Comment by dbspin
8 days ago
>psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors and social worker
Psychotherapy (especially actual depth work rather than CBT) is not something that is commonly available, affordable or ubiquitous. You've said so yourself. As someone who has an undergrad in psychology - and could not afford the time or fees (an additional 6 years after undergrad) to become a clinical psychologist - the world is not drowning in trained psychologists. Quite the opposite.
> I wonder what the actual prevalence of similar outcomes is for human therapists?
Theres a vast corpus on the efficacy of different therapeutic approaches. Readily googlable.
> but not when you're dealing with people from lower socioeconomic classes with experiences that weren't even on your radar
You seem to be confusing a psychotherapist with a social worker. There's nothing intrinsic to socioeconomic background that would prevent someone from understanding a psychological disorder or the experience of distress. Although I agree with the implicit point that enormous amounts of psychological suffering are due to financial circumstances.
The proliferation of 'life coaches', 'energy workers' and other such hooey is a direct result. And a direct parallel to the substitution of both alternative medicine and over the counter medications for unaffordable care.
I note you've made no actual argument for the efficacy of LLM's beyond - they exist and people will use them... Which is of course true, but also a tautology.
Youre right you can pretty much run that line backwards for scarcity/availability Shrink, Psych, Social, Counsellor.
I was shocked how many psychiatrists deal almost exclusively with treatment and titration of ADHD medication, some are 100% remote via zoom.
I've been involved with the publishing of psychology research, my faith in that system is low, see replication crisis comments, beyond that, working in/around mental health I hear of interactions where psychologists or MH social workers have "prescribed" bible study and alike so anecdotal evidence combined with my own experiences over the years.
Re: socioeconomic backgrounds, you said so yourself, many cannot afford to go route of clinical psych, increasingly the profession has become pretty exclusive and probably not for the better.
Agree regarding the snake oilers but you can't discount distrust and disenfranchisement of/from the establishment nd institutions.
'This way up' is already offering self-paced online CBT, I see LLMs as an extension of that, if only for the simple fact that a person can open a new tab and start the engagement without a referral, appointment, transport, cost, or even really any idea if how the process works.
Infact, I'm certain it is already happening based on reading the chatgpt subreddit, as for efficacy I don't think we'll ever really know, I know that I personally would be more comfortable being totally honest with a text box thank a living breathing human so who knows.i appreciate your insights though.