VIRTUAL REALITY AND MENTAL HEALTH: THE END OF AN "ART OF DOING"?

This article is inspired by the approach proposed by Madeleine Akrich and Cecile Meadel (2004) relating to the arrival of ICT into the field of health. Based on a survey on the uses of VRET (virtual reality exposure therapy), it questions the effects of new technologies' uses on professional practices in mental health. This article raises the following question: To what extent does the use of VRET signify the end of an "art of doing" (de Certeau 1990) on the part of psycho-practitioners? VRET seems a priori to involve a homogenization of practices based around a stabilized discourse, a standardized protocol, and a framing of virtual reality as a therapeutic tool. Nevertheless, a more detailed study of the practices makes it possible to go beyond this initial diagnosis by enlightening how VRET, far from signaling the end of an "art of doing," instead enriches and renews it. Practitioners deploy an art of doing therapy with virtual reality, in their encounter with the technology, in their interactions with patients, and in their use of VRET. This art is structured around a core stake: the articulation between the real and the virtual.