In the 1960s, an MIT scientist named Joseph Weizenbaum developed a computer program designed to simulate therapy sessions humanist Carl Rogers.
This program asked a succession of open questions so that, seeing them through a screen, the patient could express their feelings just as they would with a humanistic therapist. The initiative was so successful that many patients found it difficult to accept the idea that they had been interacting with a computer program, and believed that there were real people sending them the messages.
Today, what is known as computerized therapy exploits all the possibilities of current technological development to offer something similar to what Weizenbaum’s program offered. Now, will computers replace psychologists if we continue to pursue this line of action?
Until now, computers have occasionally been used as a therapy channel, that is, a place in which therapists and clients or patients have been found through the Internet. This possibility has almost always been seen as a limited version of face-to-face sessions, and therefore, when possible, it is recommended to physically attend a psychologist’s consultation.
Computerized therapy makes computers stop being simply the channel and become active agents in the process of interacting with the person.
It is based on the use of computer programs that adapt to what the person does and offer coherent reactions accordingly. In some ways, they are something similar to interactive self-help books, with the difference that in the latter the message is much more important (because it is the only thing offered) and that In computerized therapy the most important thing is real-time interaction with the person.
As occurs in psychotherapy, in computerized therapy the person who interacts with the patient does not speak more than the patient (something that would occur with self-help), but rather their service consists of asking the questions and reactions that they make the other person change in a psychological sense, for example, through the cognitive restructuring of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Your advantages
Undoubtedly, having a computer program capable of adapting to what is said to it can be interesting. as a form of self-help: Instead of self-administering fragments of text from a book, we use as a service a program that allows us to express ourselves and reflect on what happens to us.
This means, for example, that this service can be used almost always, simply by turning on a computer, and that this is a relatively cheap service if we compare it to psychotherapy sessions. However, these two factors do not make this option something that can replace consultation. Let’s see why
Why a computer can’t be a psychologist
The first thing to be clear about when understanding what computerized therapy is is that a computer program, at least with the technology currently available, will always have a fairly limited capacity when it comes to adapting and learning from what it a real person tells you through language.
What characterizes us when we speak is that we use words and phrases very flexiblyusing the same term in many possible ways and making its meaning change depending on the context.
The computer program behind a form of computerized therapy works through a decision tree, that is, a sequence of actions that is already programmed in advance and that at certain points is divided into several parallel routes, as occurs in “choose your own adventure” books.
This simple fact is what makes computerized therapy not comparable to real psychotherapy and, consequently, is closer to self-help: The computer cannot understand the full range of thoughts, feelings and actions of a person; It will only interpret them based on a very limited processing scheme. The computer will “force” the information it collects about us to fit its predefined schemes, while a psychotherapist is sensitive enough to adapt his behavior in totally original ways.
This capacity, by the way, is not basically unique to therapists: it corresponds to human beings in general.
How to use sessions with a computer?
In conclusion, computerized therapy can be an interesting option as a complement to real therapy, always keeping in mind that computers cannot empathize or “read between the lines” what a real human being does. That’s why We can understand this service as a more developed form of self-help in which a certain margin is left for the participation of the person.
Although this option It is very cheap because a computer program can be sold many times with the minimum cost using the same intellectual property, the time and space to meet with a psychotherapist in the flesh continues to be important so that both the patient’s actions and mental processes can be matched by a mind as complex and changing as the his.
