People
are increasingly turning to psychiatric apps these days for all kinds of mental
health issues. Among other things, these
apps help to monitor psychological symptoms, give advice and counseling, teach
relaxation exercises, give cognitive behavioral therapy, and alert friends and
family members in support systems when a person is having a crisis. There are many concerns about the
effectiveness of these apps, leaving aside any concerns that some people may
have for the whole concept of using a kind of intimate contact with complex
machines in order to improve mental health.
In
the past, there has been an article in my column about potential negative
consequences of using Skype as a vehicle for obtaining psychotherapy from a
therapist. But the number of apps that
create different kinds of interaction within supposed therapy situations
between computers and clients has proliferated enormously. It would be beyond the scope of this column
to do a systematic review of even a few of these apps. Such a review has been conducted often in
other places and continues to be conducted on an ongoing basis. Instead, the focus of this article will be a
continuation of an ongoing general discussion about the intense interaction of
humans and computers with a focus on the use of these machines for mental
health issues.
For
those of you who have read this column regularly, you will know that a
recurring theme has been that the continual use of computers creates sensory
distortion, which, in and of itself, can lead to mental health problems. The computer screen is an experiential
vacuum, something that numbs a user as a result of its smooth frictionless empty
surfaces and its intrinsic capacity to separate a user from all the activity on
which he is focusing behind the screen.
At the same time, many of the digital data and images that streak across
the screen create tension pockets of overstimulation. So the computer environment is a self-contained
vacuum and tension-pocket environment, alternating understimulation and
overstimulation, thus creating sensory distortion and making the user
alternately numb and jaded. Independent
of specific content, the computer environment by itself can create mental
health issues.
And
apart from the computer as an environment, the computer as a complex behavioral
entity can create problems. Particularly
with children, but also with adults, computers can begin to replace humans as
sources of both mirroring and modeling for users. The user starts to see himself through the
“eyes” of the computer and, furthermore, starts to unconsciously imitate the
behavior, the activity of the computer.
In the process of unconsciously imitating the behavior of the computer,
the user starts to become more like a robot or more like an avatar. He unconsciously
imitates the processes occurring in the computer.
So as
a medium, the computer creates such sensory distortion and such inappropriate
channels for mirroring and modeling, that it stimulates pathological states of
mind and pathological behavior. This is
true even as the user attempts to heal his psychological disturbances with the
psychiatric apps. And even here, many
independent mental health workers are themselves not convinced of any positive
effects from these apps. The one thing
that can be affirmed is that the content of these apps is so filled with
defined discrete stimuli - questions, directions, and descriptions – that it
may be easy to absorb it cognitively, but not necessarily so easy to absorb it
on a more primitive emotional level. It
is this emotional level where absorption has to take place in order to truly
heal a person’s sense of self.
It
may sound old-fashioned, but to heal from deep emotional problems, a person
needs another human, a professional psychotherapist. And preferably a therapist with whom a client
can be in the same space rather than a therapist that a person communicates
with over the phone or through Skype.
The therapist has to be experienced as a total sensory entity in order
to be able to provide the sensory grounding that a patient needs, while he goes
through the personal transformation process that is needed in order to
heal. The physical process of the
therapist’s behavior is like a full affirmation of a healing reality, something
to which a person can anchor while he tries to deal with his distorted feelings
and thoughts.
But
people today are obsessed with apps of all kinds, so why not be obsessed with
psychiatric apps as well? The obsession
to interact with apps in general is basically founded on the craving to
interact with and become more like the technology that is being used
today. For more and more people,
becoming more and more like a robot or more and more like an avatar is the only
the way that they feel they can defend themselves against the sensory
distortion that surrounds them in their living environment. On another level, it becomes a very
meaningful way they can identify with and become more like a complex behavioral
entity that seems to be impervious to organic perishability and that looks like
it could just go on existing forever.
But this is a false immortality, because neither a robot nor an avatar
has the coherent organic consciousness or the coherent sense of self that are
the hallmarks of a human feeling vibrantly alive. What good does it do to go on existing
forever (which neither a robot nor an avatar actually do anyway), if a person
can’t feel vibrantly alive in his eternal existence? Apps in general are a false road to true
human immortality.
And
as long as we haven’t yet found a provable way of achieving immortality in this
life, let us at least try to make these years that we do have as filled with
vibrant life as we can. And let us use
these vibrant life experiences as a foundation for making and receiving good life
imprints and then preserving some of our imprints to form a meaningful
surrogate immortality.
And
let us use the organic healing power of good psychotherapy with a real live
human therapist to help a person arrive at a state of mind where he is capable
of fully experiencing and participating in a rich vibrant life. A rich healing primary experience that leads
to rich primary experiences for everyday life.
Psychiatric apps are a false road to organic human healing. Let us use people and not machines to make us
psychologically well.
No comments:
Post a Comment