From Psychoanalysis to Cybernetics: The Case of Her

The essay argues that there has been a shift in the culture’s mode of representing and articulating subjectivity—from psychoanalysis to cybernetics. It describes this shift as one from interpretation to feedback. It further argues that the shift is never complete and that psychoanalytic metaphors and images continue to pervade the cybernetic world. Using an analysis of the recent film Her, the essay places the 1970s revolution in gender and sexuality at the center of the shift and shows how the larger background of capitalism has shaped both psychoanalysis and cybernetics.