A Note From The CAI Co-Chairs
From the CAI Co-Chairs
Todd Essig, PhD and Amy Levy, PsyD
The “CAI Report” has landed. Welcome to its first edition!
Like the CAI itself, this newsletter is built on a commitment to inclusivity. It aims to present diverse perspectives and experiences regarding the intersections of AI with psychoanalytic thinking and practices. Some of the voices you encounter here will embrace using AI, sharing excitement about its potential to extend and deepen clinical, educational, and theoretical developments in psychoanalysis. Others will be skeptical, dubious, or even angry about the often unacknowledged dark sides of AI, seeing it as an unwanted intruder into our thinking and work. There will also be voices that contain both perspectives. We aim to represent the broad spectrum of feelings about how emerging technologies influence psychoanalysis and its concerns: self-experience, intimate relationships, desire, human development, organizational life, and culture at large.
As CAI co-chairs, we not only support diverse perspectives but also embody that diversity in our respective points of view. One of us (TE) is committed to exploring the promise and peril of the new experiences AI affords its users, framing this exploration as part of what he calls a “psychoanalytic activism for the AI age.” He views the interactive possibilities AI affords as unprecedented, sui generis experiences requiring understanding on their own terms. The other (AL) focuses on AI as a new container for human psychic data, altering how we experience life and the nature of those experiences. She emphasizes the need to attend carefully to the impact of AI as a container—both as a way to foreground human mentation and to create space for processing feelings of loss.
One thing we share is an appreciation for how the CAI Report endeavors to look unflinchingly into the eye of the storm as AI reshapes our patients, our clinical and theoretical work, and the longevity of our profession. We recognize that psychoanalysis must formulate a grounded perspective to contribute meaningfully to the broader cultural conversation about AI. Both of us believe that the future currently being written needs psychoanalytic input to align optimally with human values and needs. The CAI Report plays a central role in offering this psychoanalytic perspective to the wider culture.
In these “pages,” we will discuss, debate, and share insights about why AI is being created and adopted, how its development affects human psychology, and what recommendations we might offer for living with AI. We are excited to share our thoughts with you, support contributions from other CAI members, and welcome ideas and input from readers. We all need to be part of this process—grappling with developments, mourning losses, and dreaming the future together.
