Psychoanalysis as a Technology for Positive Change and Influence at Scale

With Dr Alexander Stein

Technology and the Mind Podcast, S2 E4

Nicolle Gottfried Zapien, PhD, Host

This edition of The Briefing, the first of 2024, is dedicated to a single topic: the release of a new episode of The Technology and the Mind podcast hosted by Nicolle Gottfried Zapien, PhD, founder of The Center for Psychoanalysis and Technology.

I'm honored to be Dr Zapien’s guest and to have this opportunity to discuss my ideas and work in depth, and hope you find our conversation engaging and interesting.?

Dr. Stein discusses his work consulting with executives and teams as a psychodynamic strategy consultant. He discusses the impact psychoanalysis can have on people and dynamics between people within business contexts. He centers decision making and caring in his work and muses about AI and the future from the perspective of the C-suite advisor role. His work is ultimately about how psychodynamic strategy consulting can be used as an intervention for social good and business success at scale.

Available on Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, RSS, and iHeartRadio

Introduction

2:58 — Professional Trajectory + Origin Story

7:33 — From Practice to Deployment

8:10 — Call to Retire Idea of Applied Psychoanalysis

11:25 — Considering the Social in Working with Leaders

13:35 — Differences Between Clinical Psychoanalysis, Conventional Consulting, & Psychodynamic Consulting

18:03 — Value + Benefits of a Psychoanalytic Approach with Executives and Teams: Creating Optionality

23:12 — Scaling Expectations + Meeting Goals

25:09 — Organizations as Human Ecosystems

26:03 — Approaching Varieties of Problems + Issues Across an Array of Practice Areas

27:47 — The Nodal Axis in Multiple Domain: Focused Delivery of Expertise in Decision-Making

29:14 — Human Architecture + Psycho-Social Dimensions in Cybersecurity

31:38 — Multidisciplinary Collaborations in Fraud Matters

33:11 — Psychoanalysis as a Technology to Solve Complicated Problems: Overcoming Challenges + Leveraging Value

35:30 — Building Solutions + Mitigating Risks in Socially Responsible + Commercially Profitable Technologies

40:05 — What Will the Future Hold? Barriers + Upsides to Bringing Psychological Expertise into the Technology Space at Scale

44:33 — AI: Risks, Benefits, Potentials

46:15 — A Critical Assessment of AI as a Project to Replicate + Computerize Human Thought

50:10 — Countering the Deficiency of Care in Developing Technological Applications & Services: Balancing the Psychological + Philosophical

52:25 — More on AI: Implicit Disdain for Humanity as a Driving Force

55:32 — Adverse Consequences of Divestiture of Human Connection

58:02 — How to Course-Correct: Technology Issues are Fundamentally Human not Technological

1:00 — The Value of Care: Shared Moral Responsibilities for Harms & Benefits

1:02:42 — Concluding Remarks + Calls to Action

Dolus Advisors is a bespoke strategy consultancy advising CEOs, senior management teams, corporate directors, and founders in organizational issues involving complex psychological underpinnings. We deliver actionable insight, penetrating analysis, and practical counsel to help enhance critical decision-making, manage and mitigate risks, and resolve intricate human-factor problems. We help leaders understand and address organizational challenges beyond the capabilities of conventional business consulting by leveraging deep expertise in human decision-making, motivation, and behavior.

To learn more, visit www.dolusadvisors.com?

For more information or to discuss how we can be of help, please email [email protected]

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Follow Dr Stein’s writing in Forbes on the psychology of decision-making and unintended consequences in organizations and society