Fake News, False Selves

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Date: Thursday 6th October 2022 Location: Online
Start time: 7:30pm End time: 9:30pm Type: Webinar Refreshments: tbc

The economy of the internet is driven by commodifying our attention. The more that a media company can draw and direct our attention the more money it makes. Internet media companies track all of our interactions on the internet to create algorithms which show each of us an individual filtered view of the world, a view that mirrors us to capture our attention.

We have the unconscious feeling of being mirrored. This evokes infantile dynamics which have an archetypal power to enchant. It is through mirroring that the infant first encounters the image of themselves, a step that is a precursor to the identification with and internalisation of that image. But algorithmic mirroring does not help us towards an authentic sense of self image, the mirroring is in service of the needs of the media company.

For Winnicott this kind of manipulative mothering leads to the development of a False Self.

Photo by Miguel Ángel Hernández from Unsplash

Speaker: Stephen Garratt

Stephen Garratt is an IAAP analyst and a member of the Association of Jungian Analysts. He practices as a Jungian analyst and a supervisor in the City of London and online. He has presented seminar and conference papers on the impact of technology on the psychology of the internet, and the impact of internet on analytical practice. He has also taught on the AJA analytical training and is past chair of the AJA Training Committee.

Stephen first became interested in the power of media to shape the way the individual experiences the world as a student activist in South Africa producing anti-Apartheid newsletters. In his subsequent thirty year career as newspaper journalist, columnist and co-founder of Electric Organ, an internet media agency consulting to banks, newspapers, and leading brands on digital strategy, he has leant a lot more about the power of the media. He is currently working on the Jungian Directory which is an online directory to the Jungian world.”