Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aitor @aitorpesquera.bsky.social · 23/09/2026🧵 El sábado compartí mesa en el Festival de las Ideas con el psicoterapeuta Aaron Balick. El tema: qué le hace la IA a nuestra psique. Me quedé con un concepto que no puedo dejar de pensar: la "seducción relacional". 101
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 17/09/2026What happens at the interface between bodies and machines? Check out my latest substack exploring embodiment and AI: newsletter.aaronbalick.com/p/does-your-... 011
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 17/09/2026What happens at the interface between bodies and machines? Check out my latest substack exploring embodiment and AI: newsletter.aaronbalick.com/p/does-your-... 011
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 10/09/2026If AI did “recursive self improvement” as badly as humans do, we’d never be at risk for species-wide extinction. 021
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 10/09/2026If AI did “recursive self improvement” as badly as humans do, we’d never be at risk for species-wide extinction. 021
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 09/09/2026"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him". - Aldous Huxley 120
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 07/09/2026The moment you realise you’ve been using three separate versions of the same document to revise the a chapter of a single book - and all your carefully crafted edits are now scattered, willy nilly, across across all of them. 100
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 30/08/2026Paul Simon on loneliness (depression ?) when he was at the top of is game, musically, shortly after solo artist: “The [first] marriage didn’t solve the loneliness. I knew right away I had made a mistake. I didn’t know how to be a good companion. I wasn’t a very mature person. 1/7 112
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 30/08/2026Paul Simon on loneliness (depression ?) when he was at the top of is game, musically, shortly after solo artist: “The [first] marriage didn’t solve the loneliness. I knew right away I had made a mistake. I didn’t know how to be a good companion. I wasn’t a very mature person. 1/7 112
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 26/08/2026What happens where a real psychologist shrinks comedians’s heads directly after their sets in from of 200 people at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? Is it even ethical? It was definitely funny - here aremy thoughts: substack.com/@draaronb/no...substack.comAaron Balick (@draaronb)What happens where a real psychologist shrinks comedians’s heads directly after their sets in from of 200 people at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? Is it even ethical? It was definitely funny - here’s ... 001
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 26/08/2026What happens where a real psychologist shrinks comedians’s heads directly after their sets in from of 200 people at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? Is it even ethical? It was definitely funny - here aremy thoughts: substack.com/@draaronb/no...substack.comAaron Balick (@draaronb)What happens where a real psychologist shrinks comedians’s heads directly after their sets in from of 200 people at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? Is it even ethical? It was definitely funny - here’s ... 001
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 26/08/2026Shrink Wrapped review from the Edinburgh festival: What happens when you do a bit of psychotherapy in a public forum for laughs? It’s complicated - but also really really funny. open.substack.com/pub/appliedp... 010
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 23/08/2026What? The first summit on AI and Depth Psychology? And it’s free? Join Lisa Marchiano and I as we host this exciting event with some of the most original thinkers in this area including: Todd Essig, Alessandra Lemma, James Muldoon, Glen Slater, and Zachary Stein. us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...us06web.zoom.usWelcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Artificial Intelligence and the Psyche: The First Summit on Depth Psychology and AI. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining ...Never before have we had a technology that performs being human so well. What might this be doing to the psyche? People are already forming attachments to these systems, confiding in them, dreaming a... 001
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 23/08/2026What? The first summit on AI and Depth Psychology? And it’s free? Join Lisa Marchiano and I as we host this exciting event with some of the most original thinkers in this area including: Todd Essig, Alessandra Lemma, James Muldoon, Glen Slater, and Zachary Stein. us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...us06web.zoom.usWelcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Artificial Intelligence and the Psyche: The First Summit on Depth Psychology and AI. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining ...Never before have we had a technology that performs being human so well. What might this be doing to the psyche? People are already forming attachments to these systems, confiding in them, dreaming a... 001
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 17/08/2026“It still strikes me as strange that the case histories I write should read like short stories and that … they lack the serious stamp of science. I must console myself with the reflection that the nature of the subject is evidently responsible for this, rather than any preference of my own.” - Freud 051
