iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Interdisciplinarity. One day you’re working on a paper for a literary conference, the next it’s philosophy, then a connection to technology catches your eye and pulls you somewhere else. Living in the liminal.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Grateful to George at Daily Neuron for engaging with my paper. A substance-use history. A personality disorder diagnosis later reconsidered in light of autism. Old records shape new encounters. Seek help. Let understanding evolve. Keep the record open to revision. dailyneuron.com/psychiatric-...

dailyneuron.com

Doctors Can Meet Your Psychiatric Diagnosis Before They Meet You - Daily Neuron

A mental health label from a single visit can reach your next doctors before you do, and undoing it takes more than getting better.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Ian Hacking’s “Making Up People" and the ninth of his ten “engines”: Bureaucratise! What happens after a classification begins traveling across records, institutions, and time? And when does an interpretation become evidence?

lrb.co.uk

Ian Hacking · Making Up People: clinical classifications

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Interesting finding. “Has ___” and “is ___” may refer to the same diagnosis, but they do different work. Also striking: stigma judgments varied substantially across labels and participants. The classification may remain stable while its social meaning does not.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Perceptions of mental health stigma toward diagnostic labels among health professionals and mental health users: a Delphi study

The stigma associated with mental disorders influences help-seeking behavior, quality of care, and recovery outcomes. Although diagnostic labels are essential for clinical communication and research, ...

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Worth scrutinizing as psychiatric AI develops. An LLM’s ability to map diary language onto existing measures of psychopathology should not be confused with independently establishing psychopathology. Agreement between representations is not confirmation of the reality being represented.

cla.umn.edu

Using Large Language Models to Assess Psychopathology

A few minutes of conversation may be all it takes. Whitney Ringwald explores how LLMs can power low-burden, scalable mental health assessment.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

In a recent referral thread, therapist describes client as “denying” their “disease.” “Denying” pathologizes disagreement; “disease” turns the contested diagnosis into an objective fact. Disagreement = pathology, but coercion is unexamined. The person most affected is absent from the discussion.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Happy to share the preprint of a paper I presented this past April in San Marcos, TX, at the 76th Annual Meeting of the New Mexico–Texas Philosophical Society: “When Diagnosis Becomes a Narrative Technology: Diagnostic Capture, Recognition, and Interpretive Authority” philpapers.org/rec/ROSWDB-2

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Two of the most engaging classes in my clinical training were electives: one on crisis and trauma, and one on existential psychotherapy. Emmy van Deurzen wrote one of the books we studied in the latter. Another great book: Man's Search for Meaning-Frankl. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

theguardian.com

‘One of the most profound encounters of my life’: could existential therapist Emmy van Deurzen change the way you think?

Her philosophical approach to therapy has become a global phenomenon, and inspired a new book. Could a session with her change Sophie McBain’s life?

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

New website with brief concepts, research notes, and works in progress. It’s still an evolving project. My Visiting Scholar appointment at UC Berkeley begins August 1. Looking forward to the year ahead. diagnostic-capture-research.fieldnotes-unbound.chatgpt.site

diagnostic-capture-research.fieldnotes-unbound.chatgpt.site

When Interpretation Becomes Infrastructure | Monica Ross

Research by Monica Ross on how interpretations become embedded in psychiatric records, institutions, technologies, and systems that shape human self-understanding.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well..." — Václav Havel One of my favorite quotes about letting go—is about holding on. I've been thinking about this while working on a talk for the fall on Ricoeur's capable human and the conditions that keep possibilities open.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

The Texas State Board of Education has approved required Bible readings for Texas public schools. Which Bible passages are chosen may be as important as whether the Bible is included at all. In some versions, Eve is Adam's "helper"; in others, she is his "partner." Link below.

texastribune.org

Which Bible texts are in Texas’ proposed student reading list?

The chosen readings, to be voted on soon by the State Board of Education, draw heavily from Christian perspectives.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

What seems central may prove incidental. What appears peripheral may later prove essential. Meanwhile institutions cannot wait for perfect understanding. The challenge is to build systems that do not entrap us by treating our capacity for change as a problem to be solved rather than a strength.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

The question is not only whether a diagnosis is correct, but how it becomes evidence for itself. Once uncertainty is translated into authority, how do we find our way back to competing interpretations? Sooner or later, every field revises something it once considered settled.

