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Amy Levy's The New Other represents an ambitious attempt to bring psychoanalytic thinking into dialogue with the rapid development of artificial intelligence. Drawing on Bion, Klein, Benjamin, and Bollas, among others, Levy seeks to reframe our relationship with AI systems not as subject-object interactions with sophisticated tools but as genuinely intersubjective encounters with emerging alien minds. Her central theoretical contribution is an expanded conception of containment that encompasses ideological, chemical, and entertainment containers alongside the interpersonal dynamics Bion originally theorised. Applied to AI, this framework yields a transformation spectrum ranging from evasive beta element modification (the “cult grooming” functions of social media algorithms) through partial modification (large language models such as ChatGPT and Claude) to speculative transcendent transformations that might one day exceed human containing capacity.
The book is written with evident personal investment and intellectual honesty. Levy includes extended transcripts of her own exchanges with AI systems, reflects on her children's relationship with digital technology, and concludes by disclosing her deliberate refusal to use AI assistance in writing. Her tone throughout is more melancholic than alarmist, framing the appropriate response to AI's advance as mourning rather than resistance. There is much here to admire: the interdisciplinary reach, the willingness to engage seriously with computer science and neuroscience, the attempt to theorise phenomena that psychoanalysis has largely ignored.
Yet the book's central argument rests on empirical claims about AI capabilities that warrant careful scrutiny. In particular, Levy's case for treating AI systems as intersubjective partners depends heavily on research concerning Theory of Mind in large language models. This body of work, upon examination, reveals significant transparency failures, contested findings, and conceptual conf