The Question of Trust in Therapeutic Online Interactions

The presentation addresses the central question of trust in online therapy sessions by presenting selected findings from a pilot study. The exploratory study aimed to examine the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the psychoanalytic treatment of children and adolescents. Due to the high risk of infection, direct contact between patients and their therapists - usually considered crucial - became a potential threat with the onset of the pandemic. In order to prevent disruptions to psychotherapeutic treatment, the use of video or telephone communication became an essential alternative.

In the study, adolescents and young adults undergoing treatment were asked about their experiences with changes in therapeutic settings resulting from the pandemic. Technology-based communication in psychotherapy raises new questions concerning trust in the therapeutic relationship, for example, the consequences of the absent body in video conferences, the perception and experience of digital reality and digital therapeutic space, and the dependence of both therapist and patient on a third party: the technology. One interviewed patient articulated this issue of trust as follows: “…you never know, okay, what Google is going to use it for…”

Against this background, selected excerpts from interviews with adolescents and young adults participating in the study are used to explore the topic of trust in therapeutic online interactions.

^{Prof. Dr. Susanne Benzel, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Department of Social Work and Health, and psychoanalyst for children, adolescents and young adults in private practise, Frankfurt am Main, Germany susanne.benzel@fra-uas.de}

The Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game is a tabletop wargame produced by Games Workshop; whilst often dismissed by non-participants as ‘nerdy adults playing with toy soldiers’, the game is actually heavily skill-based and lends itself well to competitive play. There is a national league with multiple events every weekend and there are over 1000 active players in the UK. These events often have expensive prizes which, combined with the league standings, ensure that there is strong incentive to win games and win events, but at what cost? Games Workshop’s Rules Manual for the game opens with a Code of Conduct, composed of two “Cardinal Rules” and 16 “Important Principles” - One of these Cardinal Rules is “Always Tell the Truth and Never Cheat” and several of the Important Principles are focused around the concept of trust and integrity between players. And so, event organisers find themselves in the complicated situation of trying to moderate a friendly game that requires trust and honesty in a competitive situation which may incentivise players to cheat and lie. Recent events have brought the importance of this Code of Conduct to the fore, with controversy raised over players agreeing intentional draws, which many social media users have called match-fixing, leading to feelings of anger and toxicity in the community. Feelings which are only exacerbated given that these complaints are often posted anonymously and based on second-hand reports, leading to conflicting versions of ‘the truth’ and confusion over which information can really be trusted. This paper will explore the nature of trust within the community of a game based on Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the core message of which is the importance of resisting the urge to be corrupted by the evil of The Ring, however tempting the personal benefits may seem.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) content is now part and parcel of the information ecosystem, disrupting digital media production and amplifying concerns of falling trust in the news. Media organisations use GenAI to automate summarisation, create illustrations or even produce AI-powered virtual newsreaders, impacting audiences’ perceptions of trusted sources of news. Public Service Media (PSM), such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), face the challenge of educating and informing the public while maintaining their trust in the context of rapid technological innovation.

This paper presents findings from 18 semi-structured interviews with young adults aged 18-24, which investigated how GenAI affects young audiences' trust in the news and how their lived experiences influence their encounters with AI and the news. The overarching research question asked: “What are the implications of AI generated content for the trust relationship between the BBC and its audiences?”. Insights from interviews led to a creative workshop, where 5 young participants used GenAI to simulate how it might be used in news production. As news media trust research often struggles with definitions of the concept of trust itself, this approach enabled understanding of young people’s conceptualisation of trust and trustworthiness in their news consumption.

Fieldwork revealed that audience trust is shaped by both affective and systemic factors. Participants’ attitudes towards AI in news reporting were marked by distrust and keen awareness of bias and misinformation. Findings highlight that young adults’ trust in news organisations and in GenAI is context-dependent and shaped by past experiences and their own use of AI. Significantly, young participants concluded that their trust in the news is less affected by journalists’ use of AI itself but more so by the means with which news organisations disclose such practices. To trust the news, young audiences value transparency and want disclosure when AI is used.

Media panics seem to be as old as humankind itself. Scholars find traces of such a media panic in Socrates’s Phaedrus, for example, in which the philosopher speaks about the diminishing effects writing has on memory. Yet, across the past two decades, the density and intensity of such moral outcries against media-technological innovations have increased exponentially and in line with the speed of these innovations themselves. In this respect, the phase of whistleblowers of the late 2010s and early 2020s, implicating the big-tech platforms, is now followed by governments starting to act upon a widespread public sentiment that has proven ripe for prohibiting social media use for children up into their late teens. These prohibitions find energetic support by many parents who have become anti-digital, mobile media activists on their children’s behalf (if not according to many of these children’s wishes).

But what exactly is it with, in and about digital media that adults are so worried about and how do these worries affect their own lives, as well as those of their children and families? In a narrative-biographical interview project, we asked 15 parents in a Nordic country to tell us about their experiences and concerns regarding their children’s digital lives. This paper presents central findings from their interviews.

Overall, what shows in the materials sighted so far is that the individualising logic of the digital, in its commodified form, has a strong tendency to isolate and render solipsistic a developmental process that Bion (1962) called “reverie”. Parents, who want to comfort their kids, facilitate, or at least, condone, screen-based “reverie” and then look on, melancholically, before turning to their own screens for containment. The widespread activism of the present moment, it appears, is one by which parents seek to save themselves.