When I was 18 I was diagnosed with depression. I’d applied for a job and part of the interview process included undergoing psychometric testing. I got the job but had to attend weekly psychotherapy sessions as part of my employment.
The sessions were on a Wednesday. I was 18 and cocky, so I’d sit there and tell my therapist half-truths to impress her. She was young and attractive. I’m sure she knew that I wasn’t taking the therapy seriously, but we continued with the charade for 8 months. And then, one day, I walked into her office and she told me I was better and that I didn’t have to see her any more.
Psychotherapy + the extended mind thesis
When I use a calculator to work out the square root of a number, there’s a theory (extended mind thesis) that states I’m augmenting my neocortex with technology.
By this principle, when we go and see a psychotherapist, we hope to use another person’s neocortex to alter the state of our own perceptions of reality. However, there might be an alternative to having to rely on someone else’s mind to address one’s own psychological challenges. I’ve read recently that large language models (LLM’s) – a complex artificial neural network could potentially be an accessible and affordable avenue for people needing mental health support.
What I like about the idea LLM counselling people struggling with mental health
Besides the cost, the other reason many people don’t seek counselling is that because they’re ashamed. It is difficult to sit in front of somebody and confess to them that life has become too much to bear, or that one has certain thoughts or urges. With an LLM having to face another human with some of the darkest parts of ourselves goes away. You might not have to go further than the app on your phone to access the help you need, and at no point have to speak to a human being.
Similarly, the complexity of having to deal with another person, one whom you find attractive or who you can’t be honest with goes away, would be particularly good for a young man of 18 who (wrongly) believes he’s a bit of an Adonis. The point is, when taking the human out of the counselling experience, human based intrusive thoughts leave the counselling process. Desire, judgement, fear, misunderstanding become unlikely.
Finally, of the psychotherapists and psychologists I’ve met, each had a handful of counselling techniques that they relied on to connect with clients. LLM could assimilate the entire body of psychology and move between techniques and fall back on a multitude of approaches that humans don’t have.
The problem
The first big one is privacy. If a large corporation offers this service and all their clients’ interactions are stored and used to improve the LLM’ and the overall offering’s capabilities, the risk of your psychosis ending up on the dark web become a valid concern.
However, beyond that, connection is critical to the success of any counselling relationship. The significance of having someone outside of yourself understand your pain and having them care enough about you to want to help you feel better cannot be overstated. I struggle to see how an app on my phone can make me feel like everything is to be okay.