Selected Publications

Books | Reports | Chapters in Books | Articles | Also of Note

 

BOOKS

 
Artificial Intimacy: Who Do We Become When We Talk to Machines?
(Under contract, Little Brown & Company)

 

The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir
New York: Penguin Press, publication date March 2, 2021.
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“A powerful and poignant reminder that it is in our relationships with one another—not technology—that we find our most important source of meaning and healing.”—Vivek H. Murthy, Surgeon General of the United States

“A near-perfect melding of personal and intellectual memoir.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

 
 
 
 

Reader's Guide to The Empathy Diaries by Sherry Turkle (for students and book clubs)
New York: Penguin Random House, April 2022.

Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age
New York: Penguin Press, October 2015.  (Also published in a British edition and Italian, Spanish, French, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, and Turkish translations, plus Audio Penguin.)

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
New York: Basic Books, January 2011.  (Also published in Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Serbian, Croatian, Polish, and Arabic translations, plus Audio Penguin.)

Simulation and Its Discontents
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Spring 2009.

The Inner History of Devices
Edited and with an introduction by Sherry Turkle.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Fall 2008.

Falling for Science: Objects in Mind
Edited and with an introduction by Sherry Turkle.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Spring 2008.

Evocative Objects: Things We Think With
Edited and with an introduction by Sherry Turkle.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Fall 2007.

The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit
Twentieth Anniversary edition, including new introduction, epilogue, and notes.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984.
Paperback edition, New York: Touchstone, 1985.
(Also published in a British edition and French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish, and Danish translations.)

Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.
Paperback edition, New York: Touchstone, 1997.
(Also published in a British edition and Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Croation translations.)

Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French Revolution
New York: Basic Books, 1978.
Paperback edition, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981.
Second edition with new Preface and Afterward,
New York: Guilford Press, 1992.
(Also published in a British edition and French, Italian, and Spanish translations.)

 

REPORTS

"Artificial Intimacy: Who do we become when we talk to machines?" forthcoming in MIT Schwarzman College publications, January 2024.

"A Nascent Robotics Culture: New Complicities for Companionship," AAAI Technical Report Series, July 2006.

Information Technologies and Professional Identity:  A Comparative Study of the Effects of Virtuality,” with Co-PI's: H. Gusterson, J.Dumit, D. Mindell, S. Silbey (and Research Assistants: N. Myers, Y. Loukissas, and J. Ferng), National Science Foundation Report (NSF Grant # IIS-0220347), December 2005.

“Relational Artifacts, Children, and Elders,” National Science Foundation Report (NSF Grant # SES-0115668), November 2003.

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CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

“Tangling with Freud in a Post-Freudian World.”  In On the Couch: Writers Analyze Sigmund Freud, Andrew Blauner (ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press,  forthcoming May 2024.

The Year of Not Living Thickly.” In Now Comes Good Sailing: Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau, Andrew Blauner (ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.

Rejecting the Sirens of the Friction-Free World.” In Which Side of History? James P. Steyer (ed.). San Francisco: Chronicle Books, September 2020.

Foreword to Left to Our Own Devices by Margaret E. Morris. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2018.

Empathy Machines: Forgetting the Body in Digital Culture.”  In A Psychoanalytic Exploration of the Body in Today’s World, Vaia Tsolas and Christine Anzieu-Premmereur (eds.). New York: Routledge, 2017.  Reprinted in Women Reclaiming the City: An International Research Handbook on Urbanism, Architecture and Planning, T. Haas and M. Schwab. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022.

Introduction to Third Edition of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books, 2017.

Purple Sweatshirt.”  In Worn Stories, Emily Spivack (ed.). New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014.

Objects of Desire.” In What Should We Be Worried About?: Real Scenarios That Keep Scientists Up at Night, John Brockman (ed.) New York: Harper Perennial, 2014.   

Be Careful What You Wish For.” In Rise of the Robots: We’ve got company, How smart machines will change our lives, Editors of Time Magazine. Time Books, 2013.

Once Upon a Screen.” In The Science of You: The Factors That Shape Your Personality, Editors of Time Magazine. Time Books, 2013.

"Object Lessons." In Educating the Whole Child for the Whole World, Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco and Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj (eds.). New York University Press, 2010.

In Good Company?: On the Threshold of Robotic Companions.” In Close Engagements with Artificial Companions: Key Social, Psychological, Ethical and Design Issues, Yorick Wilks (ed.). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2010.

The Robot in the Wings.” In What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Today’s Leading Minds Rethink Everything, John Brockman (ed.). New York: Harper Perennial, 2009.

