John Suler

Cyberpsychology Architecture is a transdisciplinary model for understanding the psychological impact of different digital environments. This article is an overview of the model and how it can be applied in research and the assessment of online lifestyles.

This chapter from Psychology of the Digital Age: Humans Become Electric describes the universal principles as well as a unifying theory of cyberpsychology. The basic premise is that cyberspace is psychological space.  It is an extension of our individual and collective minds. It is a space “out there” where the minds of self and other converge. How we react to this space and all the environments within it – be it email, social media, games, chat, text messaging, video, or exotic avatar worlds – depends on how that particular environment is constructed from the eight fundamental dimensions of cyberpsychological architecture.

"Based on two decades of participant-observation field research in diverse online environments, this engaging book published by Cambridge University Press (2016) offers insights for improving lifestyles and enhancing wellbeing in the digital age. John Suler, a founder of the field of cyberpsychology, explains its fundamental principles across a wide variety of topics, including online identity management, disinhibition, communication via text and photographs, intimacy and misunderstandings in online relationships, conflicting attitudes toward social media, addiction, deviant behavior, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and media overload. He provides a new framework, the 'Eight Dimensions of Cyberpsychology Architecture', which researchers, students, and general readers interested in cyberpsychology can apply as a valuable tool for creating and understanding different digital realms. Psychology of the Digital Age focuses on the individual, shedding new light on our conscious as well as subconscious reactions to online experiences and our intrinsic human need to self-actualize"...

Resources include instructors manual, test items, and powerpoint slides... See url above

This article examines self portraits in photography in terms of their objective and subjective qualities, how they change over time, the degree to which photographers reveal themselves, the observing ego, and the rise of the "narcissistic selfie."

One's passion for the internet can by healthy, pathologically addictive, or somewhere in between. Where a person falls on that continuum is determined by the cluster of needs that are being fulfilled by his or her internet use and how the internet addresses those needs. This article suggests eight factors that can help clarify the healthy or unhealthy qualities of one's commitment to cyberspace activities.

This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding clinical interventions in cyberspace. From: Suler, J. (2008). Cybertherapeutic theory and techniques. In Psychological Aspects of Cyberspace: Theory, Research, Applications (A. Barak, editor), pp. 102-128. Cambridge University Press

The therapeutic potential of a self-help group's belief system is its ability to encourage people to overcome powerlessness and provide a cognitive antidote to the particular personal problems being addressed by the group. Basic ideology issues include internal or external attributions, identity management, the emphasis on social and expressive interactions, and isolation versus integration. (in Social Policy, Winter, 1984).

A psychological study of the effect of mindful awareness on taking photographs, including guidelines on how to cultivate mindfulness.

Suler, J. (2013). Mindfulness in Photography. In the 4th edition of Richard Zakia’s Perception and Imaging, Focal Press (Elsevier), Oxford, pp. 277-281

A summary of the psychologically therapeutic aspects of creating, editing, and sharing photographs online.

Suler, J. (2013). Image therapeutics. In the 4th edition of Richard Zakia’s Perception and Imaging, Focal Press (Elsevier), Oxford, pp. 288-290.

A psychological study of creating conceptual photographs, including the interpretation of meaning in conceptual images, the role of the creator and viewer, concept difficulty, photo titles and descriptions, composition, and post-processing techniques.

Suler, J. (2013). Conceptual Photography. In the 4th edition of Richard Zakia’s Perception and Imaging, Focal Press (Elsevier), Oxford, pp. 102-114.

Mental imagery techniques may facilitate the therapeutic process by stimulating patients' insight into unconscious dynamics, by helping them uncover and master warded-off affect, and by enhancing the clinician's empathic contact and access to countertransference. A conceptual framework based on the theory of primary and secondary process suggests spontaneity, experiential scope, associative elaboration, and object impact as four dimensions for the clinical evaluation of imagery experience.

Suler, J.R. (1989). Mental imagery in psychoanalytic treatment. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 6, 343-366.

This book explores the convergence of psychoanalysis and Asian thought. It explores key theoretical issues. What role does paradox play in psychological transformations? How can the oriental emphasis on attaining "no-self" be reconciled with the western emphasis on achieving an integrated self? The book also inquires into pragmatic questions concerning the nature of psychological change and the practice of psychotherapy. The Taoist I Ching is explored as a framework for understanding the therapeutic process. Principles from martial arts philosophy and strategy are applied to clinical work. Combining theoretical analyses, case studies, empirical data, literary references, and anecdotes, this book is intended for researchers as well as clinicians, and beginning students as well as scholars.

Based on real life experiences and written by an internationally
recognized expert in emerging fields of psychology, Madman is a unique novel that immerses the reader into the world of a psychology intern working on the psychiatric unit of a modern teaching hospital.

Written by one of the founders of cyberpsychology, this book describes the basic principles of this new field and how they apply to improving one's online lifestyle.  Drawing on two decades of participant-observation field research, he proposes a transdisciplinary theory about the eight dimensions of cyberpsychology architecture that shape different online environments and experiences. He uses this theory as a platform to explore a wide range of topics: digital identity; the online disinhibition effect; intimate and superficial relationships; interpersonal misperceptions and conflict; communicating with long and short form text; communicating with images and photographs; avatar worlds; the experience of being in online groups and social media; the spectrum of deviant behavior and how to manage problematic people; virtual reality and beings; the psychological aspects of making transitions to new media; cognitive overload; therapeutic experiences and activities; and the role, methods, and ethics of the researcher. His approach combines psychodynamic thinking with concepts from humanistic and cognitive psychology, with an emphasis on understanding the individual in the digital age as well as enhancing wellbeing in online lifestyles.