| Sumario: | Futurology is an inherently interdisciplinary field. Anderson and Melnik's essay deals with how likely technological developments will affect both the process and the subject matter of psychotherapy. It is optimistic about the future of psychology as the profession enters a revolution in technological applications as potentially discipline-changing as medicine underwent with the development of antibiotics, high-tech prosthetics and diagnostic tools, and new surgical, life-saving, and life-enhancing techniques. All these innovations will bring new options for treatment, but also new temptations and dangers. This essay adds social, economic, and theological perspectives concerning the proper ethical home for cyber-psychology. While technological developments can benefit individuals, groups, and society, pitfalls include temptations of power, intergroup conflict, and diagnostic creep. Proper preparation for the future requires encouraging human virtues like altruism and intellect, restraining human flaws like error proneness, ignorance, selfishness, and harmful competition, as well as avoiding the accidental misuse of technology, and mobilizing newfound powers in the service of the common good.
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