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Human development unfolds within a psychic ecology increasingly shaped by AI: we have entered technogenetic times. No longer merely a tool, AI structures how we understand ourselves and relate to others. In AI-mediated contexts, self-exploration often remains superficial, particularly among adolescents, eclipsing the messy, non-linear process of self-discovery, which depends on the capacity to tolerate uncertainty. I propose the metaphor of the meniscus – the tense, curved surface where liquid clings to the edge of its container – to describe a defensive psychic structure emerging in this context. It captures my clinical experience with -patients who engage intensively with AI, where the self, like a liquid, adheres to the surface of its container to maintain its form. However, it does not allow penetration or integration. Just as water molecules cling to the container’s wall to form a meniscus, people interacting extensively with the ever growing presence of technological agents may cling to the digital interface or AI feedback as an external ‘skin’ that contains the self. This results in a one-dimensional self, held together at a surface level, preventing psychic integration. In the consulting room, the analyst’s task becomes one of (re)-establishing psychic three-dimensionality by “claiming” the patient through the here-and-now transference.
Alessandra Lemma is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society and a Chartered Clinical and Counselling Psychologist with extensive experience as a clinician, academic, and author. Currently Visiting Professor in the Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London, Consultant at the Anna Freud Centre, and Visiting Professor at Centro Winnicott, Rome. Formerly Head of Psychology and Professor of Psychological Therapies at the Tavistock Clinic. Recognized internationally for contributions to psychoanalysis, trauma, impact of technology on the psyche, transgender identities, and ethics.
She is the recipient of the 2022 Sigourney Award, the 2025 Scharff Award and the BPC’s 2025 Bernard Rattigan Award for Psychoanalysis and Diversity.
Her most recent books are First Principles: Applied Ethics for Psychoanalytic Practice (2023) and the Third Edition of Introduction to Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2025) and Psychotechnical Becomings: Psychoanalysis, Identity, Desire and Mourning in Times of AI and Digital Mediation (Routledge, 2026). Her forthcoming book is Journeying Through Psychoanalysis: Lessons from the Couch (Wiley, 2027).
Bernard Macleod is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist working in private practice in Sydney. He trained in London at Regents College and Birkbeck college and has worked in various settings including schools, CAMS services and the NHS. He is currently the President of NSWIPP and Chair of the CPD Committee for the PPAA.
Booking Details
PPAA members $ 80
Non-PPAA members $ 100
Trainees/Candidates $ 60
A Zoom link will be provided on the day before the Seminar.
A Recording of the seminar will be available for 2 weeks – Accessible to ticket holders only
