Trauma and Self-Narrative in Virtual Reality: Toward Recreating a Healthier Mind

Iva Georgieva

doi:10.3389/fict.2017.00027

Abstract

This study discusses the concept of virtual selves created in the virtual spaces (e.g. Social Network Services or Virtual Reality). It analyzes the activities in the different virtual spaces and claims that experience gained there can be transferred to real life. In respect to that, the effects of the Virtual Reality treatment on the self, as well as the concept of creating a life story are analyzed as interconnected. The research question which arises from these considerations is how to look at psychological trauma in order to explain the effectiveness of the usage of Virtual Reality for treatment of traumatic disorders. The proposal in the study is to see trauma as a shift in the normal storyline of the narrative people create. With this concept in mind, it might be possible to support the claim that reliving traumatic events, regaining control over one’s life narrative and creating new stories in the Virtual Reality aids the treatment process in the search for meaning and resolution in life events. Considering the findings of researchers who argue in the field of self-narrative and traumatic treatment, as well as researchers on virtual selves, virtual spaces and Virtual Reality, this study discusses the virtual as a possible medium to experience narratives and utilize those narratives as better explanatory stories to facilitate the therapeutic process of recovery and self-recreation. This study supports the idea that Virtual Reality can be used to visualize patients’ narratives and help them perceive themselves as active authors of their life’s story by retelling traumatic episodes with additional explanation. This experience in the Virtual Reality is utilized to form healthier narratives and coping techniques for robust therapeutic results that are transferred to real life.

Highlights

Since the beginning of the Internet, a new understanding of the boundaries of reality has been created
It can be said that the narratives which one creates in the virtual space of virtual reality (VR) “play different roles in constituting identities” (Schechtman, 2012, p.343), which could help the real self in the process of recovery from traumatic events
The questions in the second survey were directed toward topics about duration of Internet usage, experience in VR, level of attachment to virtual spaces, types of virtual selves created in virtual spaces, connection between activities in real and virtual spaces, and effect of the virtual spaces on reality, positive and negative experiences induced by online experience, evaluation of features of the virtual spaces, difference between online and real self, transfer of the effect from the experience from the virtual to the real

Summary

Introduction

Since the beginning of the Internet, a new understanding of the boundaries of reality has been created. People create virtual selves in various virtual spaces as part of their everyday life and aim at gaining various experiences there. The connection and the mutual influence between the virtual selves and their creators—the real selves are a subject of various studies (Floridi, 2012; Jin, 2012; Kim and Shyam Sundar, 2012; McCreery et al, 2013; Suh, 2013). Concerns regarding VR’s possible health hazards (Harwood et al, 2014) are brought to light as part of the aspects of the virtual spaces utilization

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