The Digital Transformation of Mental Health

Abstract

The United States is experiencing a mental healthcare crisis. Alongside growing numbers of mental illness diagnoses we are also faced with the problems of practitioner scarcity, the geographic remoteness of populations in need of mental healthcare, and prohibitive costs for services that might otherwise be within reach. A potential solution to these problems, many technologists, healthcare workers, and others believe, is the integration of technology into the delivery of mental healthcare. This dissertation explores the emergence of a field that seeks to do just that, that I term the digital mental health industry, and which encompasses three areas: telemedicine, applications, and artificial intelligence. Despite the interest that the digital mental health industry attracts, as of yet there has been little study of it unto itself. This project provides not only an examination of the technologies it relies upon, but also its workers’ beliefs as well as the field’s broader social and medical effects. Methodologically this dissertation utilizes a combination of fieldwork, interviews, and textual analysis to tell the story of how the digital mental health industry came to be, how it is changing what it means to be mentally ill or healthy, and how technology mediates processes of self-care.