Episode 6 RealTherapy™
Liz “I think that’s where the argument will be won, not on letting the tech guys do their thing and us talking about morals. They don’t care about morals, they care about results….we need some analogous way of talking about cognitive offloading in the therapy world. That might be where we can stake out some standards. Talking about ethics to people who are in the tech world is not going to go anywhere because they turn that immediately into a cost problem…..”
Jon “But effective for what? That’s the question”
Liz “In making the case for the human. I guess that’s what I’m saying….they’re not 100% effective….in terms of the way they effect cognition, what about the way they effect emotions and relationships?”
Jon “Yes, that’s right, relationships and emotions are all tied together. They can be effective for generating money but we need to be on the side of what is helping people with their relationships. I keep saying relationships because I think that’s the challenging territory…..but that’s where ethics or morals, we can’t escape it, as it’s what we value.”
Liz “I completely agree, but I don’t know if that will make any impact when you’re up against these billion dollar companies.”
Stories of UberTherapy is a series of six recorded conversations with therapists, social justice activists, trade unionists and progressive tech campaigners to ask if a MuchBetter.Help is possible.
Episode 6 RealTherapy™ with Jon Allen (Psychologist) & Elizabeth Lunbeck (Harvard University), practitioners, teachers & writers thinking about how we keep doing the deep work.
Hosted by James Farrar, Linda Michaels and Elizabeth Cotton on 11 September 6.30-7.30pm you are invited to attend the launch of our podcast series based around the six chapters of UberTherapy: The new business of mental health.
To read about the podcast series & book your tickets go to www.muchbetter.help
To get notification when the podcasts drop click here.
Jon G. Allen, Ph.D., retired after 40 years of practice as a member of the psychology staff at The Menninger Clinic, where he held the position of Clinical Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine. His diverse practice at Menninger included teaching and supervising fellows and residents; conducting psychotherapy, diagnostic consultations, and psychoeducational programs; and leading research on clinical outcomes. In retirement, he has continued to teach, write, and consult with early-career therapists. He is a member of the honorary faculty at the Houston Center for Psychoanalytic Studies and the adjunct faculty of the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center. His latest books are Bringing Psychotherapy to Life through Caring Connections and Trusting in Psychotherapy. His earlier books include Restoring Mentalizing in Attachment Relationships: Treating Trauma with Plain Old Therapy, Mentalizing in Clinical Practice (with Peter Fonagy and Anthony Bateman), Coping with Trauma: From Self-Understanding to Hope, and Coping with Depression: From Catch-22 to Hope, all published by American Psychiatric Association Publishing. Additional books are Mentalizing in the Development and Treatment of Attachment Trauma (Karnac) and Traumatic Relationships and Serious Mental Disorders (Wiley).
Elizabeth Lunbeck is a historian of the human sciences at Harvard University, specializing in the history of psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and psychology. She teaches courses in the history of psychotherapy and of psychoanalysis. She has published several books: The Psychiatric Persuasion: Knowledge, Gender, and Power in Modern America; with Bennett Simon, Family Romance, Family Secrets: Case Notes from an American Psychoanalysis, 1912, And The Americanization of Narcissism, which offers a wide-ranging history of the concept, asking why the question of narcissism has become so urgent in our culture; she has also edited an additional four volumes. She is currently writing a book, The Therapist: A Short History from Freud to ChatGPT. Lunbeck is an academic program graduate of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and holds an MA in Counseling Psychology.
*GabSpace graphics designed by Austin Hughes, The American Psychoanalyst tapmagazine.org
@survivingwork.bsky.social @survivingwk
@UberTherapy.bsky.social @ubertherapies