Is online working less ‘real' than meeting in person? 

Or is our experience of reality actually more ‘virtual' than we think?"

The Covid pandemic has required us to keep a broader social distance from one another. For psychotherapists this should be less of a problem. With reliable broadband making therapy sessions possible online, why do so many people still find that virtual session fall so far short of the “real” meeting in person? Maybe our assumption that there is a “real” version and there is an inferior “virtual” version is wrong to begin with. I would like to lay out three approaches to this question.

The first derives from quantum theorist David Deutsch and his book The Fabric of Reality (Deutsch, 1997). The second approach digs further into philosophical implications around the idea that material reality is not an objective fact and consciousness is all there is. This is known as metaphysical idealism as analysed by Bernardo Kastrup’s work, especially his understanding of Jung’s metaphysics. (Kastrup 2020, 2021)

Lastly, film narratives, as well as factual ‘reality’ films, have long been delivering “reality” to us on screens in their own virtual way. So I will finish by discussing the bio-evolutionary ideas around visual perception, affordance (Gibson, 1979) and the central role of meaning in both film and the therapy session. In doing so, I will bring us back to the definition of “virtual”, which flagged it as something in essence or effect. In this way I bring a new perspective to the idea of “real reality” and “virtual reality” in our new way of working.

Christopher Hauke is a Jungian Analyst in private practice and a PhD supervisor Emeritus at Goldsmiths,  University of London. He is interested in the applications of depth psychology to a wide range of social and cultural phenomena. His books include Jung and the Postmodern: The Interpretation of Realities, (2000); Human Being Human. Culture and the Soul (2005) Visible Mind. Movies, Modernity and the Unconscious.(2013). He has co-edited two collections of film writing: Jung and Film. Post-Jungian Takes on the Moving Image (2001) and Jung and Film II – The Return.

His short films, documentaries One Colour Red and Green Ray and the psychological drama Again, premiered in London venues and at congresses in Barcelona, Zurich and Montreal. He is a consultant for branding, digital games and business leadership companies. A new web-site is in development.