Some months ago, I was involved in a bit of a kerfuffle about the use of artificial intelligence (and of ChatGPT, in particular) by psychoanalysts, in psychoanalysis. I won’t characterize the other side beyond saying, it was at least some people’s view that “AI has no place in psychoanalysis.” I intend to write more on this subject soon enough, but, for now, I thought I would share with you one of my favorite uses of AI in psychoanalysis: to play.
I have a friend graduating from analytic training, and some other friends and I were discussing possible gifts. “Shall we get J a gradation present from the rest of the gang?” one of us wrote.
“Ooh. Nice idea!” I responded. “Got anything in mind?”
“Nice idea indeed!” replied the third of us. “Is there such a thing [as a] psychoanalyst’s hat?”
To Discord I went. I spun up Midjourney, and entered, “/imagine a psychoanalyst’s hat.”
Apparently, psychoanalysts are male. Also, seriously?
“/imagine a woman psychoanalyst’s hat,” I wrote.
Hmmm. And still… really?
“/imagine a comical hat, a ‘psychoanalyst’s hat,’ suitable to be a gift to a female psychoanalyst on the occasion of her graduation.”
Now we were getting somewhere. I really like 1 and a slight variation of 4:
What do you think?
