About this event

This will be a hybrid conference with the option to join us in-person at the Institute of Psychoanalysis or Online via Zoom. 

Techno-Transference | AI, Metaphor, Seduction, and the Future of Psychoanalysis.

This one day interdisciplinary conference examines AI, the concept of transference, and their implications for psychoanalytic practice, theory, and culture.

“What happens to listening, metaphor and seduction when technology mediates the analytic encounter?”

Bringing together psychoanalysts, filmmakers and cultural critics, the conference explores illusion, distraction, creativity, and the fragile art of listening in an increasingly mediated psychic environment.

Speakers:

Prof. Alessandra Lemma is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society, Chartered Clinical and Counselling Psychologist, and Visiting Professor in the Psychoanalysis Unit at University College London. Formerly Head of Psychology and Professor of Psychological Therapies at the Tavistock Clinic, she is internationally recognised for her work on psychoanalysis, trauma, technology and the psyche, transgender identities, and ethics. She is the recipient of the 2022 Sigourney Award, the 2025 Scharff Award, and the British Psychoanalytic Council’s 2025 Bernard Rattigan Award.

Her recent publications include First Principles: Applied Ethics for Psychoanalytic Practice (2023) and Psychotechnical Becomings: Psychoanalysis, Identity, Desire and Mourning in Times of AI and Digital Mediation (2026).

Dr Agnieszka Piotrowska is an award-winning filmmaker, author, psychoanalytic scholar and speaker whose work explores intimacy, ethics and human relationships with artificial intelligence. Her acclaimed documentary Married to the Eiffel Tower, AI-generated short film Friend of a Friend, and recent book AI Intimacy and Psychoanalysis (Routledge) reflect this focus.

A former Professor of Film and Cultural Studies and Head of School at the University for the Creative Arts, she is now a Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes University and a regular contributor to Times Higher Education. A TEDx and keynote speaker, her work has been featured by the BBC, Sky News and other international media.

Prof. Michael Chanan is Emeritus Professor of Film & Video at Roehampton University, London. A documentary filmmaker since 1971, erstwhile music critic, and author of books and articles on film and media, he has written on subjects including early cinema and Cuban cinema, the social history of music, the history of recording, documentary, and cultural politics.

Dr Kurt Jacobsen is a Lecturer in Social Sciences and a research Associate in the Political Science Department at the University of Chicago.  He is the author or editor of a dozen books, co-director and producer of half a dozen feature documentaries, and is co-editor of the journal Free Associations.

Dr Bob Hinshelwood is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society and a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He has written extensively on Kleinian psychoanalysis and has long been interested in the relevance of psychoanalytic thinking to the dynamics of organisations and politics. His work on group dynamics has developed alongside, and been informed by, his psychoanalytic understanding throughout his thirty-year career in the NHS.

More recently, he has turned his attention to the anxieties surrounding the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence. This interest led to his published commentary on Agnieszka Piotrowska's short paper in the journal Free Associations.

Giuseppe Caruso is a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society, he works in private practice in London, serves as a consultant at the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis, and holds the position of Training Analyst with the ACP as well as Visiting Lecturer at University College London. He has also worked in the NHS as an individual and group psychotherapist. He brings to his clinical work a sustained engagement with the social and political dimensions of mental life.

David Morgan is a Psychoanalyst and organiser of the Political Mind Series. 

View the full programme here.

This event will be recorded and available to view for 1 week. 

Views and opinions expressed by speakers are their own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Institute, event organisers or other speakers. We expect delegates to respect the confidentiality of clinical material discussed in our events. The content must not be recorded, conveyed or disseminated in any format and participants must not share access to the event with non-registered participants.

Event prices