Introduction

This introduction explains cyberpunk vision and cyberpunk psychology. The term ‘gestalt’ came into English from gestalt psychology and is used frequently throughout cyberpunk texts by William Gibson and by other authors across the genre (for example, John Shirley and Pat Cadigan). This term is so widely used because it is a key means of understanding the relationship between visual imagery in the novels and their depiction of posthuman being, which I read using Cary Wolfe, Donna Haraway and N. Katherine Hayles. The importance of networks is foregrounded by approaching perception from a gestalt perspective, just as it is by approaching being from a posthuman perspective. I then give an account of how these themes will be explored throughout the monograph.