a documentary film produced with the approval of the United States Army and directed by the first author. The project was supported in part by the Fallen Warriors Foundation and Herzog & Company.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, 97207, OR, USA

    Janice Haaken

  2. Smith College School for Social Work, Lilly Hall, Northampton, 01063, MA, USA

    Mariel Stadick

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  1. Janice Haaken
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  2. Mariel Stadick
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Correspondence to Janice Haaken.

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Haaken, J., Stadick, M. Behind the curtain: Fetishism and the production of virtual reality treatment for PTSD. Psychoanal Cult Soc 21, 368–385 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2015.69

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2015.69

Keywords

  • virtual reality therapy
  • technology fetishism
  • Virtual Iraq
  • Virtual Afghanistan
  • exposure therapy
  • Posttraumatic Stress Disorder