What is Gained, What is Lost? Reflections on Haworth’s “Generative Artificial Intelligence Use in Transactional Analysis”

This article offers reflections on Matt Haworth’s article “Generative Artificial Intelligence Use in Transactional Analysis” published in the January 2026 Transactional Analysis Journal. While appreciating Haworth’s cautions about the growing applications of AI technologies in psychotherapy and his suggestions regarding what can be gained by the informed and ethical inclusion of Generative AI as augmentative tools in ongoing TA psychotherapy, the focus of this discussion is on what is so often lost in that process. Particular attention is paid to the illusions created in AI and GenAI to simulate humanness, drawing a sharp contrast between the seductive cognitive and emotional shortcuts afforded by AI and the complexity and vitality of the human mind engaged in cognitive and emotional learning. The author uses his own interactions with AI to illustrate the questions he raises.