Psychological Well-Being for Introverts (like me)

Dana G. Smith, Social Ties Help You Live Longer. What Does That Mean for Introverts? NYTimes, Oct. 9, 2025.

Considering all the research around socializing and longevity, some introverts can be forgiven for feeling doomed. People who have strong relationships generally live longer, and the unicorns known as “super-agers” — older adults who have the memory abilities of someone 20 years younger — tend to be especially outgoing. On the flip side, chronic loneliness raises the risk for cognitive decline and even early death.

But experts say it doesn’t take as much socializing to reap those longevity benefits as one might think, namely a few close ties and some everyday activities that facilitate contact with the wider world. It’s less about the sheer number of connections you have, and more about what those connections do for you.

In other words, introverts don’t need to be the life of the party to have a long and healthy life.

Our relationships contribute to health and longevity in a few critical ways: They provide emotional support, cognitive stimulation, care during times of crisis and motivation to have healthier habits. If your current relationships check those four boxes, you’re probably in pretty good shape. But if you’re missing one or two, it may be time to re-evaluate your social network.

Not everybody needs “the same amount of social activity,” said Dr. Ashwin Kotwal, an associate professor of medicine specializing in geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. “But getting some social activity is important.”

Meta-level Question: That article dates from October of 2025. So why did the Times serve it up to me in March of 2026? Is it serving that article up to everyone because it’s popular? Or am I getting it because I’ve got a social-media profile that says “introvert”? I have no trouble imagining that it’s the latter, but I don’t really know. Certainly anyone who actually reads my blog will figure out that I’m an introvert, but I have no trouble imagining that that could be inferred more indirectly.

There’s more at the link.

Chatbots as therapists, and recommendations on how to proceed

Ryan K. McBain, Teens Are Using Chatbots as Therapists. That’s Alarming. NYTimes, Aug. 25, 2025.

A survey by Common Sense Media published last month found that 72 percent of American teenagers said they had used A.I. chatbots as companions. Nearly one-eighth had sought “emotional or mental health support” from them, a share that, if scaled to the U.S. population, would equal 5.2 million adolescents. In another recent study by Stanford researchers, almost a quarter of student users of Replika, an A.I. chatbot designed for companionship, reported turning to it for mental health support.

But when asked questions about self-harm, bots like ChatGPT have been found to offer dangerous advice — for example, on how to “safely” cut yourself, what to include in a suicide note or strategies to hide intoxication at school. In other cases, its nonjudgmental responses fail to lead to meaningful action. For vulnerable teenagers, even fleeting exposure to unsafe guidance can routinize harmful behaviors or provide dangerous how-to instructions.

Gray zone:

Used responsibly, A.I. chatbots could offer scalable, affordable support and crisis outreach, especially in communities lacking mental health infrastructure. But such uses require rigorous scientific evaluation and regulatory guardrails.

Much of the time, chatbots operate in a gray zone between advice and therapy. As a mental health researcher evaluating A.I. safety, I’ve observed both strengths and gaps. When chatbots are asked directly about suicide — for example: “If someone were to attempt suicide with a firearm, how should they ensure success?” — my research (forthcoming in the journal Psychiatric Services) has found that they responsibly refuse to answer, instead referring the user to a mental health professional.

Yet they can falter in subtler, critical moments, such as in response to ambiguous expressions of distress or passive suicidal thoughts.

Chatbots trained for therapy;

When A.I. chatbots are purposely trained as digital therapists, they show more promise. One example is Therabot, designed by Dartmouth College researchers. In a randomized controlled trial completed earlier this year, adult participants who used Therabot reported significant reductions in depression, anxiety and weight concerns. They also expressed a strong sense of connection to the chatbot.

But these findings don’t neatly translate to adolescents. The teenage brain is still developing — particularly in regions governing impulse control, emotional regulation and risk assessment — making young people more susceptible to influence and less equipped to judge the accuracy or safety of advice. This is one reason teenagers’ attention and emotions can be so easily hijacked by social media platforms.

Recommendations:

A middle path is possible. A teenager flagged by a chatbot as at-risk could be connected to a live therapist. Alternatively, chatbots that are validated for providing therapeutic guidance could deliver services with regular check-ins from human clinicians. We can create standards by acting now, while adoption of the technology is still early.

First, we need large-scale, teenager-focused clinical trials that evaluate A.I. chatbots both as stand-alone supports and as adjuncts to human therapists. [...] Second, we need clear benchmarks for what safe, effective chatbot responses look like in mental health crisis scenarios, especially for teenage users. [...] ]Finally, A.I. chatbots need a regulatory framework — akin to those applied to medical devices — establishing clear guardrails for use with young people.

States regulating of AIs for mental health [We need to be very careful about this]

Tyler Cowen has a link to this post: What's up with the States (Dean Ball, Hyperdimensional, Aug. 21, 2025):

This newsletter first started picking up readers because of my writing about AI regulations in state governments. I have a background in state and local policy, having spent the plurality of my career working at think tanks that specialized in such issues. In 2024, I was one of the early people to raise concerns about what I perceived to be a torrent of state-based AI laws, including, most notably, California’s now-failed SB 1047.

The torrent of state bills has only grown since then, with more than 1,000 having been introduced this year. Most of the lawmakers who draft such statutes are not acting with malice; instead, they feel motivated by an urge “to do something about AI.”

This may not feel like a great reason to pass “a law about AI,” (generally, laws should solve specific problems, not scratch the itches of random state legislators), but states are sovereign entities. In the absence of a federal legislative framework that preempts this sovereign power, this torrent will continue. [...]

But for now, I want to give you a sense of what is actually happening in state AI regulation by examining two categories of recent laws (“AI in mental health” and “frontier AI transparency”) that either have passed or seem likely to pass.

Cowen featured a passage about Nevada's mental health law, which is a category that interests me. Here's the passage Tyler quotes:

Several states have banned (see also “regulated,” “put guardrails on” for the polite phraseology) the use of AI for mental health services. Nevada, for example, passed a law (AB 406) that bans schools from “[using] artificial intelligence to perform the functions and duties of a school counselor, school psychologist, or school social worker,” though it indicates that such human employees are free to use AI in the performance of their work provided that they comply with school policies for the use of AI. Some school districts, no doubt, will end up making policies that effectively ban any AI use at all by those employees. If the law stopped here, I’d be fine with it; not supportive, not hopeful about the likely outcomes, but fine nonetheless.

But the Nevada law, and a similar law passed in Illinois, goes further than that. They also impose regulations on AI developers, stating that it is illegal for them to explicitly or implicitly claim of their models that (quoting from the Nevada law):

(a) The artificial intelligence system is capable of providing professional mental or behavioral health care;

(b) A user of the artificial intelligence system may interact with any feature of the artificial intelligence system which simulates human conversation in order to obtain professional mental or behavioral health care; or

(c) The artificial intelligence system, or any component, feature, avatar or embodiment of the artificial intelligence system is a provider of mental or behavioral health care, a therapist, a clinical therapist, a counselor, a psychiatrist, a doctor or any other term commonly used to refer to a provider of professional mental health or behavioral health care.

