Assignment 1-3-2 Journal Article Analysis

A Mediated Family is a Happy Family: J.G. Ballard’s “Intensive Care Unit”

Kristen Watson

HUMN240-H3WW

Assignment 1-3-2

Gregory Smith

December 5, 2012

A Mediated Family is a Happy Family: J.G. Ballard’s “Intensive Care Unit”

            The article that I chose to analyze is “A Mediated Family is a Happy Family” by Jeff W. Marker in which he reviews a story by J.G. Ballard titled “Intensive Care Unit”. His review of the story focuses on the psychological effects when humans lack face to face contact and rely solely on technology. It exposes the reality that our future might end up like the short story and soon all of us will communicate through monitors and we will lack human contact.

            The narrator of the story, who Marker refers to as Ballard, happens to be the husband and main character. He is a doctor who treats his patients by video monitors which is how he ended up meeting his wife, Margaret, when he treated her. They dated, got married, and had two children all while communicating through television. The family has never been in the same room together and met face to face; they strictly communicate through monitors and even raise their children this way. Ballard explains that “in this society, age-old though rarely invoked ordinances still existed to prevent meeting in person-to meet another human being was an indictable offense” (Marker, 2011 p. 334). Television monitors is how he was raised and how he was taught to return his filial affection.

Overtime, Ballard has the urge to have his family all meet in person even though all they know is affection via images. Even though he wants a more intimate meeting, he still proceeds to set up cameras because he feels that a unique event such as this should be captured. Unfortunately, the meeting does not go as planned and the family members react with rage and violence leaving them all sprawled out on the floor covered in blood. Ballard’s daughter, Karen, strips and tries to seduce her father causing her mother to become defensive and they begin to compete for his attention. David, their son, feels the need that he should replace his father and possess his mother which in turn pushes Ballard to fight back. Marker (2011) explains that this reaction by each member is due to the fact that they “have never coexisted in the same space, they have never developed the mechanisms by which those impulses are controlled” (p. 339). There are different stages that the family members go through psychologically because they have lacked that physical interaction all their life. The primary identification stage is where the child identifies with an object, the mirror phase is the point where the child differentiates himself from the physical surroundings, and the Oedipal crisis where the child feels love and sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and hatred and death for the parent of the same sex.

The author is trying to portray the negative effects of what would happen if society stopped interacting face to face and communicated strictly via television monitors. With the advances in technology every year, it might not be that far-fetched. Growing up without the touch and affection from personal contact and only seeing visual images and hearing someone’s voice would cause us to repress urges and become overwhelmed when coming in contact with one another. In the article, Marker (2011) explains “physical barriers have restricted them from acting upon their unconscious desires, which have not dissipated but intensified” (p. 339). Because of the way the family members were raised, they are unequipped psychologically to understand and manage the family interactions during the meeting.

I find that this article is very important because after reading we are able to better understand the slightest effect that technology has on people. The short story was written in 1982 before the major advances and developments in technology and even though the story might seem an extreme exaggeration, mediation is becoming more and more common. You can find examples of this wherever you happen to be. Many people now communicate via Skype or Face time, only text rather than call, date online, and also marry online. An example in the article is the use of television as a way of parenting. They find that they can cut down whining and crying this way by keeping the children preoccupied. This type of mediation is also portrayed in our commercials and advertisements. Over time, more and more people will use technology to communicate rather than in person. However, I do not feel that complete lack of face to face contact is possible. Obviously couples cannot conceive children via monitors or raise them. Even though Ballard’s short story is extreme, who is to say that it won’t get to that point?

References

Marker, Jeff W., (April 2011). A Mediated Family is a Happy Family: J. G. Ballard's "Intensive Care Unit". The Journal of Popular Culture, 44(2), 333-346. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00835.x