M3GAN — an AI robot treating mental health... what could go wrong?

Let's talk about 2023 AI dystopian murderous doll from the bowels of tech hell masterpiece — M3GAN.

It is my belief that horror movies reflect not only the zeitgeist of the time in which they are made, but also our inner most fears and anxieties. While this movie is a lot of fun and M3GAN herself is a riot, it also carries an incredibly powerful message about the potential impacts of AI on human attachment.

This episode explores M3GAN’s portrayal of our society’s overall garbage relationship to grief and conversations about death, existential themes of loneliness and isolation, and the intersection of technology, mental health care, and attachment theory.

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Sources:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-01-05/m3gan-movie-malignant-akela-cooper-james-wan-horror

https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/fear-of-death/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2062034.Staring_at_the_Sun

https://www.eterneva.com/resources/death-rituals

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fhumd.2021.684137/full

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-022-13409-0

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/06/can-ai-treat-mental-illness

https://vos.health/

https://replika.com/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1295472.Attachment?ref=nav_sb_ss_4_6

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjvk97/eating-disorder-helpline-disables-chatbot-for-harmful-responses-after-firing-human-staff

Special Thanks To:

Danielle Matar at Geist

Kait Fowlie

Cover art by evil genius Chloe Hurst