Always-on/Always-on-you: The Tethered Self.” In Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies, James E. Katz (ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.

"The Immeasurables." In What Are You Optimistic About?: Today's Leading Thinkers on Why Things Are Good and Getting Better, John Brockman (ed.).  New York: Harper Perennial, 2007.

Simulation Versus Authenticity.” In What is Your Dangerous Idea?: Today’s Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable, John Brockman (ed.). New York: Harper Perennial, 2007.

Tethering”.  In Sensorium:  Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art, Caroline A.  Jones (ed.).  Cambridge, MA:  List Visual Art Center and MIT Press, 2006.

First Encounters with Kismet and Cog: Children Respond to Relational Artifacts.” With Cynthia Breazeal, Olivia Dasté, and Brian Scassellati. In Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication, Paul Messaris and Lee Humphreys (eds.). New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2006.

Computer Games as Evocative Objects:  From Projective Screens to Relational Artifacts." In Handbook of Computer Game Studies, Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein (eds.), MIT Press, 2005.

"The Objects of Our Lives." In Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist, John Brockman (ed.). New York: Pantheon, 2004.

"Our Split Screens." In Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice, Andrew Feenberg and Darin Barney (eds.). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004.

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ARTICLES

 

“Lacan – a Second Chance in America, November 1975.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (Special Issue on Lacan in America), Fall 2023.

“Silicon Valley Fairy Dust.” Crooked Timber Seminar on the Ideologies of Silicon Valley, 2023.  https://crookedtimber.org/2023/silicon-valley-fairy-dust/

“The Dresses of My Life.” Oprah Daily (forthcoming).

“How Human Are We? Machines Will Tell us.” Included in report on “How AI Will Change the Workplace” by Sean Captain. The Wall Street Journal, May 14, 2023.  https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-ai-change-workplace-af2162ee?st=jou39lse1fqym8p&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Living the In-Between with Victor Turner’s The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure.Social Research: An International Quarterly, Volume 89, Number 2, Summer 2022. [Issue on Books that Matter.]

Writing a Memoir Taught Me How to See My Mother.Literary Hub, February 28, 2022.

The Knock at the Door.Tablet Magazine, February 28, 2022.

Empathy Rules.Harvard Business Review, February 17, 2022.

How to Fix Social Media.The Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2021.

The Pandemic Has Shown Us That People Need Relationships” (interview with Ian Tucker). The Guardian, March 21, 2021.

The Pandemic Made Us Strangers to Ourselves.TIME Magazine, March 16, 2021.

That Chatbot I’ve Loved to Hate.MIT Technology Review, August 18, 2020

Dreams of an American Eden.” Financial Times, July 18, 2020.

Essay on “Wedding Earrings” for Travelling Companions online exhibit.  University of Westminster, UK, September 2019.

How to Make Space for Both People and Technology” [interview with Steven Poole]. Think:Act magazine (issue on “On Being Human”), November 9, 2018.

There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy: Robots may be better than nothing, but they still won’t be enough.” The New York Times (The Big Ideas), August 11, 2018. 

The Robotic Moment.Encyclopedia Britannica entry, 100th Anniversary Edition, June 2018.

"Think Different? Apple Takes Its Message Seriously." ThriveGlobal.com, June 5, 2018.

Sherry Turkle, Gillian Isaacs Russell, Todd Essig, “Bodies in the Room: Keeping Talk Therapy Real.” Medium.com, May 29, 2018.

Will Voice-Technologies Render Us Mute?Dialogue Magazine, Spring 2018.

“Entre Facebook et ses utilisateurs, un amour déҫu” (Débats & Analyses). Le Monde, 10 Avril 2018, p. 22.

Why These Friendly Robots Can’t Be Good Friends To Our Kids.” The Washington Post (Outlook), December 7, 2017.

Sherry Turkle, Todd Essig, Gillian Isaacs Russell, “Afterword: Reclaiming Psychoanalysis: Sherry Turkle in Conversation with the Editors.Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 14:2, 2017: 237-248. [In link, scroll down to second page to find entire article.]

Remembering Seymour Papert.” LRB blog (London Review of Books), 24 February 2017. 

In Tribute to John Forrester (1949-2015).” American Imago, Vol. 73, No. 4, Winter 2016.

The Empathy Gap: Digital Culture Needs What Talk Therapy Offers.Psychotherapy Networker, November-December 2016.  pp. 29-33, continued, 54-55.  Reprinted in Women Reclaiming the City: International Research on Urbanism, Architecture, and Planning, Tigran Haas (ed.). New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2023. 

