Woebot may sit at the outer rim of digital mental health technologies, but we can see the shape and trajectory it implies for understanding mental health, the care relation and, beyond that, the person generally. Where the CBT-AI combination sets up a relentlessly positive artificial other—an interlocutor that is never awkward or demanding, and becomes naturalised as ‘what I like’—real-world relationships are bound to be found unsatisfactory.
To be sensibly upbeat about what is coming round the corner is a big ask. Much easier is to sum it up and say, ‘It’s not my fault. We have been cheated’.
…the acceleration of net worth enjoyed by the digital czars is unlike anything history has ever seen: Musk’s net worth increased by US$25 billion in a single day in March 2021.
Feeding into this inchoate state of transgression is a cross-current of vectors: our knowledge of impending climate catastrophe, the disavowed madness of the economic system, the danger and transformative power of COVID-19, galloping I-centredness, social fragmentations, and more. This welter of concerns raises the deepest anxiety.
For Trump, it is better to bring the whole country down than to experience the private horror show that would be his lot if he were to be publicly rejected in the forthcoming election.
Didn't get that job, relationship breakdown, bad loss in the semi-final? These kinds of losses can now colloquially be described using the 'T' word. No longer unusual or noteworthy, 'trauma' has become common usage for the narration of personal distress.
Crispin tells a friend, 'I feel bad, really horrible'. A little up-ended, Ashley hesitates, then replies, 'I don't know what to say. I can't think of anything useful to tell you. One thing I do know is I feel very uncomfortable. Hey, just what do you want me to say?'
The Productivity Commission examines 'mental health' Mental health is a hot topic in the media, in public policy, in elite sport, in the armed forces and in the legal system. Children, like young adults, are said to be vulnerable. One in five of the population are reported to have experienced, or are expected to experience, a mental-health problem. No one is immune, even tycoons and celebrities: in 2018 James Packer was reported to have taken…
Israel is recognised as a world leader in the cyber-security industry. A recent documentary claimed the industry now has so much domestic cachet that many parents dream that their children will launch their own start-ups in this burgeoning trade. Forgo traditionally prestigious occupations, old-world careers like medicine and dentistry; young minds should be applauded for recognising, and seeking to exploit, what the market most wants.
Relations with officials began formally in northern Pakistan. Almost always, this stiffness quickly eased into smiles and good spirits. We were two independent travellers. In all but a few places, there were no other Westerners. This made us novelties - distractions whose presence prompted officials, and locals more generally, to do what they do so well: be the benevolent host. Even serious procedures - being registered as a foreigner by a district administrator; finding that…
