Chatbot Therapy: A Critical Analysis of AI Mental Health Treatment

Chatbot Therapy: A Critical Analysis of AI Mental HealthTreatment examines automated mental health therapy in the form of therapy chatbots, taking a critical analysis of this new technology.

Drawing on historical and emerging scholarship on critical theory, science and technology studies, and critical psychology, this project investigates the social life of mental health therapy applications. The book unearths the assumptions about subjectivity, consciousness, and mental health that underpin these applications, looking predominantly at Wysa and Woebot, but also at other chatbot and non-chatbot mental health applications. It explores the historical emergence of this technology, the technical and design aspects of chatbot therapy apps, the therapeutic methods employed, and the economic context within which therapy chatbots have developed. It centres around the questions of what it means to automate mental health treatment and of how automated interventions alter our understanding of mental suffering and well-being.

This highly topical and interdisciplinary study will be of great interest to postgraduate students and researchers in the fields of critical psychology, mental health, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, science and technology studies, and critical theory. It will also be relevant reading for mental health professionals.