From an iPhone, through an iPad and an iMac, to the Cloud: the evolution of a sense of “I-ness”

This chapter presents clinical material from a psychoanalytic treatment in which various “iMachines”, so readily available, became a conduit through which author's patient’s concerns about his sense of self came into the analysis and could be worked with effectively. His associations about the iWorld allowed us deeper access into what he believed kept him from functioning more cohesively and solidly as a person. In November 2008, in a cosy meeting room at La Sapiniere—a charming resort in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal—author was presenting clinical material at a meeting of the Group for the Study of the Psychoanalytic Process. That meeting, in the fall of 2008, took place about a year after the first iPhone came onto the market. The analytic consulting room was alive with the sounds and sights of the iWorld, and this phenomenon only increased with time.