WCSPP Film Night: A.I. Artificial Intelligence
2 CE Hours available to NYS LCSWs, LMSWs, LPs, LMFTs, LMHCs, LCATs, Psychologists and PsyDs
Watch the Movie before the Event – – then Join Us to Discuss!
You can stream the movie on many platforms including Google Play, Paramount+ and YouTube.
In our increasingly uncertain world, Steven Spielberg’s (2001) prescient film “AI: Artificial Intelligence” raises essential questions about the human condition as it depicts a society in which technologies have become so advanced that it’s hard to tell the difference between robots and humans. A modern Pinocchio story, it centers around a robot boy who has been programmed to love. Imprinted onto a human mother who ultimately abandons him, the boy sets off on a perilous journey hoping to become real.
As we grapple today with the humanization of machines and the mechanization of humans, the movie illustrates what can happen when the creations we’ve made to serve us threaten our being and identity. Through the lens of attachment, loss, fantasy and memory, we see the pain of perpetual longing, the search to heal unbearable aloneness, and the thin line between object usage and object love. It asks what it means to be authentically human in a vast, timeless universe, and suggests what might be truly reparative within the therapeutic relationship.
Judith Schweiger Levy, PhD, is a Faculty and Supervisor, WCSPP; Training and Supervising Analyst, Contemporary Freudian Society; Faculty, Supervisor, Manhattan Institute of Psychoanalysis; and Supervisor, Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy. Dr. Levy has a Certificate in Psychoanalysis, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and Contemporary Freudian Society.
Artificial intelligence is transforming behavioral healthcare. AI is being used to conduct client risk assessments, assist people in crisis, monitor clients’ status, strengthen prevention efforts, record clinical notes, identify systemic biases in the delivery of behavioral health services, provide clinical education and supervision, and predict practitioner burnout and service outcomes, among other uses. This training will examine cutting-edge ethical issues related to clinicians’ use of AI; apply relevant ethical standards; and outline elements of a strategy for practitioners’ ethical use of AI.
Join Dr. Frederic Reamer as he examines ethical issues and risks related to informed consent and client autonomy; privacy and confidentiality; transparency; potential client misdiagnosis; client abandonment; client surveillance; plagiarism, dishonesty, fraud, and misrepresentation; algorithmic bias and unfairness; and use of evidence-based AI tools.
Frederic Reamer, PhD, is on the faculty of the School of Social Work, Rhode Island College. His teaching and research focus on professional ethics, criminal justice, mental health, health care, and public policy. Dr. Reamer received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has served as a social worker in correctional and mental health settings. He chaired the national task force that wrote the Code of Ethics adopted by the National Association of Social Workers in and served on the code revision task force. Dr. Reamer also chaired the national task force sponsored by NASW, the Association of Social Work Boards, Council on Social Work Education, and Clinical Social Work Association that developed standards governing social workers’ use of technology in professional practice.
Dr. Reamer serves as associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Work and served as editor of the Journal of Social Work Education. He also served on the State of Rhode Island Parole Board for 24 years and has been the ethics instructor for the Providence (RI) Police Department Academy since 2012.
Overview
In this talk, Dr. Pilar Jennings will explore her decades long relationship to Tibetan Buddhism and its influence on her psychoanalytic practice. With an emphasis on the tradition’s shared efforts to restore our contact with feminine aspects of the psyche – intuitive knowing, empathy, and receptivity – she will consider how the Buddhist and psychoanalytic traditions benefit from active engagement. She will also consider recent collective struggles influencing analytic work, and the analyst’s increased need for feminine resources nurtured in the Buddhist model of mind.
Pilar Jennings is a psychoanalyst based in New York City with a focus on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation practice. She received her Ph.D. in Psychiatry and Religion from Union Theological Seminary, and has been working with patients and their families through the Harlem Family Institute since 2000. Dr. Jennings is a long-term practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Union Theological Seminary; Columbia University; a faculty member of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science; and teaches internationally on the intersection of Buddhist psychology and psychoanalysis. Her publications have included “East of Ego: The Intersection of Narcissism and Buddhist Meditation Practice,” “Imagery and Trauma: The Psyche’s Push for Healing,” Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism (Wisdom Publications; 2010), and a memoir about her entry into clinical work: To Heal a Wounded Heart: On the Transformative Power of Buddhism & Psychotherapy in Action (Shambhala; 2017).
These practices include:
- Awareness – learning to be fully present with your emotions.
- Connection – grow meaningful relationships and a sense of belonging.
- Insight – learn to know yourself through self-inquiry.
- Purpose – connect with your core values to enhance clarity and make sound decisions.
