Psychiatric Times of 7 February this year raises an important subject to start some serious thought on where the world is going and its psychological challenge to us all. How will Artificial Intelligence affect our job availability, our job choices, and our job satisfaction?
There are no answers to these questions at this point in time, but the questions are right to raise now for all clinicians. The changes we will face in the next five years demonstrate the shifting nature of the “List of Human Needs” content!
An initial list to think about is suggested.
| Survival | |
| Pleasure | Comfort and Stability |
| Knowledge | Mastery of subjects to feel control over environment |
| Play | Creativity |
| Relatedness | Connection, recognition by peers, belonging |
| Mastery | Competence, achievement, agency |
| Dignity | Respect from valued others, contribution, legacy |
| Meaning | Significance in terms of life on earth |
In addition, they raise for reflection the impact on our very concept of “workplaces”, because just going into a workplace gives our days and weeks structure and purpose. Post-Covid so many have been working from home and that has had benefits for childcare but often not for relationships or social-community connectedness.
I have personally reflected on this as I have had to move house and work-place recently and appreciated just how big a thing it is to have a “place to go” that affirms your professionalism and status in society and your profession. AI and job change is going to challenge the very basis of our meaning and purpose as human beings. The focus for discussion has been kept by media to the economic changes that altered patterns of working may create, but these psychological changes are the really big ones.
We need to reflect upon the stress of change alone also, as CHANGE is what challenges the Primal Brain more than anything else. We are not made by the Maker to enjoy too much change, as significant changes are perceived as a real threat to our identity and even our survival. What are our stabilizing or “anchor points” to secure our sense of personal “identity/value” as we face unique and very new challenges that come with AI? Forget about AI being “controlled” by any legislation, its already well beyond control by any people in politics….
Dr John C McEwan
At Monarch Psychology Rooms, Greenlane