From Battleground to Playground: The Video Game Avatar as Transitional Phenomenon for a Transgender Patient

Abstract

The language and theories of Winnicott offer a lens for examining the importance of play in the development of the queer, transgender, and/or gender-nonconforming patient and the safety that virtual spaces—specifically, video games—provide for this play. While much of the literature posits the primary therapeutic value of virtual space as the site of psychic battle, interaction with a video game avatar can also be understood as an act of queerness-as-play, a potential cornerstone of healthy identity formation that may otherwise be precluded. An example of this paradigm is given in the case report of a twenty-year-year-old transwoman who used her video game avatar as a tool in her therapeutic progress during her medical transition. For effective psychotherapy to take place, both patient and clinician must have a capacity to play. With this in mind, the clinician might best visualize the virtual space not as a battleground, but as a playground.