80

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, diagnostic labels of social withdrawal behaviours have been multiplying. However, these diagnoses refer to a range of different symptomatological sets, as well as individual and social rationales that are sometimes contradictory. In clinical work, we encounter socially integrated subjects who may feel isolated, as well as subjects who are effectively isolated but who sometimes have no complaint about this social withdrawal (hikikomori syndrome, “internet addictions”). We first revisit the structural gap between loneliness and isolation, and then discuss the proposal of detecting these phenomena with the support of a clinical methodology. Based on a series of vignettes of adolescent subjects (three boys and one girl) met in psychological care facilities, we present some (auto-)therapeutic uses of social withdrawal and digital devices in this context.