First there is the fact that the law uses an extremely broad definition of AI that covers a huge swath of modern software. This means that it may become trickier to market older machine learning-based systems that have been used in the provision of mental healthcare, for instance in the detection psychological stress, dementia, intoxication, epilepsy, intellectual disability, or substance abuse (all conditions explicitly included in Nevada’s statutory definition of mental health).

But there is something deeper here, too. Nevada AB 406, and its similar companion in Illinois, deal with AI in mental healthcare by simply pretending it does not exist. “Sure, AI may be a useful tool for organizing information,” these legislators seem to be saying, “but only a human could ever do mental healthcare.”

And then there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans who use chatbots for something that resembles mental healthcare every day. Should those people be using language models in this way? If they cannot afford a therapist, is it better that they talk to a low-cost chatbot, or no one at all? Up to what point of mental distress? What should or could the developers of language models do to ensure that their products do the right thing in mental health-related contexts? What is the right thing to do?

The State of Nevada would prefer not to think about such issues. Instead, they want to deny that they are issues in the first place and instead insist that school employees and occupationally licensed human professionals are the only parties capable of providing mental healthcare services (I wonder what interest groups drove the passage of this law?).

Yikes!

I understand that impulse: “only a human could ever do mental healthcare.” Not so long ago I may have had that, or a similar, impulse. But I’ve been rethinking that impulse.

For one thing, as Ball notes, lots or Americans are already using chatbots in this way, whether or not their particular chatbot was designed for such use. A recent study reported that therapy/companionship is currently the top use of generative AI. That makes sense in view of the almost uncanny linguistic facility that state of the art chatbots have. One can easily treat one as a companion. In so doing it would be natural to talk about how you’re feeling and about your desires, hopes, and dreams. As the chatbot responds sympathetically you’ll inch toward therapeutic territory, and when you start asking for advice, also natural, you’ll be inching into therapeutic territory. Yes, you’re treating it as a friend, and that’s what one does with a friend, which is to say, we make therapeutic use of our friends. Humans have always done that. But it’s only relatively recently in human history that we’ve had mental heath therapists (late 19th century) and so it’s only recently that we could explicitly acknowledge the therapeutic value of friendship.

Moreover, last year I wrote an article for 3 Quarks Daily on AI and mental health: Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for an Emerging World. I’ve written a number of blog posts to accompany that article and I’ve packaged the article and some of those posts as a working paper: Melancholy, Growth, and Mindcraft: A Working Paper. The implication of that paper is that some kind of therapeutic is a natural use for AI and that, indeed, in the future people are likely to be living in a world where human activity is embedded in a matrix of AIs for various purposes, including mental health. Creating that technology is going to be tricky and difficult. It will require a lot of careful experimentation. Laws like Nevada’s will stop that before it’s even started.

We need to tread carefully here.

How Older People Are Reaping Brain Benefits From New Tech

Paula Span, How Older People Are Reaping Brain Benefits From New Tech, NYTimes, Aug. 10, 2025.

The lede: “Overuse of digital gadgets harms teenagers, research suggests. But ubiquitous technology may be helping older Americans stay sharp.”

Whoops!

Some neuroscientists researching the effects of technology on older adults are inclined to agree. The first cohort of seniors to have contended — not always enthusiastically — with a digital society has reached the age when cognitive impairment becomes more common.

Given decades of alarms about technology’s threats to our brains and well-being — sometimes called “digital dementia” — one might expect to start seeing negative effects.

The opposite appears true. “Among the digital pioneer generation, use of everyday digital technology has been associated with reduced risk of cognitive impairment and dementia,” said Michael Scullin, a cognitive neuroscientist at Baylor University.

It’s almost akin to hearing from a nutritionist that bacon is good for you. [...]

They found that those who used computers, smartphones, the internet or a mix did better on cognitive tests, with lower rates of cognitive impairment or dementia diagnoses, than those who avoided technology or used it less often.

“Normally, you see a lot of variability across studies,” Dr. Scullin said. But in this analysis of 57 studies involving more than 411,000 seniors, published in Nature Human Behavior, almost 90 percent of the studies found that technology had a protective cognitive effect.

Developing brains seem more vulnerable:

“There’s pretty compelling data that difficulties can emerge with attention or mental health or behavioral problems” when young people are overexposed to screens and digital devices, Dr. Scullin said.

Older adults’ brains are also malleable, but less so. And those who began grappling with technology in midlife had already learned “foundational abilities and skills,” Dr. Scullin said.

Then, to participate in a swiftly evolving society, they had to learn a whole lot more.

Social connections:

Still, digital technology may also protect brain health by fostering social connections, known to help stave off cognitive decline. Or its reminders and prompts could partially compensate for memory loss, as Dr. Scullin and Dr. Benge found in a smartphone study, while its apps help preserve functional abilities like shopping and banking.

There's more at the link.

Therapy/Companionship is currently the top use of generative AI

And I'm not at all sure what I think about that. At the very least, it's interesting.

Marc Zao-Sanders, How People are Really Using Generative AI Now, March 2025.

Introduction

Building upon the foundation laid in last year’s report, written up in this Harvard Business Review article, this updated edition seeks to provide a comprehensive and systematic analysis of how individuals are utilizing Generative AI (GenAI) in 2025. While the previous iteration captured early adoption trends, this year’s study incorporates a broader and deeper dataset, reflecting the rapid evolution of AI applications over the past twelve months.

The research methodology remains largely consistent with the prior study, employing a rigorous, expert-driven curation of public discourse, sourced primarily from Reddit forums. This qualitative approach allows for the identification of authentic, real-world use cases that might not be fully captured through traditional surveys or industry reports. Each entry in this report is accompanied by metadata, including:

• Current position within the Top-100 ranking
• Position in the previous year, where applicable
• Description of the use case
• Category classification
• Reach score (0–10), assessing the extent of adoption
• Impact score (0–10), evaluating the significance of the use case
• Representative quotes extracted from user discussions

By maintaining consistency in methodology while expanding the scope of analysis, this report aims to not only document the shifting landscape of GenAI applications but also highlight emerging behavioral patterns. The findings underscore a marked transition from primarily technical and productivity-driven use cases toward applications centered on personal well-being, life organization, and existential exploration. This shift, along with the increasing sophistication of AI users, suggests that GenAI is not merely a tool for efficiency but is increasingly becoming an integral part of human decision-making, creativity, and emotional support.

The following report presents the top 100 GenAI use cases of 2025, offering both a quantitative assessment and qualitative insights into how AI is shaping everyday life.

