AAPCSW Dreaming the Future
Austin, TX

Presenter

Is a psychoanalyst who uses ChatGPT as a therapeutic tool sleeping with the enemy? This paper elucidates what makes the use of an AI app so appealing. Where is the line that differentiates a human therapist from a data infused machine? When might AI truly serve a therapeutic purpose?

ChatGPT’s genuine helpfulness in augmenting self-understanding and insight can be seen in the parsing of a dream following the death of the author’s analyst. For the author, who was processing the loss of her analyst, the AI app offered some solace when the author realized picking up with a new analyst was unpalatable. At the same time, the difference between the more intellectual insight provided by the machine versus what a human-to-human relationship has to offer also became abundantly clear.