Eliza - Then and Now
Speaking as a psychotherapist (though my patients may dispute my claim to that title), I have to say that there's always been something disconcerting about the computer program know as ELIZA. First developed in 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum, ELIZA (always in capitals but not an acronym that I could find) was designed to provide a "parody of the responses of a non-directional psychotherapist in an initial psychiatric interview" in the words of it's creator, an eminent figure in the field of artifical intelligence.
Weizenbaum chose to base ELIZA on principles of client-centred therapy developed by Carl Rogers (i.e., a client centred approach emphasizing unconditional positive regard) to sidestep the need for incorporating a conceptual database into the program. ELIZA took her name from Eliza Doolittle of Pygmalion and My Fair Lady fame. While the program was designed as an exercise in interactive programming, Weizenbaum was quickly confounded by the willingness of people to use ELIZA to discuss their most intimate personal problems as if it were a real-life therapist. His observations on the tendency of people to anthropomorphize computers formed the basis of his book Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation.
In the years that followed, ELIZA inspired a generation of computer role playing games as well as earnest clones such as Dr. Sbaitso and Virtual Woman that can be run on a variety of different computer platforms. ELIZA still continues to outshine them all, however. Give ELIZA a try yourself. She may end up saving you a fortune in therapy bills.
Romeo Vitelli received his doctorate in Psychology from York University in Toronto, Ontario in 1987, He spent fifteen years as a staff psychologist in Millbrook Correctional Centre, a maximum-security prison run by the Ontario government. In 2003, he successfully escaped prison and went into full-time private practice. He maintains offices in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario dealing with forensic and neuropsychology cases. Check out his website at http://www.drvitelli.com and his blog at http://www.drvitelli.typepad.com