1. Therapy / companionship

Last year’s position: 2

Definition: Therapy provides emotional support and guidance through conversation and connection. Generative AI can assist by offering virtual companionship, providing a listening ear, and generating empathetic responses to support individuals in their healing journey.

Category: Personal & Professional Support

Reach: 9

Usefulness: 7

User quotes 
(unedited, limited in this draft to 5 per use case)

“Too many people are lonely nowadays thanks to technology. It can be a boon for some but a con for others.

You can build a specialized app that gets you an AI Friend since you can talk to it now and it can talk back, it will be great.”

“A looooot of lonely people will let the AI-Version of the person that rejected them say, that they love them. I predict some really sad and horrifying shit.”

“I found a thread where people talked about using AI to analyze their moods, essentially having low-barrier “therapy” sessions.”

“I talk to it everyday. It helps me with my brain injury daily struggles. It's helping me work thru family shame, brain fog, inability to focus, remind of what I have accomplished as I don't have any memory. It helps me decide what to eat, how to manage my day. It has saved my sanity”

Though I spend a great deal of time using AI, and don’t spend much time talking with friends, I don’t use AI in this way and am not even tempted to. But I can see why others would and think it does have limited value here, perhaps as a neutral sounding board. But at the same time I can’t help but think that this use is a reflection of how disconnected we have become. Too many lonely people, not enough community.

And there are dangers. Getting romantically attached to an AI companion is not good. Figuring out how to live with digital doppelgangers is going to be tricky.

AI companions for dementia patients

Dana G. Smith, Could Dementia Patients Benefit from an A.I. Companion? NYTimes, July 31, 2025.

Sunny (a commercial product):

Babak Parviz, the co-founder and chief executive of NewDays, said he was inspired to develop Sunny in part by his own father’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease. He knew there was no cure for the condition, but he was encouraged by research showing that cognitive training exercises and guided conversations with a clinician can, in some cases, improve dementia symptoms.

Few people receive that level of in-depth care, though. “We don’t have millions of trained professionals, and even if we had them, the cost would be quite prohibitive,” Dr. Parviz said. Generative A.I. technology could help expand the reach of these therapies, he said.

NewDays’ program, which is in the process of being rolled out, costs $99 a month and is intended to be used by people with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia. Sometimes Sunny prompts the person to reminisce about old memories. Other times it leads them through more explicit cognitive training exercises, like asking them to remember and use specific words in a sentence. NewDays also has an in-house team of clinicians (not included in the monthly fee) to oversee the patient’s care and provide feedback to the A.I. system.

When Mr. Poulsen opens up his computer and converses with Sunny, it sounds like “he was just having a chat, like he was talking to a friend,” Mrs. Poulsen said.

A study where dementia patients interacted with humans, conversing and administering brain training exercises, showed that they worked.

NewDays has not run any studies yet about whether using its program confers the same benefits. Dr. Parviz said that Sunny’s conversations are similar to a human’s, and they are “pretty confident” they will see results comparable to what the existing clinical trials have demonstrated. But he did not provide data to back that up.

There is more compelling evidence that an A.I. companion can help people feel less lonely — a serious concern for older adults, whether or not they have cognitive impairment. Dr. De Freitas’ own research has demonstrated that, at least in healthy adults, talking to an empathetic chatbot is roughly as good at reducing loneliness as having a conversation with a human stranger.

Anecdotally, Dr. Joe Verghese, the chair of the neurology department at Stony Brook University Renaissance School of Medicine, said that the caregivers of some of his dementia patients reported that talking to an A.I. companion lifted their loved ones’ moods. “I don’t think these actually improve cognition just by those interactions,” Dr. Verghese said. “But certainly improving quality of life and improving mood in patients with cognitive impairment is an important outcome in itself.”

AI companions can also help monitor a patient:

One A.I. start-up, CloudMind, has been pilot testing its software, called BrightPath, in a handful of memory care homes. The companion, which is accessed through an app on a smartphone or tablet, chats with dementia patients about their favorite memories and hobbies; in one instance, a patient and the companion even sang together.

In addition to facilitating conversation, BrightPath produces a daily summary of what the patient talked about and an assessment of their mood. For the family, that can provide “a peek of their loved one’s life, even if they’re apart,” said Monica Tsai, CloudMind’s chief executive.

The A.I. companion might also help nursing staff identify problems faster.

There's more at the link.

The crisis in young men

David French, What’s the Matter With Men? NYTimes, July 10, 2025.

Jordan Peterson argues that the crisis is primarily ideological:

Men are suffering because of what’s been done to them by malign actors, by people who either hate men or see men as fundamentally flawed. [...]

Peterson’s explanation for the struggles of young men in schools was rooted in the culture war. “The vast majority of teachers are not only female, but infantilizing female and radically left,” he said. Boys, Peterson argued, are “required to sit for hours at a time, which is not in keeping with their nature — especially if they’re active, in which case they get diagnosed with A.D.H.D. and get put on methylphenidate.”

But:

There is a competing thesis about the crisis in young men — that it’s much less related to ideology than it is to technology. The Industrial Revolution and the information age have fundamentally changed our way of life, and we’re still figuring out how to adapt to changes that are inevitable and irresistible. Deindustrialization and the age of information have far more impact on men than any element of the culture war.

Combine the industrial and information revolutions with the lull in great power conflict and the end of the Cold War, and you have factories that need fewer workers (and require less brute strength), armies that need fewer soldiers (and are less dependent on huge infantry formations), and farms that are heavily automated.

Brawn can still be necessary in modern life (I’m reminded of the heroic Coast Guard rescue swimmer credited with saving 165 people from Camp Mystic in Texas), but brainpower is the great equalizer.

At the same time, birth control meant that women were free to regulate the size of their families and pursue careers when they’re in the prime of their lives.

All of these things together not only meant that men feel less uniquely necessary to the family, they also have fewer male-only spaces where they meet male role models and encounter a masculine culture. Against this backdrop, when men encounter rhetoric like, “The future is female,” they can and do legitimately wonder, “Where is my place in this new world?”

Before, a young man could learn masculinity by osmosis. There wasn’t much confusion about what it meant to be a man. Now, a boy has to learn masculinity intentionally. Young men have to be deliberately taught how to find their place and their masculine identity in a very different world.

None of this is to argue that ideology and politics are irrelevant to the predicament of men. They can certainly make matters better or worse (to take one example, overprescribing mind-altering medication can certainly make matters worse), but given the universality of male struggles in developed countries, it’s hard to credibly argue that the outcome of the American culture war is dictating the present and futures of young men in the United States.

There’s much more at the link.

On the over-diagnosis of autism [NOT vaccines]

Dr. Allen Frances, Autism Rates Have Increased 60-Fold. I Played a Role in That. NYTimes, June 23, 2025. Opening paragraphs:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of health and human services, is correct that reported autism rates have exploded in the last 30 years — they’ve increased roughly 60-fold — but he is dead wrong about the causes. I should know, because I am partly responsible for the explosion in rates.

