The Therapist Who Wasn’t There
In 1966, a MIT computer scientist named Joseph Weizenbaum wrote a program called ELIZA. It was designed to mimic a Rogerian psychotherapist—the kind of therapist who mostly just reflects your own words back at you to keep you talking. If you told ELIZA, "I’m feeling sad," it might reply, "Why do you think you’re feeling sad?" If you mentioned your mother, it would pivot: "Tell me more about your family."
