From Battleground to Playground: The Video Game Avatar as Transitional Phenomenon for a Transgender Patient

The language and theories of Winnicott offer a lens for examining the importance of play in the development of the queer, transgender, and/or gender-nonconforming patient and the safety that virtual spaces-specifically, video games-provide for this play. While much of the literature posits the primary therapeutic value of virtual space as the site of psychic battle, interaction with a video game avatar can also be understood as an act of queerness-as-play, a potential cornerstone of healthy identity formation that may otherwise be precluded. An example of this paradigm is given in the case report of a twenty-year-year-old transwoman who used her video game avatar as a tool in her therapeutic progress during her medical transition. For effective psychotherapy to take place, both patient and clinician must have a capacity to play. With this in mind, the clinician might best visualize the virtual space not as a battleground, but as a playground.