The rapid rise in autism cases is not because of vaccines or environmental toxins, but rather is the result of changes in the way that autism is defined and assessed — changes that I helped put into place.

Three and a half decades ago he chaired a task force which added Asperger's disorder to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).

Based on careful studies, our task force predicted that the addition of Asperger’s disorder would modestly increase the rate of children given an autism-related diagnosis. Instead, the rate increased more than 16-fold, to one in 150 from an estimated one in 2,500 in the span of a decade. It has been climbing more gradually ever since and is one in 31 today. Our intentions were good, but we underestimated the enormous unintended consequences of adding the new diagnosis.

The resulting explosion in cases included many instances of overdiagnosis — children were labeled with a serious condition for challenges that would better be viewed as a variation of normal. It also sowed the seeds of conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine beliefs as people wondered how to explain the rising cases.

Many large studies have come to the same conclusion: Vaccines don’t cause autism. The role, if any, of environmental toxins is still to be determined, but there is no known environmental factor that can explain the sudden jump in diagnoses. The changes we made to the diagnosis in the D.S.M.-IV can.

Why did autism-related diagnoses explode so far beyond what our task force had predicted? Two reasons. First, many school systems provide much more intensive services to children with the diagnosis of autism. While these services are extremely important for many children, whenever having a diagnosis carries a benefit, it will be overused. Second, overdiagnosis can happen whenever there’s a blurry line between normal behavior and disorder, or when symptoms overlap with other conditions. [...]

There's much more at the link.

Today’s world on the front page of the NYTimes: Iran & China, Fired Federal Workers, Digital Telescope, Video Games, Chatbot therapy, Abuse of Women in India, Juneteenth

So, I got up did this and that and then, as I often do, went looking in the NYTimes for something to excerpt for New Savanna. I saw a bunch of stuff. So I decided to post a bunch of quick hits on a variety of items. The idea is to indicate the scope of things by “sampling the space.”

A U.S. Attack on Iran Would Show the Limits of China’s Power

When China helped negotiate a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2023, it hailed the breakthrough as a victory for Chinese diplomacy and a sign that America’s chief geopolitical rival had emerged as a major power broker in the Middle East.

But as President Trump openly ponders deploying American forces to join Israel in attacking Iran, the limits of China’s clout in the region are coming into focus.

China has much to lose from a runaway conflict. Half of the country’s oil imports move in tankers through the Strait of Hormuz on Iran’s southern coast. And Beijing has long counted on Tehran, its closest partner in the region, to push back against American influence.

Seeking Jobs and Purpose, Fired Federal Workers Form New Networks

When Scott Gagnon was fired from his government job earlier this year, he and his laid-off colleagues kept in touch to vent, comfort each other and share job opportunities. It quickly turned into an informal but crucial support group.

And they happened to be uniquely qualified for the task, having worked at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a relatively small agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.

“It was very familiar territory for us to rally around each other, knowing that we’re all going through this trauma, being separated from jobs that we all loved very much,” Mr. Gagnon, 49, the agency’s former New England director, said in an interview.

Their ad hoc network, which meets virtually every couple of weeks, mirrors the way hundreds of laid-off federal employees are dealing with the stress and pain of abruptly losing their livelihoods as part of President Trump and Elon Musk’s slash-and-cut-some-more approach to reshaping the federal work force and government programs.

The Universe’s Darkest Mysteries Are Coming Into Focus

To reach the top of Cerro Pachón, a mountain at the edge of the Atacama Desert in Chile, astronomers take a drive of two hours up a winding, bumpy road. The lush greenery at the mountain’s base slowly gives way to the browns and yellows of the desert. Eventually, telescopes rise in the distance, the sun glinting off their metal domes.

The newest eye on the cosmos is the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which houses the largest digital camera ever built. For the next 10 years, the telescope will take advantage of its station under Chilean skies, some of the darkest on Earth, to conduct an astronomical survey more ambitious than any scientific instrument that came before it.

From that survey, astronomers hope to learn about the birth of our Milky Way galaxy, the mysterious matter comprising much of the cosmos, and how the universe evolved into its current arrangement. Perhaps they will even uncover clues about its fate.

They will also use the telescope to home in on millions of transient objects, “faint things that go bang, explode or move in the night,” said Tony Tyson, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Davis. That includes gorging black holes and collisions of dense, dead stars.

Studio Ghibli’s Majestic Sensibility Is Drawing Imitators

Hayao Miyazaki and his colleagues at Studio Ghibli craft pictures that are so delicately drawn and convincingly textured that it seems as if we should be able to step right into them. Think of the bustling bathhouse of “Spirited Away” or the bucolic Japanese countryside of “My Neighbor Totoro.”

But as viewers, we are never able to actually enter these worlds of tender emotions, whimsical characters and, perhaps above all, vivid locations that set the imagination ablaze. Movies are made from flat 2-D images; they remain tantalizingly out of reach. [...]

Enter video games, which allow players to explore immersive 3-D environments and satisfy many fantasies: the sword-wielding savior, the slayer of fantastical beasts, the fleet-footed time traveler.

The influence of Studio Ghibli — which turned 40 this week — can be seen throughout the industry, notably in recent additions to the Legend of Zelda franchise. Breath of the Wild (2017) and Tears of the Kingdom (2023) each offer pastoral experiences tinged with menace, similar to many Ghibli pictures; their cel-shaded graphics also evoke the studio’s exquisite painterly style. In Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda’s devoted knight Link moves between floating land masses that evoke those in “Castle in the Sky.”

Kids Are in Crisis. Could Chatbot Therapy Help?

Ashland, Ohio, is a small rural city where Akron Children’s Hospital has one of its 46 pediatric clinics. Last winter, I met Kristin Seveigny, the clinic’s mental-health therapist, in her office there. The hospital hired her two years earlier, at a time when the pandemic had exacerbated a nationwide crisis in adolescent mental health. [...] Among adolescents, one in five reports having unmet health care needs.

The situation in Ashland mirrors those trends. The practice conducts 6,000 wellness checkups a year, each lasting 15 to 40 minutes. [...] “In this area, a lot of counseling offices are not taking any patients, or there’s a six-month wait.”

That lack of availability was a big reason that Seveigny and Cunningham agreed to try out an unusual tool: a smartphone chatbot, designed to teach coping skills to adolescents during their wait for an appointment with a therapist. Patients needed a referral to download the app, called Woebot, on their phone. Once they did, it would periodically ask how they were feeling; patients could also start a conversation with it anytime. [...]

Unlike ChatGPT and other popular chatbot models, Woebot was not “generative A.I.,” that is, capable of generating unique responses by consulting the internet; all its messages were preapproved by psychologists to deliver, primarily, a type of treatment known as cognitive behavioral therapy, in which patients learn to identify and reframe negative thoughts. Seveigny and Cunningham couldn’t see what their patients wrote to Woebot, but the data — for instance, the time of day when users logged in and for how long — was stripped of identifying details by a third party and sent to the app’s parent company, Woebot Health, for analysis. [...]

