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The Center for Psychoanalysis and Technology

Conversations with psychoanalysts about technology and its impact on our minds.

Technology and the Mind is a podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection between contemporary psychoanalytic theory and consumer technology use. Each month we interview a practicing psychoanalyst who will explore and apply what we know about key psychoanalytic concepts of the mind and relationships to technology use cases. We will get underneath the conscious, obvious dimensions of these issues and we hope to stimulate your imagination and help you to become more curious about your relationship to the technology products and services you use. We hope you will join us on Technology and the Mind.

All Episodes

Technology and the Mind, A Podcast

6. The Importance of Professional Advocacy for Mental Health Treatment Choice in the Times of Ubiquitous Technology

In this episode Dr. Linda Michaels, Chair and Co-Founder of the Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAn) discusses grassroots efforts to provide public information and advocacy for therapies of depth, insight and relationship. She discusses the role of marketing as a major source of information to the public about treatment options for mental health. Further she emphasizes that psychoanalysts and psychodynamically-oriented clinicians should advocate and educate the public, particularly while there are significant strategic interests in among tech apps, investors and insurance companies in shaping the marketplace for consumers.

April 2, 2024

5. Are the Kids Alright? Motivations, Decisions and Values Embedded in Educational and Consumer Technologies

In this episode Catherine Saldutti, founder of EduChange, an innovative EdTech firm that is re-engineering formal secondary academic systems for increased equity describes the values and motivations that drive her team’s design of The Integrated Science Program. This program creates the conditions for expert STEM learning. She discusses the power of systems thinking, circular economic principles, sustainable practices and the value of the unknown, creativity and a focus on process. In this episode we philosophize about what technology is, how it is impacting us, we discuss its implications for teaching and learning and for adolescent development and we draw connections to psychoanalytic theory.

For additional reading please see:
Study on Social Media ad revenue earned from teens in 2022: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295337

How to ban phones effectively [in schools]: https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/how-ban-phones-effectively

The 2024 National Educational Technology Plan: https://tech.ed.gov/files/2024/01/NETP24.pdf

By Sarah Lewis: The Rise: Creativity, The Gift of Failure and the Search for Mastery: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Creativity-Failure-Search-Mastery/dp/1451629249

Common Sense Media’s Impact of AI on Kids: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ai

EDSAFE AI Alliance: https://www.edsafeai.org/

EduChange on Assessment
https://educhange.com/functional-assessment/

March 11, 2024

4. Dr. Alexander Stein on Psychoanalysis as a Technology for Positive Change and Influence at Scale

Dr. Stein discusses his work consulting with executives and teams as a psychodynamic strategy consultant. He discusses the impact psychoanalysis can have on people and dynamics between people within business contexts. He centers decision making and caring in his work and muses about AI and the future from the perspective of the C-suite advisor role. His work is ultimately about how psychodynamic strategy consulting can be used as an intervention for social good and business success at scale.<iframe src=”https://player.resonaterecordings.com/embed?uuid=0dab40cf-3aa6-4fd2-8bc1-54853d0c5184&accentColor=13,180,206&backgroundColor=242,242,242″ width=”100%” height=”155″ frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true” allow=”encrypted-media”></iframe>

January 24, 2024

3. Morgan Venable on big tech, its consequences and the future

Morgan Venable, inventor, product developer and former Ideo, Google, Microsoft and Amazon senior tech product developer discusses his current projects including his work on the Datahand, an ergonomic keyboard that prevents and heals repetitive stress injuries from keyboarding and the future of tech including its impact on our mental health and social landscape.

December 5, 2023

2. Dr. Paul Slovic on Risk, Judgment, Feelings and Compassion, Technology and Social and Political Applications

Dr. Paul Slovic, decision scientist and accomplished academic and researcher discusses human decision making, judgements, and risk with an emphasis on the role of feelings as applied to genocide, war, smoking, advertising, addiction and nuclear arms.

November 16, 2023

About

The Center for Psychoanalysis and Technology was founded to provide a space to engage psychoanalysts in conversations about consumer technology including how it impacts and is impacted by our psyches. While many people in business, technology, ethics, and social sciences have been interested in these issues, psychoanalysis, with its emphasis on the unconscious dynamics within the individual, between individuals and within groups is uniquely positioned to enter the dialogue. The Center is a place to begin and continue the conversation. 

Latest Articles

Recent Publications and Media Mentions

Nicolle ZapienPsychoanalytic Institute of Northern Californianicolle.zapien@gmail.comDr. Nicolle Zapien is a candidate at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC), located in San Francisco, California in the US. She is a member of PINC’s ethics committee and its visiting scholar committee. Dr. Zapien is the founder of The Center for Psychoanalysis and Technology, a space for conversations at the intersection of psychoanalysis and consumer technology and the founder and host of the podcast, Technology and the Mind, which can be found at https://centerforpsychoanalysisandtech.com/episodes/. She works with adults and couples inprivate practice in Oakland, CA. Technology-mediated relating: A mass seduction AbstractTeleanalysis
European Journal of Psychoanalysis

2022