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 17/08/2026“It still strikes me as strange that the case histories I write should read like short stories and that … they lack the serious stamp of science. I must console myself with the reflection that the nature of the subject is evidently responsible for this, rather than any preference of my own.” - Freud 051
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 16/08/2026The Self has a big “S”. The ego has a small “e”. But the ego thinks it’s got the capital letter. It’s wrong. It also thinks it’s the whole show: it’s not. Get better acquainted with your Self - there’s so much more room there. Only the Self speaks more quietly than the noisy ego, so listen in. 041
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 16/08/2026The Self has a big “S”. The ego has a small “e”. But the ego thinks it’s got the capital letter. It’s wrong. It also thinks it’s the whole show: it’s not. Get better acquainted with your Self - there’s so much more room there. Only the Self speaks more quietly than the noisy ego, so listen in. 041
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 12/08/2026Gotta love a good news story. Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s Press Secretary, to Depart White House www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/u...nytimes.comKaroline Leavitt, Trump’s White House Press Secretary, Is Leaving the RolePresident Trump said that Ms. Leavitt, who recently gave birth to her second child, would be leaving to spend time with her family. 030
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 11/08/2026The structure of the digitally mediated landscape leans us into the paranoid/schizoid. In order to reclaim the sovereign psyche, we need to retain the depressive position. 1/2 231
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 11/08/2026The structure of the digitally mediated landscape leans us into the paranoid/schizoid. In order to reclaim the sovereign psyche, we need to retain the depressive position. 1/2 231
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 11/08/2026Way back in 1885 Freud noticed something in his patients that would form the bedrock of psychotherapy, “Hysterics suffer mainly from reminiscences”. It’s our memories from the past that haven’t quite caught up to the present that compel us to repeat patterns that don’t work for us. 1/3 140
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 10/08/2026How sovereign is your psyche under the influence of AI? open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...open.substack.comThe Sovereign Psyche: How AI erodes a mind of your ownYour data should be sovereign. So should what you let inside your mind. 011
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 10/08/2026How sovereign is your psyche under the influence of AI? open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...open.substack.comThe Sovereign Psyche: How AI erodes a mind of your ownYour data should be sovereign. So should what you let inside your mind. 011
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 07/08/2026People need structure. We crave not having it, but in the end we need it. At least some. 090
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 05/08/2026Perhaps I lowered the sycophancy setting too low. Claude sends me to bed after a slightly drunken rant, insults my beard, and then unequivocally “rolls over” in bed performing of the universal human tactic of avoidance we call sleep. 010
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 04/08/2026Can we have a “sovereign psyche” in a world of ubiquitous AI engagement? Join my discussion with Graeme Scott where we explore the influence of Artificial Intelligence on the human psyche. youtube.com/watch?v=CL6Y...youtube.comGAEA Talks - The Sovereign Psyche: AI Chatbots & The Currency of Fear with Dr Aaron BalickYouTube video by GAEA Talks 011
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 04/08/2026Can we have a “sovereign psyche” in a world of ubiquitous AI engagement? Join my discussion with Graeme Scott where we explore the influence of Artificial Intelligence on the human psyche. youtube.com/watch?v=CL6Y...youtube.comGAEA Talks - The Sovereign Psyche: AI Chatbots & The Currency of Fear with Dr Aaron BalickYouTube video by GAEA Talks 011
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 02/08/2026“Rational argument can be conducted with some prospect of success only so long as the emotionality of a given situation does not exceed a certain critical degree… 1/2 100
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 31/07/2026Highlighting on my kindle and exporting to Readwise is super convenient and keeps all my notes and highlights on one place. I still prefer analogue underlining my books and writing in the margins - even though the only way to keep track of my notes is to go back and take the book off the shelf. 150
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 29/07/2026“Good enough” and “false self” are two Winnicottian concepts that are as excellent in conception as they are misunderstood in practice. 011
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 29/07/2026“Good enough” and “false self” are two Winnicottian concepts that are as excellent in conception as they are misunderstood in practice. 011
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 25/07/2026Last month it was “the quiet part said out loud” now everything is “quietly doing something.” The AI phrasing that quietly becomes omnipresent is quietly driving me crazy. Am I the only one? 000