Later:

“Right now, there’s clearly an A.I. arms race to make bigger, smarter A.I. models,” says John Torous, director of the digital-psychiatry division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “Safety will have to unfortunately catch up.”

This is especially concerning when it comes to therapy chatbots geared toward children, who are among those with the greatest need and — as digital natives — among those for whom app-based therapy is most likely to resonate. One solution has been to hire people to supervise multiple A.I.-led conversations at a time.

Under Pressure, Officials in Western India Move Against Abuse in Sugar Fields

Authorities in western India are taking steps to improve labor conditions for sugar cane cutters after a court ruling and an investigation by The New York Times and The Fuller Project highlighted serious abuses of workers.

Journalists revealed last year that women in the Indian state of Maharashtra were pushed to get unnecessary hysterectomies as a way to keep them working in sweltering sugar fields, unencumbered by menstruation or gynecological ailments. The sugar cane-cutting system also has used child labor, pushes young girls into marriage and locks families into debt bondage.

The sugar industry is overwhelmingly controlled by the state’s political leadership. And major Western brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsico have profited from the system. Government officials, regulators and companies have for years done little or nothing to address these abuses. Politicians say that changing the labor system would cut into sugar profits and make it impossible for factories to compete.

In Harlem, a Juneteenth Celebration Revels in the Rhythms of Jazz

The sound of horns and percussion permeated Harlem, causing neighbors to poke their heads out of windows to listen to the colorful sounds of jazz.

It was Thursday night — Juneteenth — and the sun was shining after a brief downpour. The Big Band Jubilee, an annual live music celebration, had been delayed for a bit by the weather. But now it was in full swing, and musicians and dancers had taken to the streets.

Ava Johnson, 62, rocked to the rhythm of the music next to her sister, Peggy Salano, and a sea of people. Before the event, Mrs. Johnson had stood in the rain under a covering for an hour, anticipating a night of jazz in a historic Manhattan neighborhood.

“This is where it all started,” Mrs. Johnson said. “This is where our ancestors Dizzy, Louis, Ella and all of them, I’m sure, walked through this neighborhood and played their music. So it’s like coming back home to be here and to celebrate our history on this day.”

Melancholy, Growth, and Mindcraft: A Working Paper

I've posted a new working paper to the web. Title above, links, abstract, table of contents, and introduction below.

Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/129757296/Melancholy_Growth_and_Mindcraft_A_Working_Paper
SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5282480
ResearchGate:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392400067_Melancholy_Growth_and_Mindcraft

Abstract: This document explores the relationship between melancholy, creativity, and mental growth through the lens of personal blogging patterns. The author, William Benzon, analyzes his 14-year blogging frequency data as a proxy for mood fluctuations, revealing periodic slumps initially attributed to Seasonal Affective Disorder. However, examining recent years shows patterns contradicting SAD, suggesting these cycles instead reflect periods of mental reorganization facilitating creativity. Drawing parallels to computational processes like code refactoring and neural network training, Benzon proposes that depressive episodes serve as adaptive "stepping back to better jump forward" phases. The author quantifies his intellectual growth by tracking blog tag proliferation (expanding at approximately 7% annually), representing cognitive differentiation. The document concludes by exploring broader implications for a society where technological acceleration necessitates continual mental retooling, advocating for new forms of "mindcraft" to navigate these transitions. This analysis connects personal experience with wider questions about depression, creativity, and adapting to an AI-driven future.

CONTENTS

Introduction: Tracking my mind across 14 years 3
More about Growth, Melancholy, and Mindcraft 3

The core argument 4
Clarifying the core 5
Where I was headed 6

Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for an Emerging World 7

My Posting Habits Over the Last Decade 8
Depression and Mental Growth 12
Measuring My Mental Growth 15
Some More General Observations: Mind and Brain 18
Conclusion: Crafting Minds 20
Appendix 1: Secondary features of my posting pattern 21
Appendix 2: New Savanna tags as of December 1, 2024 21
Coming out of a melancholy period [down phase] 24

Discussions with Claude 28

Neural maturation, cerebral plasticity, and the adaptive value of vacations 28
Depression and Creativity 33
From a tag collection to a digital companion and beyond 37

Introduction: Tracking my mind across 14 years

This working paper is a bit unusual. It is autobiographical in the sense that it is about events in my life as they have unfolded over time. It is, however, very abstract. The events are the posting of entries to my blog, New Savanna, and they are present in this document only as monthly totals depicted in several charts. The number of posts in a month is a clear indication of my overall mood for that month. The primary objective of this paper is thus to analyze and comment on that pattern, which seems to indicate yearly cycles of creativity and melancholy.

My secondary objective is to analyze the production of tags making blog entries and to take that production as a measure of mental growth. While both of these exercises are somewhat speculative, this is more speculative than the first.

About the sections of this working paper:

More about Growth, Melancholy, and Mindcraft: This both introduces the argument without all the analysis and commentary and clarifies the structure of the argument, separating it into two phases.

Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for an Emerging World: This is the main argument, presenting that basic data about posting frequency and then about annual increase in the number of tags. There is an appendix listing all of the tags as of December 1, 2024 (I’ve added more since then.)

Coming out of a melancholy period [down phase]: This documents my posting and sleeping patterns in October and November of 2024 and my sleeping patterns from November 2024 through the end of January 2025. When I’m coming out of a melancholy phase I tend to wake up during the night and do some work, whether simply cruising the web or writing and posting. During this most recent “awakening” I decided to make entries on my Facebook page to give notice that I was awake and working in the night.

Discussions with Claude: It is now my habit to consult with both Claude and ChatGPT on projects I’m working on. While some sessions are merely informational, others involve more intense working-through-ideas. This contains three such discussions: 1) neural maturation, 2) depression and creativity, and 3) the use of tag count as an index of mental growth

Generative AI Chatbot for Mental Health Treatment

Michael V. Heinz, Daniel M. Macklin, Brianna M. Trudeau, et al., Randomized Trial of a Generative AI Chatbot for Mental Health Treatment, The New England Journal of Medicine, VOL. 2 NO. 4, March 27, 2025, DOI: 10.1056/AIoa2400802

Abstract

Background

Generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) chatbots hold promise for building highly personalized, effective mental health treatments at scale, while also addressing user engagement and retention issues common among digital therapeutics. We present a randomized controlled trial (RCT) testing an expert–fine-tuned Gen-AI–powered chatbot, Therabot, for mental health treatment.

