“Why AI Lacks the Heart of Psychoanalysis: Beyond Algorithms ..."

“Why AI Lacks the Heart of Psychoanalysis: Beyond Algorithms to Emotional Communication”

Valerie Frankfeldt, PhD

Friday, September 27, 2024

6:30PM – 8:30PM (EDT)

PPSC

Live Webinar on Zoom

$60 Regular Admission and $40 Student

*This talk provides 2 hours of continuing education credits for LCSWs, LMSWs, LPs, LMHCs, LCATs, LMFTs, and licensed psychologists.

The encroachment of AI into psychoanalysis raises significant concerns. AI apps like ChatGPT, Pi, Claude, and others offer various forms of assistance, but their emotional and psychological support capabilities are limited. This discussion explores why AI cannot replace psychoanalysis, focusing on Emotional Communication's unique role in therapy. Frankfeldt offers case examples of the use of Emotional Communication which are then deconstructed to explain the contrast between psychoanalysis and AI.

Valerie Frankfeldt, PhD is a training analyst, faculty member, and supervisor at the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center. She has a special interest in the effects of digital life and devices on analytic work, and socioculturally. She has published three papers related to the topic: “Can We Hug? The Vibrancy and Vicissitudes of Patients in Person: Sifting Through the Rubble of Covid” (Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 2024), “The Pandemic, the Protests, the Chaos: A destabilizing effect on the analyst” (American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2022), and “Digital Communication in Psychoanalysis: An Oxymoron?” (Psychoanalytic Social Work, 2020). Dr. Frankfeldt is a member of the newly formed American Psychoanalytic Association Council on AI and Psychoanalysis. She is in private practice in Greenwich Village in New York City.

Learning Objectives

After attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

• identify the appeal of AI to replicate or even supplant human relationships in both the personal and therapeutic realms.
• describe the nature of AI’s programming vs human receptivity to emotion-based interactions.
• discuss the underpinnings of Emotional Communication, what it is, and how it is used therapeutically instead of AI as a therapeutic agent.

Agenda

6:30 – 7:00: Introduction and description of the problem of how AI is encroaching on human relationships.

7:00 – 7:30: Elucidation of how AI is programmed vs how humans operate around feeling interactions.

7:30 – 8:00: Definition of Emotional Communication and illustrative case examples.

8:00 – 8:30: Q & A.

*For a refund to a PPSC Annex event, we must receive a cancellation notice 24 hours prior to the event. Please contact [email protected] if you want to cancel within this timeframe or if you have any other questions or concerns.

*Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P-0040, licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0166 and licensed creative arts therapists #CAT-0083, and licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0119. We are recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0054 and by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0118. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center maintains responsibility for its programs and its content.

*PPSC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, sexual preference, gender, gender identity, marital status, national or ethnic origin in the administration of its admissions and educational policies.

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