Spécificités des dispositifs thérapeutiques à médiation « jeu vidéo » : vers une évaluation qualitative

Abstract

ObjectivesStarting from the implementation of a “video game” mediated therapeutic group in a health care institution, the authors explore the specificities of this setting in a qualitative evaluation perspective. The player's adjustment to the technical device is approached as well as certain forms of transfer and symbolization mobilized by the practice of a video game in group. MethodFrom a psychodynamic perspective, the authors seek to identify the therapeutic springs of a video game-mediated setting by describing the function of the video game medium, as well as the psychic processes it induces in the establishment of transfer and the deployment of symbolization processes. Based on their clinical experience, several hypotheses are proposed concerning the nature of the links that are set up between the player, the machine, the digital virtual environment and groupality. ResultsThe use of the video game medium in a group setting leads to two specific types of transfer. On one hand, in a complementary way to a “transfer by sensory diffraction”, the authors describe “a transfer by sensory polarization” operating by synthesis and gathering, which is based on the medium's attracting properties by contributing to the establishment of a feeling of sensory immersion. On the other hand, from the player's adjustment to the machine, they define a “process transfer” operating by delegating certain characteristics of its psychic functioning to the virtual-digital environment and its functionalities. Then, within this transferential configuration, some specificities of the processes of symbolization, in particular of its primary forms, in relation to the properties of the medium, are discussed. DiscussionAll these hypotheses, illustrated by a few clinical examples, make it possible to identify the functions of the video game medium in the establishment of transferential and symbolization processes. They also permit us to glimpse the arrangement of the groupality induced by the use “in turn” of the game medium. This leads us to think of the screen-object as a common fund shared by the group, on which the player “at the controls” relies to appropriate his own subjective experiences. ConclusionThese different proposals contribute better to take into account the specificities of the therapeutic practice of video games in groups, and permit us to approach, in a perspective of qualitative evaluation, the processes underlying the therapeutic potentialities of this system.