Disruptive Technology and Relational Agency: Therapy, Intimacy, Memory, Trust, and Individualization - part 1

Parallel session

Parallel session 2

Presentation slot

Track

Track 3: Health, Well-Being and Emotions in an Age of Socially Disruptive Technologies

Presenter

Anna van Oosterzee is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Twente. Her work explores how emerging technologies are changing and shaping medical knowledge and practices, particularly in mental healthcare. Her ESDiT-funded doctoral research explored the influence of AI technologies on the development and use of psychiatric diagnostic classifications.

More broadly, her research engages with cognitive science and philosophy of science, and she is currently interested in exploring methods of co-creation and value-sensitive design. Anna has a background in visual art, cognitive neuroscience and psychology and previously worked as an AI ethics consultant.

Lily Frank

Oscar Piedrahita

Type of presentation

Panel

Chair

Janna van Grunsven

Room

Quantum 3

Abstract

On relational approaches, agency is not a property of isolated individuals but a capacity realised between persons: in conversation, intimacy, shared remembering, and trust. Socially disruptive technologies now intervene at precisely this layer: LLMs, companion bots, and AI-augmented memory are no longer mere tools we wield but participants in the exchanges through which relationships (and selves) take shape. Five papers examine connected sites of disruption, focusing on the therapeutic alliance, AI-mediated intimacy, asymmetric memory, epistemic trust, and individualization itself. Together, they argue that these technologies do not merely affect relationships externally but reconfigure the relational structure of agency.

Part of this panel are:

Part 2 of this panel can be found here.