To the suggestion that such attention to detail is part of his appeal, Matthiessen replies, "I think in any writing you're paying attention to detail. E. M. Forster made that wonderful observation that good writing is administering a series of tiny astonishments. The astonishments aren't things you never knew. What they are is sort of the first articulation of something you knew but you'd never seen set down in print. And you say, Ah, yes! How true."

The purpose of this online hypertext book is to explore the psychological dimensions of environments created by computers and online networks. It is intended as an evolving conceptual framework for understanding the various psychological components of cyberspace and how people react to and behave within it. This framework is the basis for my ongoing research on what I call "the psychology of cyberspace" - or simply "cyberpsychology." I hope it will serve as a useful framework for other researchers as well. Continually being revised and expanded, this hypertext book originally was created in January of 1996.

Even though the approach here is not in my own preferred Jungian or archetypal tradition there are items that I find thought provoking e.g:

Black Hole

Cyberspace as Psychological Space

When one experiences cyberspace as this extension of one's mind - as a transitional space between self and other - the door is thrown wide open for all sorts of fantasies and transference reactions to be projected into this space. Under ideal conditions, people use this as an opportunity to better understand themselves, as a path for exploring their identity as it engages the identity of other people. Under less than optimal conditions, people use this psychological space to simply vent or act out their fantasies and the frustrations, anxieties, and desires that fuel those fantasies.

I have not found a way to open emails as a new tab in an open browser, but my email does go to Mozilla. Fast enough for me, faster I think than IE?

People are beginning to understand the nature of their new technology, but not yet nearly enough of them -- and not nearly well enough. Most people, as I indicated, still cling to what I call the rearview-mirror view of their world. By this I mean to say that because of the invisibility of any environment during the period of its innovation, man is only consciously aware of the environment that has preceded it; in other words, an environment becomes fully visible only when it has been superseded by a new environment; thus we are always one step behind in our view of the world. Because we are benumbed by any new technology -- which in turn creates a totally new environment -- we tend to make the old environment more visible; we do so by turning it into an art form and by attaching ourselves to the objects and atmosphere that characterized it, just as we've done with jazz, and as we're now doing with the garbage of the mechanical environment via pop art.

Hundreds of online diary authors keep weblogs. And thousands of people use weblog sites and software to keep journals. So what's the difference? Plenty.

"I'm talking to all of you, here!" continued God, His voice rising to a shout. "Do you hear Me? I don't want you to kill anybody. I'm against it, across the board. How many times do I have to say it? Don't kill each other anymore—ever! I'm fucking serious!"

Upon completing His outburst, God fell silent, standing quietly at the podium for several moments. Then, witnesses reported, God's shoulders began to shake, and He wept.

Marc Smith is a Research Sociologist in the Collaborative and Multimedia Systems Group.

I focus on the research and design of social cyberspaces. In particular I am interested in the emergence of social organizations like communities in online environments and the resources groups need in order to cooperate productively.

"One suffers so much," Denis went on, "from the fact that beautiful words don't always mean what they ought to mean. Recently, for example, I had a whole poem ruined, just because the word 'carminative' didn't mean what it ought to have meant. Carminative--it's admirable, isn't it?"
"Admirable," Mr. Scogan agreed. "And what does it mean?"

We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do - we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to resist the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world.