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 23/07/2026Lacan said that the unconscious was structured like a language. No doubt were he around to see an LLM he’d have a spontaneous jouissance. 011
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 23/07/2026AI may be a repository of knowledge, but wisdom is altogether different. 010
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 23/07/2026Lacan said that the unconscious was structured like a language. No doubt were he around to see an LLM he’d have a spontaneous jouissance. 011
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 22/07/2026The terror of the empty page… The paralysis that ensues… Overcoming it is part of the process. Don’t short circuit your creative process. You know what I’m saying. “It’s about self-expression, not just expressing something.“ (See what I did there?😉) 011
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 22/07/2026The terror of the empty page… The paralysis that ensues… Overcoming it is part of the process. Don’t short circuit your creative process. You know what I’m saying. “It’s about self-expression, not just expressing something.“ (See what I did there?😉) 011
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 21/07/2026Emotions are a greatly devalued data set in our culture. 032
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 21/07/2026Emotions are a greatly devalued data set in our culture. 032
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 20/07/2026The unconscious isn’t a problem to be solved. It’s a part of you yet to be discovered. After all, isn’t it amazing that despite being closer to yourself than anything else in the entire universe, there is still a mystery within you? 021
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 20/07/2026The unconscious isn’t a problem to be solved. It’s a part of you yet to be discovered. After all, isn’t it amazing that despite being closer to yourself than anything else in the entire universe, there is still a mystery within you? 021
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 15/07/2026The thing about dogs is that they have no ego. Without an ego they don’t defend themselves from loving or being loved. Without a sense of episodic time, they don’t fear future loss. Their hearts are open and they love completely. Ergo, a dog’s love lacks the very neurosis that dogs human love. 132
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 15/07/2026The thing about dogs is that they have no ego. Without an ego they don’t defend themselves from loving or being loved. Without a sense of episodic time, they don’t fear future loss. Their hearts are open and they love completely. Ergo, a dog’s love lacks the very neurosis that dogs human love. 132
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 13/07/2026When we talk about “difference” what are we excluding? Lives that appear to be conventional on the outside are still unique on the inside. The consequences of normativity may increase the further you move from convention, but it exacts a toll on everybody. newsletter.aaronbalick.com/p/when-the-t...newsletter.aaronbalick.comWhen the Therapist Became the Subject: A reminder about how disarming it can be when you're not the one asking the questionsA podcast about the unconscious of AI turned the tables and interviewed me instead. On school busing, my father's death, coming out — and why recognition matters more than validation, in the consultin... 110
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 12/07/2026Our life stories no doubt contribute to why we become and how we work as therapists. Lived experience ideally opens more widely the doors to empathy rather than defining what doors are opened and closed to us. open.substack.com/pub/appliedp...open.substack.comWhen the Therapist Became the Subject: A reminder about how disarming it can be when you're not the one asking the questionsA podcast about the unconscious of AI turned the tables and interviewed me instead. On school busing, my father's death, coming out — and why recognition matters more than validation, in the consultin... 000
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 09/07/2026Say what you want about Freud. He earned his keep with transference and projection alone. 051
Reposted by Aaron Balick 🍉Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 10/07/2026I accidentally shaved my beard off just before this podcast, I felt exposed. That was just the prologue. When the host unexpectedly turned the tables, things got personal - my childhood, my father's death, coming out - When the therapist became the subject: newsletter.aaronbalick.com/p/when-the-t...newsletter.aaronbalick.comWhen the Therapist Became the Subject: A reminder about how disarming it can be when you're not the one asking the questionsA podcast about the unconscious of AI turned the tables and interviewed me instead. On school busing, my father's death, coming out — and why recognition matters more than validation, in the consultin... 131
Aaron Balick 🍉 @aaronbalick.com · 10/07/2026I accidentally shaved my beard off just before this podcast, I felt exposed. That was just the prologue. When the host unexpectedly turned the tables, things got personal - my childhood, my father's death, coming out - When the therapist became the subject: newsletter.aaronbalick.com/p/when-the-t...newsletter.aaronbalick.comWhen the Therapist Became the Subject: A reminder about how disarming it can be when you're not the one asking the questionsA podcast about the unconscious of AI turned the tables and interviewed me instead. On school busing, my father's death, coming out — and why recognition matters more than validation, in the consultin... 131