Technology and the Mind

Dr. Possati describes he work at the intersection of philosophy, psychoanalysis and AI. He discusses the mutual influence of tech on humans and vice versa, the importance of unconscious processes and interdisciplinary collaboration across fields to produce ethical AI systems.

In this episode, Dr. Michelle Marzullo, chair of the Department of Critical Sexuality Studies at CIIS discusses her work and the importance of technology in sexuality studies. She provides a queer, intersectional and critical lens and shares a few projects she and her students are working on at the intersection of sexuality studies and technology.

In this episode long time friends and collaborators, Drs. Richard Frankel and Victor Krebs carry on a decade long conversation in person and in google docs resulting in the book, Human Virtuality and Digital Life, a delightful and rich discussion of the philosophical understandings of virtuality as well as implications for the psyche. Their discussions are far reaching and deep leveraging myths, critical thought, important philosophers and psychoanalytic theorists. In the end we discuss AI, thinking, dreaming, and the generational divide and post-truth political landscape that is fueled by technology.

For additional resources please see:

Dreaming in the Digital Age, Thoughts on the Technological Pharmakon. POLIGRAFI , 28 (109/110), pp. 59-82.: http://ojs.zrs-kp.si/index.php/poligrafi/article/view/404

Digital Animism. Towards a New Materialism, Religions 2023, 14(2), 264; https://www.mdpi.com/2140582

The Power of Ghosts, Jung Journal Culture and Psyche September 2013 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272120809_The_Power_of_Ghosts

Frankel, R. “Dreaming Life in the Digital Age” in Goodman, D and Clemente, M. (eds). (2024) The Routledge International Handbook of Psychoanalysis, Subjectivity, and Technology. London: Routledge.

Frankel, R. "New Introduction to the Classic Edition of The Adolescent Psyche” in Frankel, R. (2023) The Adolescent Psyche: Jungian and Winnicottian Perspectives. London: Routledge.

Frankel, R. “Digital Melancholy” in Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche. 2013, Vol. 7, No. 4.

In this episode Dr. Linda Michaels, Chair and Co-Founder of the Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAn) discusses grassroots efforts to provide public information and advocacy for therapies of depth, insight and relationship. She discusses the role of marketing as a major source of information to the public about treatment options for mental health. Further she emphasizes that psychoanalysts and psychodynamically-oriented clinicians should advocate and educate the public, particularly while there are significant strategic interests in among tech apps, investors and insurance companies in shaping the marketplace for consumers.

In this episode Catherine Saldutti, founder of EduChange, an innovative EdTech firm that is re-engineering formal secondary academic systems for increased equity describes the values and motivations that drive her team's design of The Integrated Science Program. This program creates the conditions for expert STEM learning. She discusses the power of systems thinking, circular economic principles, sustainable practices and the value of the unknown, creativity and a focus on process. In this episode we philosophize about what technology is, how it is impacting us, we discuss its implications for teaching and learning and for adolescent development and we draw connections to psychoanalytic theory.

For additional reading please see:

Study on Social Media ad revenue earned from teens in 2022: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295337

How to ban phones effectively [in schools]: https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/how-ban-phones-effectively

The 2024 National Educational Technology Plan: https://tech.ed.gov/files/2024/01/NETP24.pdf

By Sarah Lewis: The Rise: Creativity, The Gift of Failure and the Search for Mastery: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Creativity-Failure-Search-Mastery/dp/1451629249

Common Sense Media’s Impact of AI on Kids: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ai

EDSAFE AI Alliance: https://www.edsafeai.org/

EduChange on Assessment

https://educhange.com/functional-assessment/

Dr. Stein discusses his work consulting with executives and teams as a psychodynamic strategy consultant. He discusses the impact psychoanalysis can have on people and dynamics between people within business contexts. He centers decision making and caring in his work and muses about AI and the future from the perspective of the C-suite advisor role. His work is ultimately about how psychodynamic strategy consulting can be used as an intervention for social good and business success at scale.

Introduction

2:58 — Professional Trajectory + Origin Story

7:33 — From Practice to Deployment

8:10 — Call to Retire Idea of Applied Psychoanalysis

11:25 — Considering the Social in Working with Leaders

13:35 — Differences Between Clinical Psychoanalysis, Conventional Consulting, & Psychodynamic Consulting

18:03 — Value + Benefits of a Psychoanalytic Approach with Executives and Teams: Creating Optionality

23:12 — Scaling Expectations + Meeting Goals

25:09 — Organizations as Human Ecosystems

26:03 — Approaching Varieties of Problems + Issues Across an Array of Practice Areas

27:47 — The Nodal Axis in Multiple Domains: Focused Delivery of Expertise in Decision-Making

29:14 — Human Architecture + Psycho-Social Dimensions in Cybersecurity

31:38 — Multidisciplinary Collaborations in Fraud Matters

33:11 — Psychoanalysis as a Technology to Solve Complicated Problems: Overcoming Challenges + Leveraging Value

35:30 — Building Solutions + Mitigating Risks in Socially Responsible + Commercially Profitable Technologies

40:05 — What Will the Future Hold? Barriers + Upsides to Bringing Psychological Expertise into the Technology Space at Scale

44:33 — AI: Risks, Benefits, Potentials

46:15 — A Critical Assessment of AI as a Project to Replicate + Computerize Human Thought

50:10 — Countering the Deficiency of Care in Developing Technological Applications & Services: Balancing the Psychological + Philosophical

52:25 — More on AI: Implicit Disdain for Humanity as a Driving Force

55:32 — Adverse Consequences of Divestiture of Human Connection

58:02 — How to Course-Correct: Technology Issues are Fundamentally Human not Technological

1:00 — The Value of Care: Shared Moral Responsibilities for Harms & Benefits

1:02:42 — Concluding Remarks + Calls to Action

You can find Dr. Stein at: Dolus Advisors: www.dolusadvisors.com/

LinkedIn (individual): www.linkedin.com/in/alexandersteinphd/

LinkedIn (company): https://www.linkedin.com/company/dolus-advisors/

Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexanderstein/#1c06a3246220

The Dolus Advisors Briefing (a periodic newsletter providing analysis, counsel, and firm updates): https://www.dolusadvisors.com/subscribe + https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7025507656970694656/?displayConfirmation=true

Morgan Venable, inventor, product developer and former Ideo, Google, Microsoft and Amazon senior tech product developer discusses his current projects including his work on the Datahand, an ergonomic keyboard that prevents and heals repetitive stress injuries from keyboarding and the future of tech including its impact on our mental health and social landscape.

Dr. Paul Slovic, decision scientist and accomplished academic and researcher discusses human decision making, judgements, and risk with an emphasis on the role of feelings as applied to genocide, war, smoking, advertising, addiction and nuclear arms.

In this episode we interview Stephen Cognetta, CEO of Exponent, a firm that helps tech workers land their dream job. We discuss his career development including running HackMentalHealth, the world's largest mental health hackathon, his thoughts on the future of tech and the role psychoanalysis might play in helping tech workers to develop.

This the a short trailer describing the focus of season 2 of Technology and the Mind. In this season we broaden our discussions by interviewing leaders in the tech sector, techno ethicists, business consultants, venture capitalists, politicians, philosophers and academics in dialogue with psychoanalysts about consumer tech products and services and the impacts these may have on our minds, relationships and society. We will consider the unconscious dynamics we may be participating in individually and socially via technology and whether or not these are important to analyze.