“Like I’m Talking to a Real Person”: Exploring the Meaning of Transference for the Use and Design of AI-Based Applications in Psychotherapy

AI-enabled virtual and robot therapy is increasingly being integrated into psychotherapeutic practice, supporting a host of emotional, cognitive, and social processes in the therapeutic encounter. Given the speed of research and development trajectories of AI-enabled applications in psychotherapy and the practice of mental healthcare, it is likely that therapeutic chatbots, avatars, and socially assistive devices will soon translate into clinical applications much more broadly. While AI applications offer many potential opportunities for psychotherapy, they also raise important ethical, social, and clinical questions that have not yet been adequately considered for clinical practice. In this article, we begin to address one of these considerations: the role of transference in the psychotherapeutic relationship. Drawing on Karen Barad’s conceptual approach to theorizing human–non-human relations, we show that the concept of transference is necessarily reconfigured within AI-human psychotherapeutic encounters. This has implications for understanding how AI-driven technologies introduce changes in the field of traditional psychotherapy and other forms of mental healthcare and how this may change clinical psychotherapeutic practice and AI development alike. As more AI-enabled apps and platforms for psychotherapy are developed, it becomes necessary to re-think AI-human interaction as more nuanced and richer than a simple exchange of information between human and nonhuman actors alone.

Adolescent Between the Two Shores. Presenting Case of Psychotherapeutic Practice

A case of psychotherapeutic practice for an adolescent between identity, symptom and balance. Individual identity is essential for mental health. Identity development is a basis of self-acceptance and good self-esteem. As Erikson (2013) pointed out, subjective sense of identity must continue to be rediscovered and developed in a never-ending process. Erikson emphasizes that the term of identity has different but generally interrelated meanings. In many situations it can be attributed to a conscious sense of individual identity, in the others – to “an unconscious battle” for continuity between tradition and individuality, in the third – to the stability of the self, and in the fourth – as a mechanism for maintaining internal balance with group (traditional) ideals and group (traditional) identity.

Exploring Dialogic Position of Psychology Students in Educational Process

The process of psychotherapeutic practice requires the psychologist to be able to engage in dialogue. To date, no express tests have been developed to assess the dialogic position. In the course of theoretical analysis we identified the main views on understanding the dialogic position, qualities that contribute to its development (empathy, reflectivity, personality orientation in communication) and developed a projective technique for its assessment. The expression of these qualities was in- vestigated in 80 students of biotechnology and clinical psychology programmes. The sample was represented by one experimental (20 subjects) and three control groups (20 subjects each). The following research techniques were applied: “Reflectivity as a psychological attribute” by A.R. Karpov; “Assessment of empathy levels” by V.V. Boyko; “Personality orientation in communication” by S.N. Bratchenko. Analysis of the results’ factor structure showed the presence of three fac- tors closely related to empathy, reflectivity, features of dialogic orientation and dialogic position. The study confirmed the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the orientation of the educational process and the development of the dialogic position. The procedure of verification of the developed technique con- firmed its effectiveness in assessing the dialogic position.

Existential Calling

His work on Kierkegaard and exposure to Existentialism motivated May to collaborate with Henri Ellenberger and Ernest Angel to produce a volume, finally published in 1958, that introduced Existential Psychology to the American profession and public. Existence received wide exposure in lay and professional worlds and remains an influential text. He then participated in the founding of the, a journal called Existential Inquiries, and an APA panel that was soon published as Existential Psychology (1961). These events marked a turning point in psychotherapeutic practice and in part led to the creation of a related movement—Humanistic Psychology.

Relational and affective neuroscience: a quiet revolution in psychiatric and psychotherapeutic practice

SUMMARYWe consider some advances in relational and affective neuroscience and related disciplines that attempt to resolve some fundamental aspects of the mind–brain problem. We consider the key role of affect in generating consciousness and in meeting our essential survival needs; the neural correlates of relating; how self and other are represented in the brain and awareness of self and other is generated through interoceptive predictive processes. We describe some leading models of the generation and purpose of consciousness, linking theories of affective and cognitive consciousness. We discuss psychiatric and psychotherapeutic innovations arising from this research, new integrated biopsychosocial interventions and the obstacles to be overcome in applying these models in practice.