Chatbot Therapy

A Critical Analysis of AI Mental Health Treatment

Eoin Fullam (University of Birkbeck)

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Hardback

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English

Routledge
30 June 2025

Counselling & advice services; Psychoanalytical theory (Freudian psychology); Psychological methodology; Psychotherapy; Artificial intelligence

Series: Concepts for Critical Psychology

Chatbot Therapy: A Critical Analysis of AI Mental Health Treatment 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.

By: Eoin Fullam (University of Birkbeck)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
Weight: 480g
ISBN: 9781032957616
ISBN 10: 1032957611
Series: Concepts for Critical Psychology
Pages: 162
Publication Date: 30 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Series editor preface. Introduction. 1. Computational Conditions. 2. Automated Conversations. 3. Treatment Methods. 4. Economic Imperatives. 5. Conclusion: Invention is the Mother of Necessity.

Eoin Fullam is a lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. His research is interdisciplinary, drawing on critical theory, science and technology studies, and psychoanalytic theory to analyse contemporary technical society and mental health. Eoin’s primary research concern is to explore the ways in which human subjectivity is constructed, produced, or influenced by technological interventions.