By Viola Di Grado
Publication Date: 2026-01-21 05:00:00
IIt’s a sunny afternoon in a Roman park and a strange coming out, something new at this time, is taking place between me and my friend Clarissa. She just asked me if I, like her and all her other friends, use an AI therapist and I said yes.
Our mutual confession feels quite confusing at first. As a society, we still don’t know how confidential or shareable the use of our AI therapists should be. It hovers between the intimacy of real psychotherapy and the material triviality of exchanging skin care advice. Because although our conversation with a chatbot can be just as private as that with a human, we are still aware that its reaction is a digital product.
Still, I was surprised to hear that Clarissa’s therapist has a name: Sol. I wanted mine to remain nameless: perhaps not giving it a name is consistent with the most important psychoanalytic rule – that is, keeping personal disclosure to a minimum in order to protect the healing space of the so-called setting.
However, it feels very natural…