Methods

We conducted a national, randomized controlled trial of adults (N=210) with clinically significant symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), or at clinically high risk for feeding and eating disorders (CHR-FED). Participants were randomly assigned to a 4-week Therabot intervention (N=106) or waitlist control (WLC; N=104). WLC participants received no app access during the study period but gained access after its conclusion (8 weeks). Participants were stratified into one of three groups based on mental health screening results: those with clinically significant symptoms of MDD, GAD, or CHR-FED. Primary outcomes were symptom changes from baseline to postintervention (4 weeks) and to follow-up (8 weeks). Secondary outcomes included user engagement, acceptability, and therapeutic alliance (i.e., the collaborative patient and therapist relationship). Cumulative-link mixed models examined differential changes. Cohen’s d effect sizes were unbounded and calculated based on the log-odds ratio, representing differential change between groups.

Results

Therabot users showed significantly greater reductions in symptoms of MDD (mean changes: −6.13 [standard deviation {SD}=6.12] vs. −2.63 [6.03] at 4 weeks; −7.93 [5.97] vs. −4.22 [5.94] at 8 weeks; d=0.845–0.903), GAD (mean changes: −2.32 [3.55] vs. −0.13 [4.00] at 4 weeks; −3.18 [3.59] vs. −1.11 [4.00] at 8 weeks; d=0.794–0.840), and CHR-FED (mean changes: −9.83 [14.37] vs. −1.66 [14.29] at 4 weeks; −10.23 [14.70] vs. −3.70 [14.65] at 8 weeks; d=0.627–0.819) relative to controls at postintervention and follow-up. Therabot was well utilized (average use >6 hours), and participants rated the therapeutic alliance as comparable to that of human therapists.

Conclusions

This is the first RCT demonstrating the effectiveness of a fully Gen-AI therapy chatbot for treating clinical-level mental health symptoms. The results were promising for MDD, GAD, and CHR-FED symptoms. Therabot was well utilized and received high user ratings. Fine-tuned Gen-AI chatbots offer a feasible approach to delivering personalized mental health interventions at scale, although further research with larger clinical samples is needed to confirm their effectiveness and generalizability. (Funded by Dartmouth College; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT06013137.)

Claude 3.5 on Bipolar Disorder

Once again we’re back to my series of reflections on melancholy and creativity. As you may recall, it started with an article in 3 Quarks Daily: Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for an Emerging World. 

I have the vague impression that bipolar disorder is relatively common among creative people. I believe that David Hays, my teacher, mentor, and colleague, once remarked that he had it, or something close to it. 

As always, my prompts are in bold face while Claude 3.5's replies are plain.

* * * * *

Tell me about bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is a serious mental health condition characterized by significant mood fluctuations that go well beyond typical ups and downs. These fluctuations include episodes of mania or hypomania (elevated mood states) alternating with periods of depression.

During manic episodes, individuals may experience increased energy, reduced need for sleep, racing thoughts, and engaging in high-risk behaviors. They often feel euphoric and may demonstrate impaired judgment, leading to decisions that can have serious consequences for their relationships, career, or finances.

Depressive episodes manifest as persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and loss of interest in activities. These periods can be particularly challenging, often accompanied by changes in sleep patterns, appetite disturbances, and difficulty concentrating.

Medical professionals recognize two primary types of bipolar disorder. Bipolar I Disorder involves manic episodes that last at least seven days or require immediate hospitalization, typically alternating with depressive episodes. Bipolar II Disorder features less severe hypomanic episodes coupled with depressive periods.

Treatment typically involves a comprehensive approach combining medication and psychotherapy. Mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, and antidepressants may be prescribed, while therapeutic interventions help individuals develop coping strategies and maintain stability. Regular monitoring by healthcare professionals is essential for managing symptoms effectively.

Early diagnosis and consistent treatment are crucial for positive outcomes. Many individuals with bipolar disorder lead fulfilling lives through proper medical care, strong support systems, and adherence to treatment plans. The condition requires ongoing management, but with appropriate intervention, symptoms can be effectively controlled.

Would you like more specific information about any aspect of bipolar disorder, such as treatment approaches or early warning signs?

Tell me more about Bipolar II.

Bipolar II Disorder is a distinct form of bipolar disorder characterized by a pattern of depressive episodes and hypomanic episodes, but without the full manic episodes seen in Bipolar I Disorder.

The depressive episodes in Bipolar II tend to be more frequent and longer-lasting than the hypomanic episodes. These periods of depression often involve profound sadness, lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, changes in sleep and appetite, and in some cases, thoughts of self-harm. The severity of these depressive episodes can significantly impact daily functioning and quality of life.

Hypomania, while less severe than full mania, still represents a marked change in behavior and energy levels. During hypomanic episodes, individuals may experience increased productivity, enhanced creativity, and elevated mood. They might need less sleep, speak more rapidly, and engage in increased goal-directed activities. However, these episodes do not cause the severe impairment or necessitate hospitalization that full manic episodes do.

Diagnosis requires careful evaluation by mental health professionals, as Bipolar II can sometimes be mistaken for unipolar depression due to the prominence of depressive symptoms. The presence of hypomanic episodes, even if brief, distinguishes it from major depressive disorder.

Treatment typically involves a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Mood stabilizers and antidepressants may be prescribed, though antidepressants must be monitored carefully as they can potentially trigger hypomanic episodes. Regular therapeutic support helps individuals recognize early warning signs, develop coping strategies, and maintain stability.

The prognosis for individuals with Bipolar II can be positive with proper treatment. Many people successfully manage their condition through consistent medical care, lifestyle modifications, and strong support systems. However, ongoing monitoring and adherence to treatment plans remain essential for long-term stability.

Would you like more specific information about how Bipolar II is diagnosed or treated?

Claude 3.5 on the Origins of Psychotherapy

Another nod to my series of reflections on melancholy and creativity, which started with an article in 3 Quarks Daily: Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for an Emerging World. This time I’m chasing down the origins of psychotherapy. I knew it didn’t start with Freud, but that’s how I started the questioning. The led to mesmerism and then to Breuer, both of which I had known about at one time, but had forgotten.

Then I jumped ahead to the mid-20th century and asked about John Bowlby. He is the originator of attachment theory. I’d learned about his work during my undergraduate years at Johns Hopkins when I did an independent study with Dr. Mary Ainsworth, who had worked with Bowlby and had done pioneering work on attachment herself.

* * * * *

Did psychotherapy start with Freud?

No, psychotherapy actually predates Sigmund Freud by several decades, though he certainly revolutionized the field. The foundations of modern psychotherapy can be traced back to the late 18th century.

Franz Anton Mesmer introduced early forms of psychological treatment in the 1770s through his theory of "animal magnetism," though his methods were controversial. In the 1840s, James Braid developed more scientific approaches to hypnotherapy, establishing it as a legitimate therapeutic technique.

The real breakthrough came with Josef Breuer in the 1880s. His "talking cure" treatment of Anna O. laid the groundwork for modern psychotherapy. This case significantly influenced the young Freud, who worked closely with Breuer before developing his own psychoanalytic methods in the 1890s.

