Male, Female, E-Mail: The Struggle for Relatedness in a Paranoid Society

Berglund Authority Level 3



by Michael A. Civin
Other Press, 2000. ISBN 1892746301.

Review by Drew Harrington <harrington@pacificu.edu>
University Librarian, Pacific University

There is something appealingly voyeuristic about reading psychological case studies—a sort of sanctioned snooping. In Male, Female, e-mail, author Michael Civin (Adelphi University & practicing psychoanalyst) uses engrossing case studies to illustrate his investigation of human relationship on the Internet.

From a therapist's perspective, Civin concentrates on the private side of his clients' lives, including the assumption of alternate cyber-identities, Internet sexuality, and electronic stalking, as well as relatively tame electronic-relationships. There are no take-away pocket summaries, pro or con about the impact of the Internet on human relationships—people and relationships, on-line or off, are complicated. For some, Internet relationships can play a developmental, transitional role, allowing them to "try-on" alternate selves. Civin draws on the 1995 works by Sherry Turkle, and Allucquere Rosanne Stone who investigated the phenomena of assumed, on-line identities. His findings are less consistent than theirs, showing cases of positive personal growth through assumed identities, but also cases where people experienced increased fragmentation and only short-lived escape from unsatisfying lives.

For some, Internet relationships appear to create ever-deepening disconnections from humanity and to produce paranoid-schizophrenic behavior. Still others seem to experience Internet-based relationships in much the same way as they do face-to-face connections, though frequently with decreased emotional responses. It seems that relationships struck up on-line, may be less enduring than relationships based in the physical realm.

The Internet's impact on professional relationships is also covered, but in less depth. In the work world there is little doubt that e-mail increases efficiency and productivity, but it is equally clear that there is some loss in the relationship between employees and organizations.

Civin's book is academic in tone, but he is careful to explain psychological lingo, making it accessible to the professional and layperson alike. As a relatively early entry in what is bound to be an expanding field of psychology, Civin's book on human, on-line relationship is enjoyable, informative and provocative.

Drew Harrington can be reached at harrington@pacificu.edu.