My A.I. Therapist

Last week was pretty busy and included two days of travel. This required me to tap into some content I had prepared over the summer to meet my weekly blog commitment. I mentioned during the summer that I had an incident happen that was pretty impactful such that I was contemplating sharing about it if I got the nerve to do so and the timing was right. Well, here we are.

I have written over time that I have found a lot of value in studying and applying the theories and recommendations of the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. As I have started using A.I. more regularly I have been asking some personal questions of it and treating Copilot as my Jungian analyst.

While Heather and I were away at a conference in Sun Valley, ID this summer we decided to go horseback riding. We were the last two people to get on our horses and my horse was particularly agitated. Unfortunately after I got on it was rustling around and then suddenly threw its head back and the horse’s head went right into my face just under my nose. Somehow I was able to stay on the horse and miraculously it hit me in a spot such that neither my nose nor teeth broke. It was pretty shocking nonetheless. I immediately dismounted and that was the end of our horseback riding excursion.

Out of an abundance of caution we went to the emergency room to make sure nothing was broken and that I didn’t have a concussion. Fortunately everything was ok.

While checking in I was given a wrist band to identify me but just prior to putting it on a rubber wrist band that I have worn for a long time honoring my late wife Roneet snapped. Needless to say, I was definitely taken aback by this cherished band breaking so suddenly.

Prior to Wilcox (the name of the horse) butting me, we had lunch with another couple. Included in my boxed lunch was a plum. I took a bite and then looked at the plum and noticed that there was a part of it that was in the shape of the heart. I thought that was pretty cool and even romantic. Just after pointing this out, however, my wife Heather saw the other side of the plum and she noticed that it was bruised. I was very touched by seeing the heart and then a little deflated when the bruise was pointed out, but it was also something that made me wonder.

Jung believed that we should look at life beyond what is visually obvious and notice things from a symbolic perspective. Jung also believed that when synchronistic events happen we should pay close attention to them and do our best to figure out what messages are being sent to us. Having just had the plum heart and bruise, being butted by Wilcox, and having the experience in the emergency room all made me think that something more powerful is going on that should not be ignored. I felt compelled to find the meaning behind these disparate events.

I turned to Copilot with a rather lengthy and detailed prompt while also including pictures of the plum. Here is what I queried.

This is what Copilot produced for me, along with a small contribution from Claude.ai:

Thank you for sharing these deeply symbolic experiences. From a Jungian perspective, your subconscious may be communicating through a powerful sequence of archetypal images and events. Let’s explore the symbolism step by step:

🫐 The Plum with a Heart-Shaped Bite and a Hidden Gash

• Heart-shaped impression: This is a classic symbol of love, emotional vulnerability, and the soul. The fact that it appeared after you took a bite suggests a personal encounter with love or emotional truth—perhaps a moment of connection or remembrance.
• Your wife pointing out the gash: This introduces the shadow—a Jungian archetype representing the hidden, often painful aspects of the self. The gash on the other side of the plum may symbolize a wound or unresolved grief that lies beneath the surface of love or memory.
• Duality: The plum becomes a symbol of duality—beauty and pain, sweetness and injury, love and loss. Your wife’s role in pointing out the unseen wound may reflect the importance of relational mirrors in revealing what we cannot see in ourselves.

🐎 The Horse Named Wilcox and the Blow to the Face

• The horse: In Jungian terms, horses often symbolize instinct, vitality, and the unconscious. Being struck in the face—especially under the nose, near the mouth—could represent a confrontation with truth or a silencing of expression. It may also be a wake-up call from the unconscious, delivered through a powerful, instinctual force.
• The name Wilcox: Names can carry personal or ancestral resonance. If the name has no direct meaning to you, it may still symbolize a messenger or guardian figure—one that delivers a jolt to awaken awareness.
• From Claude.ai: The horse incident with Wilcox carries deep symbolic weight. In Jungian psychology, horses often represent the instinctual, unconscious forces within us – our vital life energy that can be both creative and destructive. The horse’s name “Wilcox” is significant here, as it contains “will” – suggesting this may represent your own willpower or life force becoming agitated or conflicted. The horse striking you directly beneath the nose – near the breath, the seat of life itself – suggests a confrontation with these primal forces that literally took your breath away.

