Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper raises questions about the changing conceptions of the human self, truth, and reality by examining the marriage between desire and communication technology, focused through the phenomenon of catfishing. Catfishing, the creation of a fictitious online identity for romantic purposes, underscores the increasingly popular conception of the self as illusory, fluid, and prone to extension and recreation. As a relational concept created from, with, and for others, the self also has a performative quality. Today, desires find new expression on the internet, which allows anonymity, accessibility, and free play for human fantasy and enactment. Users replace “real world” skins with digital ones, creating virtual selves to promote their secret passions. The catfish phenomenon is examined as a two-person co-creation, with benefits and costs for each. The role deception plays both in cyberspace and in the analytic situation is highlighted, and case material is presented.
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