3 ms·

No. The status quo is poor people talk to social contacts (eg, friends, family, church community, etc) while rich people talk to professionals (eg, therapists)

No. The status quo is poor people talk to social contacts (eg, friends, family, church community, etc) while rich people talk to professionals (eg, therapists). This is a change in that poor people are being moved to a professionally manufactured tool, which isn't necessarily an improvement -- it's just replacing an established, ad hoc system with an unknown technical one. There's every possibility that it would make the situation worse and it's hubris on the part of the medical community that a tool built by them is better than informal therapists.

webmaven 9y ago
> The status quo is poor people talk to social contacts (eg, friends, family, church community, etc) while rich people talk to professionals (eg, therapists). For some people (particularly those who have large extended families), that is indeed the status quo, but for others not so much. If your home environment is not supportive (you can imagine responses ranging from "everybody gets depressed sometimes, just work harder and things will get better" to "grow a pair"), or even abusive, and you aren't in a position to get professional help, a tool like this (though given various other concerns, perhaps not this specific one) could very well be the only alternative to no treatment at all. What comes to mind though, isn't an automated therapist per-se, but something closer to the "Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" (from the novel The Diamond Age).
WalterSear 9y ago
No. Everyone talks to social contacts. CBT therapy is something entirely different. Parts of CBT and DBT are skill training in emotional and cognitive behavioural regulation, that people have not mastered sufficiently on their own. You can teach these skills, and I'd argue they should be mandatory classes on them through middle school. IMHO, they are the most valuable skills that you can learn, bar none. >There's every possibility that it would make the situation worse and it's hubris on the part of the medical community that a tool built by them is better than informal therapists. There's hubris in your assumption of how therapy works, or in the tools it incorporates today. This application was released, along with a study demonstrating it's efficacy. It's not the first of it's type - it's just the chatbot format of a self help book. There will be much better versions, I'm sure, over time.
danbolt 9y ago
I think there's more to therapy than having a good support or peers, although expressing yourself and having someone there to acknowledge you can undoubtedly be very cathartic. Or, you might talk with friends about what's bugging you, but they're not going to necessarily explore how your feelings relate to external factors, or ask questions to help you understand yourself. A therapist's job is very different from the role of a friend.

webmaven 9y ago

> The status quo is poor people talk to social contacts (eg, friends, family, church community, etc) while rich people talk to professionals (eg, therapists). For some people (particularly those who have large extended families), that is indeed the status quo, but for others not so much. If your home environment is not supportive (you can imagine responses ranging from "everybody gets depressed sometimes, just work harder and things will get better" to "grow a pair"), or even abusive, and you aren't in a position to get professional help, a tool like this (though given various other concerns, perhaps not this specific one) could very well be the only alternative to no treatment at all. What comes to mind though, isn't an automated therapist per-se, but something closer to the "Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" (from the novel The Diamond Age).

WalterSear 9y ago

No. Everyone talks to social contacts. CBT therapy is something entirely different. Parts of CBT and DBT are skill training in emotional and cognitive behavioural regulation, that people have not mastered sufficiently on their own. You can teach these skills, and I'd argue they should be mandatory classes on them through middle school. IMHO, they are the most valuable skills that you can learn, bar none. >There's every possibility that it would make the situation worse and it's hubris on the part of the medical community that a tool built by them is better than informal therapists. There's hubris in your assumption of how therapy works, or in the tools it incorporates today. This application was released, along with a study demonstrating it's efficacy. It's not the first of it's type - it's just the chatbot format of a self help book. There will be much better versions, I'm sure, over time.

danbolt 9y ago

I think there's more to therapy than having a good support or peers, although expressing yourself and having someone there to acknowledge you can undoubtedly be very cathartic. Or, you might talk with friends about what's bugging you, but they're not going to necessarily explore how your feelings relate to external factors, or ask questions to help you understand yourself. A therapist's job is very different from the role of a friend.