Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Shop the sale
In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Don’t miss out—purchases support your local bookstore!
Shop nowThe Gaming Mind
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreAre videogames bad for us? It's the question on everyone's mind, given teenagers' captive attention to videogames and the media's tendency to scapegoat them. It's also—if you ask clinical psychologist Alexander Kriss—the wrong question.
In his therapy office, Kriss looks at videogames as a window into the mind. Is his patient Liz really "addicted" to Candy Crush—or is she evading a deeper problem? Why would aspiring model Patricia craft a hideous avatar named "Pat"? And when Jack immerses himself in Mass Effect, is he eroding his social skills—or honing them via relationship-building gameplay?
Weaving together Kriss's personal history, patients' experiences, and professional insight—and without shying away from complex subjects, such as online harassment—The Gaming Mind disrupts our assumptions about "gamers" and explores how gaming can be good for us. It offers guidance for parents, clinicians, and the rest of us to better understand the gaming mind. Like any mode of play, at their best, videogames reveal who we are and what we want from our lives.
Alexander Kriss, PhD, runs a psychotherapy practice in New York City, where he treats patients dealing with various issues, including videogame "addiction" (a term he disputes). He is an adjunct professor of psychology at the City College of New York and at Fordham University, and a clinical associate at the Safran Center for Psychological Services.
Matthew Josdal is a voice-over and theater artist originally from a small town in southwest Saskatchewan. Matthew obtained his BFA in drama from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, where he currently resides. He has narrated audiobooks in genres ranging from historical nonfiction to contemporary fantasy, along with most things in between. In addition to a fifteen-plus year career in acting for both stage and microphone, he recently completed all of his requirements for his honors degree in psychology.