Ask HN: Good command line psychotherapy programs?

#1

Post by willmhorne » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 4:34 PM UTC

I'm working on a story in which a computer programmer creates a therapeutic command-line-type program for people to use while on retreats. (I say command-line-type because it is largely textual and therefore cognitively aimed.)

Do you know of any command line programs that ask users questions towards a therapeutic end? (Something like, though hopefully better than, emacs' "M-x doctor.") Do you have any ideas you would suggest were you asked to contribute to a project like that? (E.g., a particular coding language; a particular interface; etc.)

Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Good command line psychotherapy programs?

#2

Post by paulrpotts » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 4:44 PM UTC

In case you don't know, this all started with ELIZA, so:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

You might follow that into background of other "chatterbots" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_natural_language_pr...

These would traditionally be in some variant of Lisp, for its metaprogramming capabilities. But see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIML

User interface? Well, see Alexa, Siri, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Good command line psychotherapy programs?

#3

Post by willmhorne » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 4:48 PM UTC

paulrpotts wrote: post #2

In case you don't know, this all started with ELIZA, so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA You might follow that into background of other "chatterbots" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_natural_language_pr... These would traditionally be in some variant of Lisp, for its metaprogramming capabilities. But see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIML User interface? Well, see Alexa, Siri, etc.

Ah, yes. Thank you. As for interface, I had the sense it would be non-verbal (i.e., textual) so that the "patient" would have so subvocalize the responses. But I will consider audio like Alexa et al.

Re: Ask HN: Good command line psychotherapy programs?

#4

Post by jonjacky » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

A post on HN two years ago, "A therapy chatbot for depression" [0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14504306

Kenneth Colby, a Stanford professor, had something like this in the 1970's and 80's. According to the Wikipedia article [1] it was sold as a product. I remember reading a skeptical account of it in a popular book back then [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Colby

[2] http://rdrosen.com/psychobabble-fast-talk-and-quick-cure-in-.... bah, link now broken