Democracy has a Darwinian Heart” (with Perry Chen). Medium, November 21, 2016.

"We Need to Talk about Donald." London Review of Books Blog,  26 October 2016.

There Are Dangers to Remaking the Real as a Virtual Place.” The New York Times (Room for Debate, The Opinion Pages), July 13, 2016.

"An Assault on Empathy." Milken Institute Review (issue on The Power of Ideas), June 2016.

"The Creep of Social Media Raises Big Questions." The New York Times (Room for Debate), March 4, 2015.

Talk to Each Other, Not Your Phone.The New York Times (The Opinion Pages), October 1, 2015.

"Stop Googling. Let's Talk." The New York Times (Sunday Review, The Opinion Pages), September 27, 2015.

"Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? (Debate)." Upfront: The Newsmagazine for Teens (New York Times/Scholastic), March 17, 2014.

The Psychology of Social Media.”  Real Simple (interviewed for special issue on ‘The Balanced Life’), January 2014.

The Documented Life.”  The New York Times (Sunday Review, The Opinion Pages),  December 15,  2013. 

 "Present Tense: Has the audience left the building?" Playbill Magazine (Special edition, Lincoln Center, NY), November 2012.

"The Flight From Conversation." The New York Times (Sunday Review, The Opinion Pages),  April 22, 2012.

A Conversation with Sherry Turkle” (interview with James Nolan). The Hedgehog Review, Vol. 14, No. 1, Spring 2012.

The Tethered Self: Technology Reinvents Intimacy and Solitude.” Continuing Higher Education Review, Vol. 75, Fall 2011.

The Anthony Weiner in all of us: Why, in a Twitter world, we’re all vulnerable to Weineresque errors.The New York Daily News (opinion piece), June 13, 2011.

 "A Passion for Objects: How science is fueled by an attachment to things." The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 54, Issue 38, May 30, 2008.

Authenticity in the Age of Digital Companions.” Interaction Studies, Vol. 8 No. 3, 2007.

The Secret Power of Things We Hold Dear.” New Scientist,  9 June 2007.

Can You Hear Me Now?" Forbes (90th Anniversary issue), May 2007.

Relational Artifacts with Children and Elders: The Complexities of Cybercompanionship” (with Will Taggart, Cory D. Kidd, and Olivia Dasté).  Connection Science, Vol.18 No. 4, December 2006.

"A Nascent Robotics Culture: New Complicities for Companionship," AAAI Technical Report Series, July 2006.

A Sociable Robot to Encourage Social Interaction Among the Elderly” (with Will Taggart and Cory D. Kidd).  Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Orlando, Florida, May 2006.

"Diary." London Review of Books, Vol. 28, 8, April 2006.

Whither Psychoanalysis in Computer Culture?Psychoanalytic Psychology: Journal of the Division of Psychoanalysis, American Psychological Association, Winter 2004.

"How Computers Change the Way We Think." The Chronicle of Higher Education: Information Technology, January 30, 2004.

Technology and Human Vulnerability.” Harvard Business Review,  September 2003.

From Powerful Ideas to PowerPoint.” Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 9, 2, Summer 2003. 

Lord of the Hackers.”  New York Times, Op-Ed, 7 March  2002.

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ALSO OF NOTE:

 

The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America by

Michelle Wilde Anderson. Book Review. New York Times,

June 21, 2022.

"Multiple Subjectivity and Virtual Community at the End of the Freudian Century." Sociological
Inquiry, 67, 1, Winter 1997.

"Seeing Through Computers: Education in a Culture of Simulation." The American Prospect, no. 31, March-April 1997.

"Who am We?" Wired, 4, 1, January 1996.

"Virtuality and Its Discontents." The American Prospect, no. 24, Winter 1996.

"Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality." Mind, Culture, and Activity, 1, 3, Summer 1994. (Reprinted in Electronic Culture: Technology and Visual Representation, Timothy Druckrey (ed.). Aperture Foundation, 1996 and Culture of the Internet, Sara Kiesler (ed.). Hilldale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997.)

"Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete." In Constructionism, Idit Harel and Seymour Papert (eds.).  Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1991. (Reprinted in Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 11, 1, March 1992.)

"Artificial Intelligence and Psychoanalysis: A New Alliance." Daedalus, 17, 1, Winter 1988.

"Computational Reticence: Why Women Fear the Intimate Machine." In Technology and Women's Voices, Cheris Kramerae (ed.). New York: Pergamon Press, 1986.

 

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