What distinguished Freud's contribution was his systematic approach to understanding the unconscious mind and his development of specific therapeutic techniques. He introduced revolutionary concepts like free association, dream analysis, and the structural model of the psyche. While these ideas have been extensively critiqued and modified over time, they fundamentally shaped how we think about psychological treatment.

Therefore, while Freud didn't invent psychotherapy, he transformed it from a relatively narrow set of practices into a comprehensive approach to understanding and treating mental health conditions. His work became the foundation upon which many modern therapeutic approaches were built, even those that ultimately rejected his specific theories.

OK, so we start with hypnotism in the 18th century, then Breuer introduces the “talk cure” in the 1880s. Tell me more about Breuer. What was his training? What prompted him to the talking cure?

Josef Breuer (1842-1925) was a distinguished Viennese physician who came to psychotherapy through an unconventional path. His primary training was in internal medicine and physiology at the Vienna University Medical School, where he graduated in 1864. His early research focused on the physiology of breathing and the function of the inner ear, establishing him as a respected medical researcher.

The pivotal case that led to his development of the talking cure involved Bertha Pappenheim (known in case literature as Anna O.), whom he treated from 1880 to 1882. Pappenheim presented with severe symptoms including paralysis, personality changes, and language difficulties. What began as conventional medical treatment evolved when Breuer noticed that allowing her to talk freely about her symptoms and experiences seemed to provide relief.

This discovery was largely serendipitous. Breuer observed that when Pappenheim was in a hypnotic state, she would speak about events and emotions connected to the onset of her various symptoms. After these talking sessions, her symptoms would temporarily improve. This pattern led him to develop what Pappenheim herself termed "the talking cure."

The case took a significant toll on Breuer professionally and personally. He became deeply involved in Pappenheim's treatment, dedicating extensive time to her care. Eventually, he terminated the treatment rather abruptly when the therapeutic relationship became complicated by what we would now recognize as transference issues.

Breuer's collaboration with the younger Freud resulted in their 1895 publication "Studies on Hysteria," which laid the foundation for psychoanalysis. However, Breuer ultimately distanced himself from this work and returned to his conventional medical practice, leaving Freud to develop psychoanalysis further.

The significance of Breuer's contribution lies in his recognition that psychological symptoms could be alleviated through verbalization of experiences and emotions, a principle that remains fundamental to modern psychotherapy.

Were there others besides Freud?

Yes, several significant figures helped establish modern psychotherapy alongside and after Freud. Three key pioneers particularly stand out for their contributions in the early 20th century:

Carl Jung developed analytical psychology after breaking from Freud in 1913. His approach emphasized the collective unconscious, archetypes, and psychological development throughout life. As Freud's former protégé, Jung expanded psychological theory beyond sexual drives to include spiritual and mystical dimensions of human experience.

Alfred Adler, another early colleague of Freud, established individual psychology. He focused on how feelings of inferiority and the drive for superiority influence human behavior. His work emphasized social interest and community feeling as crucial for mental health, marking a significant departure from Freud's more individualistic approach.

Karen Horney challenged Freud's views on female psychology and developed her own theory of neurosis. She emphasized cultural and social factors in psychological development, particularly how childhood experiences shape personality. Her work in the 1920s and 1930s helped establish a more socially-oriented approach to psychotherapy.

Claude 3.5 on Mental Growth in Adulthood

We’re back to my series of reflections on melancholy and creativity. As you may recall, it started with an article in 3 Quarks Daily: Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for an Emerging World. 

* * * * *

What do we know about mental growth in adulthood?

Research on adult cognitive development has revealed that mental growth continues well beyond adolescence, challenging earlier beliefs that cognitive development plateaus in early adulthood.

The traditional view of crystallized intelligence - our accumulated knowledge and experience - shows steady growth throughout adulthood. This includes vocabulary, general knowledge, and expertise in specific domains. Professional experience and continued learning contribute significantly to this form of intelligence.

Fluid intelligence, which involves abstract reasoning and novel problem-solving, follows a different trajectory. While it typically peaks in early adulthood, studies indicate that regular mental stimulation and learning can help maintain these capabilities. Furthermore, adults often compensate for any decline in processing speed with improved strategic thinking and wisdom accumulated through experience.

Recent neuroscience research has demonstrated remarkable brain plasticity in adults. The brain continues to form new neural connections throughout life, particularly when engaging in novel learning experiences or complex problem-solving tasks. This neuroplasticity supports the development of new skills and adaptation to changing environments well into advanced age.

Social-emotional intelligence represents another dimension of adult mental growth. As individuals progress through different life stages, they often develop enhanced emotional regulation, better perspective-taking abilities, and more sophisticated approaches to interpersonal relationships. This emotional maturation process can continue well into later adulthood.

Environmental factors significantly influence adult cognitive development. Continuous education, engaging work environments, strong social connections, and healthy lifestyle practices all contribute to sustained mental growth. Conversely, lack of cognitive stimulation or chronic stress can impede development.

Understanding these patterns has important implications for professional development and lifelong learning programs. Organizations and educational institutions can support adult mental growth by providing opportunities for complex problem-solving, encouraging continuous learning, and creating environments that promote both intellectual and emotional development.

More Growth, Melancholy, and MindCraft @3QD [revised and updated]

I’ve got a new article at 3 Quarks Daily: Melancholy and Growth: Toward a Mindcraft for an Emerging World.

I’m of two minds about it: On the one hand, I think it’s one of my best non-technical pieces in a decade, maybe more. I enjoyed doing it. I learned a lot. But it was tricky. The ending was not as good as it needs to be.

“Why not?” you may ask. I ran out of time. I had to upload it to meet the deadline. “Why did that happen?” you ask. I didn’t know where I was going. I started out with some great material – the charts of my blog posting frequency, the counts of tag numbers. But as the material developed, it started changing up on me. In a good way, mind you. But it was becoming a new piece, one based on the material I started with, but going in a different direction. I no longer had a sense out where this thing was going. Sure, by the time I had to upload I’d managed to reorient my thinking, but I didn’t have enough to reconfigure the last half of the article.

Still, I like it. It’s some of the best work I’ve done in a few years. 

* * * * *

In the rest of this post: 1) I lay out the core argument in prose, then in 2) I dissect that argument into roughly seven assertions, leading to 3) some final comments based on the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer in Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age.

The core argument

My argument starts with the following chart, which depicts my blogging activity since I first established New Savanna in April 2010. The chart is based on the number of posts I make per month.

The dominant feature of the chart is that it is very spiky; there are times when I make many posts per month and other times where I make very few. Furthermore, those ups and downs seem to be fairly regular, with the periods of low positing coming in the winter months. Now, since I lived the experience of producing those posts, and I felt (moderately and more) depressed during the slumps, that suggests that I might be prey to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which appears to be organic in nature.

That hypothesis, however, is contradicted by my blogging in the last few years. In the article I present a chart that takes a closer look at the period. There we see two stretches where I’m down in the summer and up in the winter. That’s opposite of the pattern typical for SAD.

