Boston WBUR public radio intern Suzanne Jacobs goes on a journey to find out what “computational psychiatry” is, and has some difficulty determining if the “cutting edge” term is new, old, or devoid of meaning. Eventually Jacobs meets Princeton University’s Jonathan Cohen, who says modern psychiatry is failing because it has forgotten its roots in Freudian psychology. Rather than doing experiments to track brain activity, Cohen says he’s interested in theoretical explorations of how computer simulations might help break down the division between psychology and neuroscience.
“You’d be hard pressed to find a neuroscience department in this country that has a pure theorist,” Cohen tells Jacobs. “That’s just a remarkable fact, and I think it says a lot about what needs to be done to make real progress.”
In Search Of ‘Computational Psychiatry:’ Why Is It A Hot New Field? (99.9wbur’s Common Health Reform and Reality, July 4, 2014)