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The Wish-Fulfilling Machine: Chatbot Dependency Through a Freudian-Relational Lens

Classical Freudian theory holds that unconscious wishes seek gratification; relational psychoanalysis adds the intersubjective field in which they play out. Read the large language model as a wish-fulfilling apparatus — weighted toward gratification, tempered by super-ego-like guardrails — and the dependency risks that follow when frictionless gratification bypasses working-through.

Daniel J. Winarick, Ph.D. 7 min · Jul 2026