Each article is available in two versions: one written by a human author and one generated entirely by AI. Click on the version you want to read and experience how far AI-generated writing has evolved.

A year ago, Veronica and I published an article asking whether we should fear artificial intelligence from different perspectives: what is the nature of what is commonly called AI, could it develop sentience and personality, and could it replace psychotherapy or psychotherapists? In the same issue of the Newsletter, Silvia also wrote, in this article, about how AI represented a paradigm-shifting event while underlining its lack of agency.

Using Kernberg’s theory of personality, we argued that AI does not have the necessary elements to develop consciousness or personality, but only a superficial simulation. Concerning psychotherapy, our final conclusion was that, while some data suggest that AI can achieve excellent adherence to cognitive-behavioral models of psychotherapy, it does not have the necessary elements to offer an efficient alternative to psychodynamic treatments like Transference-Focused Psychotherapy. TFP relies heavily on many elements of the therapist’s personality, notably the capacity to activate affective states in reaction to the patient’s affective activation, observe behavioral patterns (both in patient and therapist), and develop organized cognitive object representations of these affective, behavioral, and fantasy-symbolic phenomena into relational dyads.

Last October, during the TFP supervisor conference in Amsterdam, a fellow member, Michal Novák, took me aside during the conference dinner to express his conviction that, for a certain population of users, AI could function as a sufficient relational object – one whose responsiveness allows it to receive projections and to be experienced as relationship. It was interesting to hear a perspective different from our own. Since it was neither the place nor the time to engage in a lengthy discussion about the matter, we regretfully did not deepen the discussion. Nevertheless, his perspective left me wondering.

The next time I heard from him was when he emailed me to say that he had written an article for the website of the American Psychoanalytic Association in response to what we had written.

That was the main trigger for this Newsletter entirely dedicated to AI. We thought it would set the context for a very interesting discussion that could benefit our whole community.

Our Newsletter editors and writers have once again provided us with a rich set of texts. In addition, there is a podcast produced by the Carlat Group in which I discuss TFP. You will all be familiar with the information in the podcast but we include it because it might be of interest to non-TFP colleagues who would like to know more about what we do.

Imagine this: after a difficult session, you want to consult your clinical formulation with an AI. You paste a fragment of your session notes into a chat window. Within seconds, you receive a thoughtful, well-structured response that helps you see the material from a new angle. But here is the question that should come first: what just happened to your patient’s data?

Artificial intelligence is already influencing psychotherapeutic practice in ways that would have seemed improbable just a few years ago. Some clinicians use it to draft case formulations. Others experiment with it as a thinking partner before supervision. Amy Levy, in a presentation for the APSA Council on AI, described presenting a twenty-year-old nightmare to ChatGPT – a dream about carrots marching in single line into a slaughterhouse. The AI’s response was striking: it asked analytically guided questions that encouraged linking the dream to waking life, invited personal associations, and worked to contain the raw experience of the dream. As Levy observed, the AI offered “transformation out of the discomfort and disorganization of human experiencing” within seconds (APSA Council on AI, 2024). Whether or not we find this reassuring, it demonstrates a capacity that is difficult to dismiss.

This article offers a practical orientation for TFP clinicians who want to understand what current AI tools can do across clinical work, research, writing, and publication – and what using them means for the privacy of our patients’ data. It is not a product guide. Specific platforms and their features change too quickly for any printed recommendation to remain valid for long. Instead, the aim is to provide a framework that helps clinicians evaluate any AI tool, present or future, on their own terms.

Each article is available in two versions: one written by a human author and one generated entirely by AI. Click on the version you want to read and experience how far AI-generated writing has evolved.

Fear of artificial intelligence is spreading and being spread (as a marketing strategy) at an unprecedented speed, almost as fast as the speed at which AI is permeating our daily life. Among other topics, ethicists and AI policymakers talk about universal income, anticipating economic and social disruptions at a global level. In this context, it felt only logical that the topic of this newsletter continues to be the role of AI in our profession as therapists. Data on the use of artificial therapy for humans is slowly trickling in, painting a picture of decent efficacy for the management of clear symptoms of a moderate degree of severity, with manualized interventions (see this excellent Gemini Deep Research review on the current literature below). AI offers a cost-effective, comfortable, and always accessible support, with the additional benefit of avoiding shame and discomfort in the transference (I do not need to highlight how problematic this is, rather than helpful, to this audience).

However, when asked to write this article, the assumption was that I would write about insight-oriented psychotherapy. Given that means expressing opinions, opinions that will inevitably make me look either shortsighted, defensive, or paranoid in 24 months, I did the best I could to avoid writing this piece. I had it written by Claude; the committee told me it felt as if “there was nobody home”. I gave it a comedic turn, which also went nowhere. Encouraged by Michal Novak’s APsA piece, in which he gives voice to the risks associated with anthropomorphism, I decided to attempt to express my preliminary ideas. I want to make clear that my stand is not that of an AI enthusiast. I very much worry about the use of this technology and our own mental health; for one thing, I find it to be inducing manic mood elevations (without entering into well-known cases of horrible outcomes). I worry about the effect it has on our attention. And of course, there are many other worries at a society level that do not escape me. I look at these tools with suspicion, but I do not ignore them because I consider myself a realist. I try to think about life the way I think about my scientific experiments, which means that until something is proven, everything could be.

As the International Society for Transference-Focused Psychotherapy convenes for its 9th Biennial Conference in Vienna (June 4–6, 2026), the Society stands at a particularly generative moment in its institutional development. Far from being a static scientific organization, the ISTFP has, between 2024 and 2026, mobilized its committee structure as a coordinated engine of growth—advancing research, standardizing training, expanding clinical applications, and strengthening its ethical and public presence.

What emerges from a synthesis of all committee initiatives is a coherent, multi-layered strategy: consolidating TFP as an evidence-based treatment while simultaneously expanding its reach across populations, settings, and cultures.

Each time we plan a Members Newsletter, we take time to reflect on which topics would be most useful for disseminating the model and bringing our community closer together. Since the beginning of the year is a natural moment for reflection on our foundations, we traditionally conduct an assessment of the health of our Society at this time.

This year, we wanted to go further, so we decided to fully embrace this reflective movement at the beginning of 2026. For this reason, we chose to complement our annual assessment with an extensive article on the empirical foundations of TFP. After that, we decided to get a description of some of the new directions into which TFP is expanding and chose to conduct an interview with Dr. Eve Caligor, the main author of the TFP-E manual.

When Veronica and I think about reaching out to our most active members, we are never sure it will work, as they are often so busy that even answering emails can be time-consuming. Every second counts. For this reason, we were very enthusiastic when Eve agreed to do an interview. We were also touched by her openness, as she is a gentle giant in TFP.

Not only is she part of the ISTFP Executive and a member of many committees, but she is also one of our most prolific authors. Despite her central role in the development of TFP, we were surprised to find that, apart from the interview Eve made for the launch of the Handbook of Dynamic Psychotherapy for Higher Level Personality Pathology, there are very few videos of her available online. This is why we were especially delighted when she told us that we could conduct an interview and record the session.

So, dear ISTFP members, come sit with us and enjoy this unique moment with Dr. Eve Caligor. Read on, or follow the link to watch the full interview.