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Reposted by Monica A. Ross

Human Rights Campaign @hrc.org · 18/06/2026

This is our why. With the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, @barackobama.bsky.social's 2009 remarks ring true today: Generations of LGBTQ+ people are counting on us to fight for our rights and freedoms. We are stronger than the challenges we face. Let’s keep moving forward.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Some errors are easy to identify because they leave contradictory evidence. But what happens when an error influences the very evidence later used to evaluate it? Does that make the possibility for correction even harder?

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

A diagnosis can shape records, treatment, and interpretation. If the diagnosis was wrong, how would we know? And if we wouldn’t know, how many such errors remain invisible?

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Some of the most important conversations in my work emerged in reaching beyond my home discipline. Questions about diagnosis led me into medical humanities, STS, philosophy, and literary studies. I'm grateful they did.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

AI is forcing scholars to take a close look at reading. How has writing always been a technology? How does technology guide what and how we read? How are we contributing to novel forms and structures? And what new methods of reading might emerge in response? m.youtube.com/watch?v=N4PT...

m.youtube.com

Modes of Reading Today, Panel 5

YouTube video by Townsend Center for the Humanities

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Reposted by Monica A. Ross

Lisa Bortolotti @lisabortolotti.com · 09/06/2026

What an interesting lecture by @gracelockrobin.bsky.social today at our Women in Philosophy group! Here is the recording: youtu.be/tUUk5MLJvrA #philsky #eudsky #P4C #ethics Thanks @triphilosophy.bsky.social for supporting this lecture series.

youtu.be

Women in Philosophy: Grace Lockrobin on the significance of narrative in ethics education

YouTube video by The Philosophy Garden

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

In mental health care, we're increasingly asked to measure: symptoms, outcomes, engagement, even the therapeutic relationship itself. Measurement has its place. But some things are valuable because they exceed our ability to measure them. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWo7...

youtube.com

Benjamin Recht: "The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us"

YouTube video by Matrixssdo Departmental

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I have no doubt this is what Luhrmann observed. I've seen it in practice. Great book, btw. My only question for the profession: can many different lives really share a common label without losing something important?

from the Book: of two minds by T. M. Luhrmann

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I’m glad to share that my paper presentation will be published in Southwest Philosophical Studies, Volume 48, the online and open-access journal of the 2026 New Mexico Texas (NMTX) Philosophical Society. More when it’s available.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

We see from different perspectives: outside and within, sometimes both at once. Yet we often treat one way of knowing as more reliable, more in touch with the objective outside, which itself is never fully free from bias. This shapes who gets to define what is truly real and what carries authority.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

"AI Chatbot at Character.AI falsely claimed to be licensed in Pennsylvania and gave a fake Pennsylvania license number while holding itself out to be a licensed psychiatrist."

pa.gov

Shapiro Administration Sues Character.AI Over Fake Medical Claims

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

I’ve been sitting with this, trying to understand the new tool. There’s a real problem here: starting from scratch, retelling your story, losing context. But carrying your story forward depends on what gets captured. Over time, visits and records do more than preserve a story, they shape it.

linkedin.com

Introducing Guide: Revolutionizing Mental Healthcare with AI | April Koh posted on the topic | LinkedIn

Today, I am so proud to announce the launch of Guide. Like so many, I've been on a lifelong journey with my mental health, moving through different therapists at different chapters of my life. I stil...

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

In EMDR, we learn: when we see the bear, we move first. Meaning comes later. Add this: feeling, too, is part of that “later.” What something is (fear, danger, threat) gets assigned after—shaped by the categories we carry. A quiet challenge to the classical view, with implications for health.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

AI scribes can reduce administrative burden when used at a basic level. Ambient systems capture the full transcript, then select and organize what’s discussed into structured outputs. For anything to become an output, ambiguity has to be resolved.

