Friday, February 11, 2011

When the game is good

Xavier Gorce illustration for Tech News Buzz. fr. Xavier Gorce News for Tech Buzz. fr "The practice of certain video games deemed violent or offensive, by young people - public and fragile - raises questions. These content are all the more problematic they are often the subject of consumption alone, fragmented, repeated and active, which would promote greater infiltration and induction of aggressive behavior.

Some fear that the increasing practice does not lead to forms of addiction. " This excerpt from a memorandum dated November 2010 Center for Strategic Analysis, a body attached to Matignon, briefly summarizes the main criticisms made video games: violence, social alienation, addiction ...

To the point that the organization of state questions about a possible regulation of this hobby. However, some psychologists and psychoanalysts believe that video games have therapeutic benefits for patients, children or adults. Forge a trusting relationship between therapist and patient, recreate the self-esteem, speak to the child withdrawn, or access to part of the unconscious ...

while some hospitals, like the hospital to Marmottan Paris, opened consultations to treat "the video game addicts," these professionals have made the opposite bet: that of the video game that's good. "PURSUIT OF ACCESS TO THE UNCONSCIOUS" Francois Lesperance, now retired, was the first psychologist in France to use video games in therapy, in partnership with the nursing Jose Perez, starting in 1995 the day hospital in Bordeaux.

He took care of children with autism or inhibited, with communication difficulties. "You should see them as children in a bubble, but with portholes. We will not force open the windows, but the child may decide to open them." Video games are a way to get there. "Video games are a source of exchange with others, they can talk with other classmates.

They can socialize through this one." If Francis Lespinasse used the games Super Mario 2 and 3 to create a link and socialize the child collapsed, Yann Leroy, a psychologist at Perigueux, is using the console like other availing itself of drawing or modeling clay "to make talk about "the young patient.

"In therapy with children, video games become more and more the equivalent of dreams: a royal road access to the unconscious," he writes. An approach similar to Michael Stora, a psychoanalyst in Paris, for whom "the game is an excuse to face representations. For this, the two psychologists are primarily the game Ico, Japanese game released in 2001 on PlayStation 2.

In the latter, a child, Ico, is enclosed in an isolated fortress by the inhabitants of his village, convinced that the horns on his head are a sign of misfortune. Ico Yorda will meet a mysterious girl and fragile, it must protect at all costs shadows trying to stop him from fleeing the building.

"The narrative of the story is inspired by Ico says Yann Leroux. Abandonment and the banning of the main character can be easily identified for the child." At a meeting, a young patient Yann Leroux, who suffers from learning disabilities due to mental and emotional inhibition, by all means try to jump as Yorda, it supports more duty to protect all the time.

In talking with him after the play session, the child talks about his little brother and little sister whom he must deal with. "He explained as he has better things to do than play with them to the parent ..." Yann Leroux warns, however: "This is not because you give a game that we read in the unconscious open book.

The use of video games does not necessarily easy things. " PLAY VIDEO CAN CURE NOT ALONE professionals who use this medium poses several safeguards in the use of the video game therapy. The first and probably most important, is to break the idea that video games will heal itself. It is part of a panel of therapeutic support, which together will enable the patient to get better.

"This is not the game itself will heal, he is quite, says Philip Gerard, a nurse in a psychiatric hospital. The game helps the confidence, he can live extraordinary things without risking anything." Unlike his fellow psychologists, Philippe Gerard launched a workshop games for adults in a large psychiatric hospital in Paris.

The primary objective is "to discharge patients from isolation and occupy because the days are long." But the game also lets you create a relationship of trust between the caregiver and those that are damaged, depressed and disabled. "Trust goes 100% faster than drugs. They have lied so much, they were so abused ...

they can not trust easily. With the game, we share." If patients can play them, the nurse also participates in parts of games of tennis, football and racing ... Philip Gerard does not hesitate to speak of "positive spiritual food" in these workshops. "It's very important to praise them when they succeed, because these patients have no confidence in them, mostly because they ran out of love child." No question as to let them win: "They did not want to be lied to and that cares for them.

However, if the patient worked hard and it does not work, I can lose deliberately. "FRAMES AND RULES The nurse emphasizes the need for frames and limits for the exercise to be effective." The game can be an anxiolytic, provided it does not matter how. If all Tech News Buzz can participate, it must nevertheless be discussed before to see if the person can manage an activity of thirty to forty-five minutes.

"The workshops are also held on a specific day of the week at a scheduled time. The game video is not free service. These rules are also used in therapies for children. The workshop takes place one day a week - usually Wednesdays for day hospitals - and rarely lasts more than an hour. Each meeting is always accompanied by a time to speak, before or after the game, according to therapists.

And during the game, children, often in small groups of three or four, are not left to fend for themselves. A mediator is there to establish a framework to move the joystick if a child refuses to stop its part, help in case of trouble ... For that, "it is essential that the facilitator is comfortable with video games, otherwise it is useless! "Lespinasse says François.

The latter said he could not conduct its workshop for ten years without the help of Jose Perez, a nurse and avid video game. "Jose was a pleasure to play, and we must have fun playing with the children." STRENGTH OF COLLEAGUES This need to be self-player video game may explain in part the isolation of this tool in the care of medical landscape.

In opening the first video game studio in 1995, Francois Lesperance thought that "Jose Perez were numerous, but in fact, not at all!" The retirement of the psychologist and the reassignment of nurses led to the closure of the workshop in Bordeaux. That of Philip Gerard, who lasted five years, did not survive his departure in another psychiatric hospital in the Paris region.

And if Michael Stora boasts a success rate of over 80% during the seven years during which he used video games with children at the center medico-psycho-pedagogical Pantin, he believes he has been pushing output after being booed heartily by colleagues as he explained the purpose of his therapy with Ico.

Today, he practices in private. Often, the first source of resistance to the establishment of workshops from fellow video game, not the parents. "In 1995, video games were relatively new, and there was not much back on it, remembers Francis Lespinasse. There was a lot of mistrust among colleagues who feared that the game becomes a source of anxiety for children.

With a doctor's approval, we started with children with less severe disease, and they saw that it worked. "However, almost fifteen years later, professionals still face the same difficulties." It was very Hard at colleagues and superiors, Philip Gerard sighed. There were many misgivings and misconceptions: it does nothing, you do it just for fun, you're not going to let them kill people ...

"The nurse stresses" the enormous investment "People demand that such a workshop, which takes place in a psychiatric hospital in addition to traditional working hours at the initiative of some caregivers." All News Tech Buzz is not necessarily required energy. "Philippe Gerard waived the idea of setting up another workshop video games at its new hospital, saying that staff are not motivated enough.

The things change with the new generation biberonnée to videogames? Michael Stora's not very optimistic: "During the courses in continuing education on the subject that I lead, I see that it is the young practitioners who are more cautious." For more information: - A workshop therapeutic video game in a day hospital for children, by Francois Lesperance and Jose Perez.

- History Workshop video game: Ico, an interactive fairy tale for children by lack of interaction, by Michael Stora. - The video game medium as a therapeutic relationship, by Yann Leroux.

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