YBER SYCHOLO GY EHAVIOR Volume Number Mary Ann Lie - PDF document

CYBERPSYCHOLOGY& BEHAVIORVolume 4, Number 4, 2001Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.Letter to the EditorDisembodiment in Cyberspace Is Not a MythNORMAN ALESSI, M.D. 537Dear Editor:After reading the article “Disembodiment isa Cyberspace Myth: Discourse and the Self inReal Space,” by Steve Stanley, I was struck bya number of issues.1I did not think the authorproved conclusively (or in any way) that dis-embodiment is a cyberspace myth. The tech-niques and methodology did not prove thispoint, although he raised a number of interest-ing questions.One central issue is, what is disembodiment?The author refers to an article by Sadie Plant,where she “charts the progression of Internettechnology and its implications from the per-spective of Cyberfeminism.” He discusses thisonly in brief and its relationship to postmod-ern rhetoric. Unfortunately, the author did notdo justice to the concept of postmodernism,posthumanism, or concepts concerning disem-bodiment in cyberspace. As a consequence, hecreated a straw man, which he never subse-quently dealt with in his paper.What is disembodiment? I would refer read-ers to the book How We Became Posthuman, byN. Katherine Hales,2who does a wonderful jobof explaining posthumanism and the relation-ship of posthumanism to disembodiment. AsStanley implies, cyberspace, and for that mat-ter, any communication technology, attemptsto reembody the interface, whether or not it ise-mail, a letter, beating drums, or playing a mu-sical instrument. There are ways in which weattempt to intone and convey the texture of hu-man relatedness. But the fact is disembodimentis disembodiment. We can see cyberspace asbeing on a continuum. An e-mail is far re-moved from face-to-face interactions, as Stan-ley suggests in his paper. Oddly enough, henever talks about interpersonal space or therole of emotions, affects, and their suggestedsignificance in interpersonal communication.His is an argument based on cognitive con-structs and intellectual discourse—not “em-bodied” communication.Of further importance in this context is thework of Antonio R. Damasio, a neurologist,who attempts to deal with issues about the hu-man brain and the necessity for human inter-personal relatedness or the embodiment of hu-man communication to foster and clarifydecision-making and cognitive processing.3Damasio has written extensively on this topic,and his work would suggest that anything lessthan face-to-face interaction is a degraded formof interpersonal communication. Disembodi-ment impedes decision-making and communi-cation. Discourse without embodiment is ill-fated discourse.The issues about embodiment, disembodi-ment, cyberspace, rhetoric, and communicationare critical. From my perspective, a reembodi-ment of human relatedness within cyberspacewill occur, because it hasto. The continuumfrom word, to emotions and face-to-face en-counters will be reestablished through “virtualhumans” and embodied communication. Peo-ple need this level of communication and dis-course in order to feel a sense of reality in theircommunications. Ultimately, virtual humansmay become the only embodied communica-tion, but such a transition will be evolutionary.Until then, we remain disembodied.Despite the weaknesses of Stanley’s argu-ment and the lack of proof of his statement, he opens an interesting area for further discussion.Ultimately, disembodiment in cyberspace maybecome a myth, but it is not one yet.REFERENCES1.Stanley, S. (2001). Disembodiment is a cyberspacemyth: discourse and the self in real space. CyberPsy-chology & Behavior, 4:77–93.2.Hayles, N.K. (1999). How we became posthuman: virtualbodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. Chicago:University of Chicago Press.3.Damasio, A.R. (1994). Descartes’ error: emotion, reason,and the human brain. New York: Avon Books.Address reprint requests to:Dr. Norman AlessiPsychiatric Informatics ProgramDepartment of PsychiatryUniversity of Michigan1500 East Medical Center DriveAnn Arbor, MI 48109E-mail:nalessi@umich.edu LETTER TO THE EDITOR 538 This a i  has n id y: