Will Artificial Intelligence Revolutionize Psychotherapy?

The changing relationship between mind and machine

Whether it is an unhealthy YouTube fascination with Boston Dynamic’s robot dogs opening doors, Amazon’s Alexa on your coffee table, or Elon Musk’s ominous March 13th statement of “Mark my words -- AI is far more dangerous than nukes,” chances are the growing conversation of artificial intelligence has intruded in some way ...
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Will Artificial Intelligence Revolutionize Psychotherapy?

Were We There to Talk about AIDS, or Not?

One woman’s journey in psychotherapy

This excerpt is part of a longer essay. To read the full essay please click here.  Introduction. In January of 1990 I was shocked when the Korean immigrant and Harvard-educated molecular biologist I had recently begun dating said he had something to tell me: he was HIV-positive. The shock never really subsided, ...
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Were We There to Talk about AIDS, or Not?

Authenticity, American Style

The meaning of authenticity in the era of “reality show” politics

In her 2012 book The Politics of Authenticity in American Presidential Campaigns, Erica Seifert documents the growing importance over a 25-year period of the voters’ perception of candidates’ authenticity in determining the outcome of presidential elections. In recent years Al Gore, John Kerry and Mitt Romney’s bids for the presidency were all ...
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Authenticity, American Style

The Curious Case of the Growing Placebo Effect

Evidence suggests that placebo effects are becoming more powerful

Over the last several years evidence has been accumulating that placebo effects are becoming more powerful. Clinical trials on a range of medications used for treating both psychological and medical problems, are finding that differences in the magnitude of their impact relative to placebos are decreasing in size. For example, in ...
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The Curious Case of the Growing Placebo Effect

Analytic or Continental?

The psychology of becoming a philosopher in the 21st century

Divorce need not be a tragedy. Things do turn messy, however, when parents force their kids to take sides: for one and against the other. We philosophers who are coming of age in the 21st century find ourselves, unfortunately, subject to such an unhappy circumstance. To become a philosopher today implies ...
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Analytic or Continental?

Two Idiocies and a Maybe

Or the Political Limits of “Social Psychology”

We live in the academic Age of Science. I write “academic” quite deliberately. In the broader world, we live in an age of fakery, idiocy, and a hatred of all forms of science and scientific reasoning. The Age of Trump. But in the academy, Science reigns supreme. Big Data. Laboratory experiments. ...
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Two Idiocies and a Maybe

Psychoanalysis and #MeToo

Reflecting on sexuality, power, desire, coercion, and consent

On February 8, 2018, the New School for Social Research hosted a panel discussion, co-sponsored by The Sandor Ferenczi Center, the New School gender studies & sexuality program and Public Seminar, entitled “Sexual Harassment and Assault: Eros, Power, Violation and Consent.” The event, designed as the first part of a ...
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Psychoanalysis and #MeToo

Re-imagining Clinical Psychology

What might a social justice-oriented clinical psychology program look like?

Disrupting injustice: An action plan to mobilize social change within psychology Introduction As students in psychology and aspiring clinicians, we feel it is pertinent to provide a space in which to focus not only on multicultural issues, but those pertaining to broader social justice initiatives and concerns. According to Goodman et ...
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Re-imagining Clinical Psychology

Racial Preference and Grindr

The enduring erotics of colonialism

Beyond preference vs. prejudice At what point does preference become discrimination? This question was used to frame a recent video produced by Grindr exploring the increasingly prominent topic of “race” and so-called “racial preferences” on hook-up and dating apps. That increasing attention is being paid to the racialized aspects of our partner selections ...
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Racial Preference and Grindr

Trump, Freud, and the Puzzle of Femininity

Our fear of the feminine might be the great riddle of democracy

But our president is the Greatest Repudiator. Not only has he sought to repudiate the Paris Climate Accord, UNESCO, women’s reproductive rights, and Obamacare; he has also demonstrated that he is obsessed with repudiating everything Obama. He practically revels in ignoring if not dismissing democratic values we take for granted: ...
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Selling Bad Therapy to Trauma Victims

Patients and therapists should ignore new guidelines for treating trauma

The guidelines are supposed to reflect the best scientific evidence. In fact, they ignore all scientific evidence except one kind of study, called randomized controlled trials (RCTs). RCTs randomly assign people to treatment or control groups. They can answer certain questions (Is a medication more effective than a sugar pill?) and not others ...
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The Perversion of America’s Self-Made Man

Exploring the twisted personalities calling the shots in a culture where mean is celebrated

Mark Lipton – with rich experience as an adviser to major corporations, start-ups, government agencies, and not-for-profits – integrates years of psychological research to uncover what drives men in powerful positions to do dastardly things in order to fulfill their “visions”. Mean Men: The Perversion of America’s Self-Made Man reveals the ...
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