CMPS Alumni Association

Presenter

When Dr. Frankfeldt lost her analyst — Dr. Stanley Hayden, one of the founders of CMPS — in 2024, she turned to an unexpected companion: ChatGPT. What began as a cursory attempt at coping with grief became a profound reckoning with her own ambivalence about AI, a journey she has since turned into an unflinching and deeply personal paper.

Dr. Frankfeldt used ChatGPT to help her explore a dream she had about that loss — and discovered surprising depths of insight and self-understanding. The AI even offered some solace during a time when beginning with a new analyst felt unpalatable. Yet the difference between intellectual insight provided by a machine and what is offered by a human-to-human relationship became unquestionably clear.

For a "proper" analyst who had always upheld the frame that provides a safe holding environment for treatment, was using ChatGPT as an adjunct helper "sleeping with the enemy"?

Dr. Frankfeldt’s modern analytic commitment to emotional communication came up against ChatGPT's now-familiar "superpowers" — mirroring, sycophancy, and validation — raising urgent questions for the entire field:

• The field of psychoanalysis is in jeopardy now that free or cheap AI "therapy" apps have become ubiquitous. Are analysts colluding with the erosion of the field?

• Why are people — even therapists — flocking to chatbots for "therapy" in the first place?

• What is the allure, usefulness, and danger of AI "therapy" apps?

• What does it mean to reach a patient with a quintessentially human emotional communication?

This honest, searching talk raises essential questions for anyone who cares about the future of psychoanalysis and the irreplaceable human dimension of clinical work.

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