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Plain answers about the inner life
Each article opens with the answer, then shows the evidence and its limits. Sources sit at the end of every one.
Psychodynamic ideas
Concepts from Freud, Lacan and later clinical work, in plain words.
- Psychodynamic therapy vs CBT: what actually differsCognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) works on current thoughts and behaviours with set exercises, usually over 5–15 sessions. Psychodynamic therapy explores recurring patterns, avoidance and early relationships in open conversation. In adults, trials find similar average benefit, though most trials are too small to prove the two are equal, and evidence for psychodynamic therapy in children is thinner.
- What is psychodynamic AI? What a language model can and cannot doPsychodynamic AI is software that uses a language model to notice what recurs in what a person writes, such as repeated themes, avoidances and ways of describing relationships, and to put those patterns to the person as questions. It can read text consistently over time. It cannot hear the unconscious, diagnose, or know why a pattern exists.
- Why you repeat the same relationship pattern, in plain wordsPeople often repeat painful relationship patterns because earlier relationships left expectations that they apply to new people without noticing. Freud called the repetition a compulsion in 1920 and tied it to a death drive, an idea most critics reject. The observation itself is better supported: attachment security is moderately stable from infancy, though experience can change it.
- Attachment styles and repeating patterns: a psychodynamic viewAttachment style patterns in relationships describe how a person seeks closeness and handles distance, an idea developed from Bowlby and Ainsworth and applied to adult couples by Hazan and Shaver in 1987. Researchers now measure it mostly as two dimensions, anxiety and avoidance, not four boxes. Styles are moderately stable but can change with experience and with therapy.
- Defence mechanisms in plain wordsDefence mechanisms are mostly automatic mental habits that shield a person from anxiety, shame or conflict, such as repression, denial or projection. Psychodynamic theory ranks them from immature to mature. The ranking has some research support, but the evidence is thin in places and the concept is contested.
- What dreams are for: the psychoanalytic viewIn psychoanalytic dream interpretation, a dream is read as a disguised expression of unconscious material, found through the dreamer's own associations rather than a symbol dictionary. Freud set this out in 1900. Jung disagreed on the disguise. Sleep science does not confirm hidden wishes and disputes what dreams are for.
Between sessions
What to do with the days between appointments.
- How to remember what you said in therapyForgetting much of a therapy session is normal: in one study of weekly sessions, patients freely recalled between 19.6% and 36.9% of the points their therapist made. To remember more, write three lines within a day, keep only what surprised you, and ask your therapist before you record anything.
- How to talk to your psychologist about what an AI noticedIf you use AI between therapy sessions, bring one or two specific observations to your psychologist, not a transcript, and say them as questions: 'it pointed out that this keeps happening, does that fit?' The psychologist decides what is useful. You choose what to share. An AI's observation is a lead to examine together, never a verdict.
- What to do between therapy sessionsBetween therapy sessions, small steady things help most: note what stayed with you after the session, record moments when your pattern showed up, do any task your therapist set, and choose one thing to bring next time. The strongest evidence concerns homework in cognitive behavioural therapy; evidence for psychodynamic work is thinner.
AI and safety
What AI in mental health can and cannot do, and the rules around it.
- Is AI therapy legal and safe? The 2025–26 rules and 10 questionsAI therapy is not banned everywhere. Illinois and Nevada restrict AI that provides therapy; Utah allows mental health chatbots under disclosure, data and advertising rules; California's SB 903 was vetoed on 30 September 2026; EU law requires AI chatbots to disclose that they are AI from 2 August 2026. Safety is separate, and its evidence is thin.
- Can your psychologist see what you tell an AI?Your psychologist can read an AI chat only if the product is built to share it and you have agreed. A separate chatbot app keeps your messages under its own policy. In TwentyThird, you choose item by item what your psychologist sees, and until supervision opens for you nobody there is alerted by your messages.
Choosing support
Questions to ask before you pick a tool or a person.
- AI journaling vs therapy: what pattern-finding can and cannot doAn AI journaling app can show what repeats in your own writing: the same people, situations and phrases across weeks. It cannot diagnose you, form a working relationship with you, or answer for its advice as a licensed clinician does. Expressive-writing research involved no feedback, so it does not support an app replacing therapy.
- AI mental health tools after Woebot: what to look for nextWoebot Health retired its consumer app on 30 June 2025, and Youper's own notice says it discontinued service on 30 September 2026. Common Sense Media reported that Earkick and Youper left app stores in April 2026 without notice. When choosing a replacement, check who is responsible, what happens to your data, and how the product ends.
- How to choose an AI mental health app: 10 questions to askJudge an AI mental health app by 10 questions, not a ranking: who is responsible for what it says, where your data goes, how it handles a crisis, what evidence exists, whether a clinician is involved, how it earns money, whether you can delete everything, who it is for, what it refuses, and how it ends.
- Clinician-supervised AI vs an AI therapist vs a chatbotClinician-supervised AI is an AI tool that a named licensed clinician directs and can see into, so a person answers for what it says. A general chatbot, a persona app, an app sold as an AI therapist and an AI journal usually lack that. Supervision is a design safeguard, not proof of safety or effectiveness.
Professional life
How inner patterns show up at work.
Looking for a single term? The glossary defines them one at a time.
If you are in danger, contact local emergency services now — 112 anywhere in the EU. TwentyThird is not an emergency service. How safety works