THE DIGITAL UNCONSCIOUS: PSYCHOANALYSIS IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS

Abstract

This chapter sets out to investigate the concept of the “digital unconscious” as a psychoanalytical tool for understanding the constitution of subjectivity in the age of artificial intelligence and social networks. The proposal is to reflect on how the unconscious is reconfigured in the face of technology, crossed by a machinic language that influences desire, jouissance and the formation of the self. The central objective is to analyze, from a psychoanalytical perspective, the new forms of psychic suffering produced in the digital environment, considering the impacts of hyperconnectivity, continuous exposure and algorithmic logic on the processes of subjectivation. The methodology adopted consists of a theoretical-conceptual review, based on classic authors of psychoanalysis, such as Freud, Lacan and Winnicott, and contemporary thinkers who analyze the effects of digital culture on the psyche, such as Byung-Chul Han, Sherry Turkle, Zygmunt Bauman and Evgeny Morozov. The analysis points out that, despite the attempt at control and repetition in digital languages, the subject of the unconscious remains active, opening up space for desire and singularity. It concludes that psychoanalysis maintains its current relevance by supporting listening to the subject in a scenario where technologies try to silence it.