ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the case of Lorenzo, who is addicted to video games and computers, and presents theoretical hypotheses concerning these types of addiction and their treatment. Lorenzo was a seventeen-year-old young man, of medium height and slim but athletic build and with dark brown hair. As Lorenzo's treatment proceeded over the years, the author gradually discovered how, in his quest for physical feelings and bodily sensations, Lorenzo was ensnared in the lights, the colours, and the sounds of video games. The author relates some instances of violence with delusions and a psychotic transference during the first year of treatment. The characters in the video games– imaginary on the screen, but with some correspondence with persons from the patient's childhood–became real for him and pursued him with unforgiving vengefulness. The chapter offers hypotheses about the mechanisms employed by this patient and believe that such hypotheses might be useful for understanding other patients with similar psychopathology.
