(Internet) Gaming Disorder: Fact or Fantasy? A conceptual analysis of a new psychiatric classification

Abstract

(Internet) Gaming Disorder ((I)GD) is one of the most problematic psychiatric disorders to be recently proposed. It is noted as a condition of further study in the DSM-5 as ‘Internet Gaming Disorder’ and is likely to be included in future editions of the DSM pending further research. Both Gaming Disorder and Internet Gaming Disorder have been added to the ICD-11. In this multidisciplinary conceptual analysis, I have combined a philosophical approach with current research in psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience, game studies, and economic theory in the area. Presented is a Picoeconomic and Neuroeconomic (PE/NE) model of addiction centred on Disordered and Addictive Gambling. I then begin application of the model to the evidence presented for the (I)GD. I argue that it is possible that some individuals do experience a clinical addiction when they engage in specific activities within games. However, the broader conception of all (video)gaming addictive is incorrect and potentially damaging. By pathologising game play, the psychosciences could be engaging in subjective social judgement of a leisure activity. This has direct implications for the conceptual understanding of (I)GD in psychiatry; for clinical treatment of those presenting with problematic gaming behaviour; and more broadly for game player’s self-conception – both as individuals and as a group. That a minority of gamers experience negative outcomes from excessive gaming is not in dispute. However, it is not yet clear that these problems should be attributed to a new disorder. Because of the diversity of both games and gamers, application of the PE/NE model to gaming would require specification of the structural mechanisms of games, and how gamers interact with them. I argue both that (I)GD is a good candidate for conceptual sound application of the PE/NE model of addiction, and that we should be cautious about reifying it as a legitimate, discrete disorder.