Digital Bodies, Altered Psychism’s: Technology and the Reconfiguration of Embodiment

Abstract

Emerging digital technologies—such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and networked avatars—are transforming how human beings experience their bodies, their selves, and their interactions with the world. This review explores the reconfiguration of embodiment in digital contexts and its implications for psychisme—the interwoven psychological and bodily sense of self. Drawing on research from cognitive science, media studies, phenomenology, psychology, and technology studies, we examine how digital bodies (e.g., avatars, VR embodiments) reshape bodily self-perception, emotion, identity, and agency. Virtual embodiment studies demonstrate that owning a virtual body can alter emotional responses, cognition, and attitudes beyond mere perceptual experience, creating hybrid forms of presence that blend physical and digital selves. Cultural perspectives emphasize how digital bodies are situated within social structures and power relations, with technologies mediating embodiment in contexts of inequality and augmentation. Clinical and applied dimensions reveal potential for VR and avatar embodiment in wellbeing, mental health, and behavioral change. We conclude by proposing integrative frameworks for understanding digital embodiment that link the phenomenology of bodily experience with social, cultural, and technological dynamics shaping the contemporary psychisme.