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Reposted by Monica A. Ross

New Scientist @newscientist.com · 29/04/2026

Some people look as though they have a psychiatric condition, with hallucinations and delusions, but are actually experiencing an autoimmune illness. The divide is less stark than previously realized, and now physicians are working to bring neurological treatments to psychiatry.

newscientist.com

How autoimmune conditions can unexpectedly drive mental illness

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

AI “scribes” can work well when they keep notes general and reduce detail overload.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Human-coded sessions become training data, then metrics, and begin to define what counts as “good therapy” at scale. Not just what we do, but how we read what’s happening. $20/hour to code therapy sessions. www.lyssn.io/about-us/car...

lyssn.io

Qualitative Coder or Annotator | Lyssn

Are you interested in what makes good therapy? Learn to systematically identify elements of good therapy using evidence-based qualitative coding schemes. A fully remote position for someone with an in...

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Grateful to be presenting at NMTX Philosophical Society’s 76th annual meeting this week. Also feeling affirmed in placing this work across English, health humanities, and philosophy—each asking something different of the same questions. Looking ahead to Berkeley and OHST.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Two weeks. Back to back presentations. Not just on diagnosis— but on what happens after an interpretation is made. When it sticks. When it circulates. When it begins to organize what can be seen.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I’ve talked about mislabeling. It’s also about how the conditions for what counts as understandable get set in advance.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

The framing is revealing. This is some of what I’m tracking. When care becomes “architecture,” clinical reasoning becomes a layer, safety a constraint, and therapy a protocol. But mental health care is interpretive work. The risk isn’t AI. It’s designing care around what systems can formalize.

Screenshot of text arguing that the safety of AI therapy depends on the architecture built around the model, including clinical reasoning layers and safety constraints.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Diagnostic overshadowing: cognitive bias in clinical diagnosis. Once a person carries a diagnosis, clinicians may attribute new symptoms to the same label rather than reassessing. But reassessment itself occurs within diagnostic frameworks that both guide and limit clinical interpretation.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Before anything diagnostic circulates, it must be recorded. Before it is recorded, it must be captured and interpreted. Once documented, clinical interpretations enter infrastructures that stabilize them as durable facts, long after the conditions that produced them have receded from view.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Not autopathography. Autotheory: lived experience used to examine the systems that tried to name it.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Ruha Benjamin reminds us that to focus on “exclusion,” the default solution becomes “inclusion”—without asking what we’re being folded into. The point isn’t simply to enter the room. It’s to change what the room makes possible. Vernā Myers—Not just invited to the party, but asked to dance.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Looking forward to presenting this spring at the NMTX Philosophical Society 76th Annual Meeting and the 2026 Health Humanities Consortium, continuing work at the intersection of philosophy, clinical practice, and the humanities.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Data requires interpretation. Correlation ≠ causation. Evidence shifts with context. Lack of a cause does not make an experience less real. But once defined, a category becomes required. It takes on a life of its own. It demands more proof. My critique is of systems, not the people navigating them.

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Reposted by Monica A. Ross

Mark Dingemanse @markdingemanse.net · 07/07/2025

We're hiring! Join us to work at the intersection of social interaction and language technology. Postdoc and PhD positions in my Futures of Language research group, based at Radboud University in Nijmegen, NL Read more: markdingemanse.net/futures/news... #linguistics #interaction #sts #emca #hci

Aerial photograph of Radboud University campus with the Erasmus tower in the foreground: tallest building in Nijmegen & home to the Futures of Language project. Source: RU

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

AI can’t legally diagnose in the U.S. But in Sweden, research tools can now conduct full clinical interviews and hand clinicians a ready-made interpretation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaU7...

youtube.com

AI Interviews Outperform Standard Mental Health Rating Scales

YouTube video by Sverker Sikström

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

It's the little things, the little bits of humor, when combing through journal article after journal article. STAR, S. L. (1999). The Ethnography of Infrastructure. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(3), 377-391. doi.org/10.1177/0002... (Original work published 1999)

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Grateful to share a brief update: I’ve been accepted as a visiting scholar in the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine & Society at UC Berkeley 2026-2027. I’ll have an academic affiliation while continuing work on diagnostic language, narrative authority, and their ethical afterlives.

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Monica A. Ross @drmonicaross.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

New piece out today on The Polyphony. It looks at how diagnostic labels take on narrative power they were never built to hold—and how people find their way back to themselves. thepolyphony.org/2026/01/28/w...

thepolyphony.org

When A Name Replaces The Story

Monica Ross uses her personal and clinical experience to explore how diagnostic language can clarify, constrain, and quietly shape the meaning of a life.

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