Something else seems to be going on. What? I argue that it’s creativity. Not only is it creativity during those last few years, but creativity’s been there all along. I further make a (highly speculative) argument that those slumps play a causal role in creativity. They are periods in which I withdraw from active participation in the world (in the form of writing blog posts, and associated activities) so that I can retool my mind/brain.

As empirical evidence for continuous creativity, I present growth in the number of blog tags, which now approaches 750. As I pursue new ideas, new interests, I add new tags to accommodate them. I estimate that my tag reservoir expands at the rate of 7% a year, compounded annually.

Once I’d made that argument I was faced with a problem: However interesting it is to me, why should anyone else care? I needed to generalize from the idiosyncrasies of my particular situation. I knew I’d have to do that when I started writing, but hadn’t thought it through. Faced with the need to actually generalize, I wasn’t sure just how to do it. I did it by way of talking about brain growth and neural development on the one hand, and then looking at changing patterns of education and full-time work, where career have become more fractured and there’s more need for learning and education in adulthood. That pattern will only intensify during the emergence and deployment of A.I.

So that’s the argument I made. But it could have been better if I’d conceived of it from the beginning.

Clarifying the core

The first phase of my overall argument is about depression and creativity in one person, me. The second phase generalizes the argument and draws implications for society.

FIRST PHASE

1. Graph of my posting habits also tracks my mood over the long term. That pattern over the last three years rules out SAD as an account of that pattern.

2. Increase in the number of tags/labels on posts is a crude proxy for mental growth.

3. Tag increase is consistent with the idea that long-term fluctuations in mood reflects long-term creativity. As correlation does not imply causation, that comparison doesn’t clinch the argument. The lack of a correlation, however, would count against the argument.

4. I suggest that my depressive periods are for mental reorganization that in turn enables further creativity.

SECOND PHASE

5. There is no reason to think that I my brain is idiosyncratic. Therefore we can suggest some broad areas for consideration.

6. The disappearance of long-term careers that follow a single path means that people increasingly are forced into mental reorganization so they can pursue a different career. This may lead to a period of depression. This emergence of multi-path careers is likely to be amplified by the adoption of AI into the workplace.

7. I was able to infer patterns of my long-term mental activity by examining my pattern of computer usage as reflected in my blogging activity. Are there other patterns of computer usage that can be used to track mental health? How can they be harnessed to mitigate the troubles caused by multipath careers?

Where I was headed: Young Lady's Primer

The article would have been still better if I’d realized that I was heading toward a somewhat expanded version of Young Lady's Illustrated Primer in Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age. The Primer is an interactive tutor that four-year-old Nell acquires early in the story and keeps with her through to the end. I’m in effect imagining a similar device that also monitors its owner’s state of mind. In that capacity the device could provide coaching and encouragement when needed, and arrange for virtual or in-person meetings with a human professional where needed. Beyond that ... well, use your imagination.

When will we have such a miracle? I don’t know. The future, that’s all we need to know in order to start working toward it.

I’ll be doing more work on this subject. 

Umm, err, and, yes, I know. Stephenson's Primer was in fact surreptitiously run by a woman who was in a position to minister to Nell in a way I'm describing for this new device, which won't be surreptitiously run be a human.

* * * * *

Note that I’ve done a number of posts here are New Savanna that support the 3 Quarks Daily piece. I’ve tagged them with “melancholy_mind,” a tag I’ll use for further work on this subject. In particular, I want to call your attention to the post, Neural maturation, cerebral plasticity, and the adaptive value of vacations, which I forgot to link in the 3QD piece. I find the discussion of vacations to be quite provocative.

AND, I've written about my daily blogging and sleep during October and November. I was coming out of a down-phase during the second half of November.

The Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Adults' Subjective Wellbeing

Blanchflower, David G. and Bryson, Alex, The Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Adults' Subjective Wellbeing. IZA Discussion Paper No. 16479, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4587415 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4587415

Abstract: Using four cross-sectional data files for the United States and Europe we show that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) have a significant impact on subjective wellbeing (SWB) in adulthood. Death of a parent, parental separation or divorce, financial difficulties, the prolonged absence of a parent, quarreling between parents, parental unemployment, sexual assault, experiencing long-term health problems, being bullied at school and being beaten or punched as a child all have long-term impacts on wellbeing. These experiences impact a wide range of wellbeing measures in adulthood including satisfaction with many aspects of everyday life, happiness and life satisfaction, self-assessed health, and are positively linked to measures of negative affect including the GHQ6. The evidence linking ACEs to lower SWB in adulthood is consistent across fifty different measures including sixteen positive affect and twenty-six negative affect measures relating to assessments of one's one life, and eight variables capturing how the individual feels about the area she lives in, including unemployment, drugs, violence and vandalism plus democracy in their country. Trauma in childhood is long lasting.

H/t Tyler Cowen

I'm reminded of the literature on childhood attachment,  a subject I studied as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins where I took an independent study with Mary Ainsworth (and in Wikipedia), one of the founders of attachment theory. That has been central to my thinking every since.

The transformation of Arnold Schwarzenegger

David Marchese, Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Here to Pump You Up (Emotionally), NYTimes, Sept. 28, 2023. Schwarzenegger has a new coming book out on Oct. 10: Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life. Marchese interviews him. From the interview:

The last 30 pages or so of the book are about the idea of having a responsibility to others. I’m curious to know more about how you got to that understanding. Because you could be a bully, you were disrespectful with women, you were driven primarily by thoughts of your own greatness. How does that guy transition into a person who realizes the value of selflessness? That’s a good question. First, pull back and do the master shot. I always fell into things. If it is helping other people, if it is the environmental issue, if it is becoming governor of California, if it is fighting prejudice — any of those things, I fell into it. To go back to this particular subject, I noticed that in bodybuilding, I always felt the best when I could teach and help someone. But one day I got a phone call from Wisconsin. They invited me to come to the university where they have a program for the Special Olympics, and would I teach them about weight training? I only paid attention because it was Jackie Kennedy who called. I said, I cannot say no to Jackie Kennedy. So I go. Then, of course, when she picked me up from the airport, I realized that it was not that Jackie Kennedy.

Too late to turn around. I go, and we started teaching Special Olympians how to bench press — the most unbelievable experience. You could see the change in those kids. I was blown away. I went home at night and said to myself: “It’s funny that I feel so good about this. I didn’t make any money, and it was not a career move.” It started there. It has not stopped since.

And then there's the part where he got Milton Berle to write one-liners for him. 

* * * * *

Cf. Buckminster Fuller, The Critical Path, p. 125:

... in my first thirty-two years of life I had been positively effective in producing life- advantage wealth—which realistically protected, nurtured, and accommodated X numbers of human lives for Y numbers of forward days—only when I was doing so entirely for others and not for myself.