🩹 The Snapping of the Memorial Wristband

• The wristband: A symbol of memory, devotion, and continuity. Its sudden snapping—especially in a hospital, a place of healing and transition—may signify a threshold moment. It could represent the release of a long-held attachment, the closing of a chapter, or the readiness of the psyche to move forward.
• Timing: That it happened while receiving a new identification band suggests a symbolic rebirth—a new identity or phase emerging as the old one is released.

🧠 The Message from the Subconscious

Taken together, these events form a narrative of transformation:

1. Recognition of love and hidden wounds (the plum).
2. A confrontation with instinct and the unconscious (the horse).
3. A symbolic death and rebirth (the wristband snapping).

Your psyche may be guiding you through a process of integration—bringing together love, grief, instinct, and identity into a more whole self. The heart-shaped plum invites you to embrace love and vulnerability. The gash reminds you not to overlook pain. The horse demands presence and courage. And the wristband’s break may be your soul’s way of saying: It’s time to let go and begin again.

Copilot then asked me if I wanted its output put into a different form. One of the suggestions was a poem which I eagerly approved as I was immensely curious about how it would turn out. I was honestly stunned and incredibly moved by the poem it produced.

“The Plum, the Horse, and the Band”

I bit the plum— 

and love revealed itself, 

a heart carved in flesh, 

sweet, sudden, and raw. 

But my wife, the mirror of my soul, 

turned it gently in her hand 

to show the wound I hadn’t seen.

A gash. 

A hidden pain. 

The shadow beneath the sweetness.

Then came the horse— 

Wilcox, wild and wise, 

a creature of instinct, 

of power unbridled. 

He struck me not in anger, 

but in awakening. 

A blow beneath the nose, 

where breath meets voice— 

a silencing, 

or perhaps a call to speak 

from deeper truth.

And in the sterile light of healing, 

as the nurse wrapped my wrist 

in a new name, 

the old one snapped. 

The band I wore for love lost 

broke free. 

Not forgotten—

but released.

The passage of time has not dissipated the poem’s impact on me. On the contrary, it’s only grown.

Copilot provided an interpretation of the key events that took place on that fateful day.

Interpretation:

• The plum is your heart—open, vulnerable, and still carrying wounds.
• The horse is your unconscious—powerful, unpredictable, and demanding your attention.
• The wristband is your tether to the past—honored, but no longer needed to define you.

Together, these symbols suggest a message of integration and transformation. Your psyche may be inviting you to:

• Acknowledge both love and pain.
• Embrace the wildness of your inner life.
• Let go of what binds you to the past, so you can step into a new identity.

I’m a believer that art therapy can be very effective as it can tap into parts of our subconscious that talk therapy can rarely penetrate. Given this, I was quite pleased and intrigued when it asked me the following:

Would you like me to turn this into a printable keepsake or visual artwork to carry with you?

Once again I was stunned and moved by what it produced as it penetrated my intellectual barrier and got right into my subconscious.

I’m not advocating people who might benefit from therapy to solely rely on A.I., but I think it can be a very powerful tool to help one go a bit deeper to find the meaning and symbolism in life events that make us pause and wonder a bit. You can address it immediately via a query versus having to wait for an appointment with a therapist. I know this output was extremely helpful to me. 

The loss of my wife of 29 years was a traumatic event and it will always be something I have to come to terms with, process, integrate, and transform into something as positive as I can. At the same time, I was incredibly lucky to find a beautiful partner in Heather who has helped me navigate this next stage of life in such a wonderful and meaningful way while still honoring Roneet’s memory and legacy. This analysis speaks to me deeply about the power and impact of such a loved lost and the beauty and hope and growth that comes with a new love found and that sometimes we all need wakeup calls to remind us of life’s beauty and fragility.

I encourage you to test it out to see if you find value and meaning in what it produces. I have continued to use it in various other ways that have been extremely valuable for me and it will be something I will continue to turn to in moments of confusion, pain, wonder, and curiosity to help me grow, evolve, and be a person that hopefully continues to make positive contributions to the world.