Maressa Orzack

Maressa Hecht Orzack (February 5, 1924 – November 10, 2010) was an American psychologist who was clinical associate in psychology at McLean Hospital; Coordinator of Behavior Therapy Affective Disease Program, also at McLean Hospital and assistant clinical professor of psychology, Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She also held private practice at Newton Centre.

Orzack's research included various forms of computer addiction, including Internet addiction and computer game addiction. Recently, her research has focused on the addictive nature of MMORPG games.

Career Orzack studied at Columbia University, where she worked as an experimental psychologist. From there, in the late 1950s she worked with Agnes N. O'Connel on setting up a research arm at the Wisconsin Central Colony and Training School, under a job share arrangement. It is understood that her later work involved experience with impulse control disorders such as eating disorders and gambling addiction. From discussions with her colleagues and patients referred to her, in 1996. Orzack went on to found and coordinate computer addiction services and a study centre at the hospital. Orzack listed several symptoms of computer addiction, including using the computer for pleasure and relief from stress, feeling out of control and depressed when not using it, neglecting real life responsibilities and failure in attempts to cut down usage. and through studies of cases of extreme internet addiction, learned the severity of the matter. Included in the cases she encountered was where a male who had become heavily addicted to the Internet, resulting in him quitting his graduate degree, leaving his wife and ignoring friends. Orzack believed that treatment for internet addiction should be carried out without the aid of computers, and argued that computer-based treatment would be like "having an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a bar". Orzack felt that many of those she treated for computer game addiction were in their 40s or older, with them being almost exclusively male. She stated that she almost always heard of a case of this type after it has caused problems with someone's job or marriage. Orzack then went on to say that these people are roleplaying and feel part of an organisation, something they may lack outside of the game. She went further by stating that she feels Blizzard Entertainment, the game's developer, structures the game to be deliberately addictive and designs it to keep people in. While she agreed that other personal issues can have an effect she felt that the cause of the problem was what she described as the game's "inherent addictiveness". Other commentators were concerned that the term "addiction" was being used too frequently, and noting that at the time gaming and internet addiction were not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Orzack later described the 40 percent figure as an unscientific estimate, based on a group study of gamers called the Daedalus project and conducted by Nick Yee in California.