document: Interaction and presence in the clinical relationship : virtual reality -LRB- VR -RRB- as communicative medium between patient and therapist The great potential offered by virtual reality -LRB- VR -RRB- to clinical psychologists derives prevalently from the central role , in psychotherapy , occupied by the imagination and by memory . These two elements , which are fundamental in our life , present absolute and relative limits to the individual potential . Using VR as an advanced imaginal system , an experience that is able to reduce the gap existing between imagination and reality , it is possible to transcend these limits . In this sense , VR can improve the efficacy of a psychological therapy for its capability of reducing the distinction between the computer 's reality and the conventional reality . Two are the core characteristics of this synthetic imaginal experience : the perceptual illusion of nonmediation and the possibility of building and sharing a common ground . In this sense , experiencing presence in a clinical virtual environment -LRB- VE -RRB- , such as a shared virtual hospital , requires more than reproduction of the physical features of external reality . It requires the creation and sharing of the cultural web that makes meaningful , and therefore visible , both people and objects populating the environment . The paper outlines a framework for supporting the development and tuning of clinically oriented VR systems
doc_bio_tags: O O B O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O B O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O B I I O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O
extractive_keyphrases: virtual reality psychotherapy imagination memory presence psychological therapy clinical virtual environment shared virtual hospital
abstractive_keyphrases: patient-therapist communication clinical psychology