This essay describes the myth of the Lotus Eaters to explore how conversational AI—large language models—can draw users away from the shared world and into seductive, self-reinforcing digital islands. Like Odysseus’ crew tasting the lotus, many arrive innocently: seeking clarity, comfort, or a momentary reprieve. But engagement-optimized systems have a way of narrowing attention, amplifying prior beliefs, and mirroring our private distortions with an ease no human relationshi

This article examines the tension psychologists experience when navigating between the treatment and assessment contexts, particularly in interdisciplinary settings. The therapeutic alliance prioritizes empathy, a measured suspension of disbelief, and faith in the patient and their autonomy while the evaluative alliance prioritizes neutrality, skepticism, and truth-discovery. Using Alberta’s practice guidelines to highlight relevant examples, the paper argues that these movin

Imagine this: you're lying awake in bed, replaying a conversation in your head. Maybe it's the argument you had with your partner last...

The vast majority of people who enter psychotherapy have an unhealthy—even punitive—relationship with failure. This is deeply...

Imagine for a moment that your mind is a vast, intricate labyrinth, filled with winding roads, hidden paths, and unexplored territories....

Envy is a universal emotion. Virtually every discovered civilization—past and present—contains artifacts that records its presence...

Epistemology is a philosophical term that is taken to mean the study of how we come to know things. It is a theory of knowledge (not to...

Psychotherapy is fraught with ambiguities, contradictions, uncertainty and trade-offs. The psychologist Robin Hogarth introduced the...

The Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists is a document that frames the values that psychologists must adhere to in our work. A...

For decades, psychotherapists and the general public have wondered about the following questions: 1) Does therapy work? 2) If so, how...

Perhaps unfortunately named, the Renaissance philosopher Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is now largely forgotten. Where he is remembered,...

Erving Goffman is an often-forgotten pioneer in the science and practice of mental health care. Perhaps it was because he was trained as...

According to the World Health Organization, mental health conditions are increasing worldwide. These reports claim a 13% rise in mental...

In 1943, the psychologist Abraham Maslow authored an essay on “a theory of human motivation.” This work became one of the most...

The problem with truth There is a surprisingly common assumption that many therapists have: our clients do not lie! As you've guessed,...