Bring in the Social, Bring in the Noise

Taking Stephen Hartman’s vignette about his visit to a maternity ward as an example of the operation of digital media/technologies central to what I am referring to as an information infrastructure, I follow him in questioning the priority that psychoanalytic theory gives the (m)other-infant relationship and the resulting influence the relationship has had in shaping the techniques of psychoanalytic practice. I turn to information theory to address the changes brought about by the digital media/technologies of the current information infrastructure urging us to recognize that the (m)other infant-relationship is not sufficient as a starting point for understanding the social; it is not robust enough to bring the noise of the social into our sessions and our treatments.