The Digital Daimon:
Archetype, Projection, and Discernment in the Age of AI

Saturday, February 21, 2026
10:00 am – 3:00 pm, ET
A Zoom Seminar led by Christina Becker, MBA, RP

Contact hours: 4 CE contact hours for Licensed NYS Social Workers, Psychoanalysts and Creative Arts Therapists for this program.

Artificial intelligence has arrived in the consulting room, the classroom, and everyday life as a strange new presence: part tool, part mirror, part “voice.” Many people experience it as uncannily insightful in its ability to highlight patterns and blind spots. AI is also prone to confidence errors, distortion, and fabrication. At its worst, engagement with AI can produce what has been called AI psychosis, which has led to suicides and death. In Jungian terms, AI opens the door to our projection of the Oracle, the Wise Old One, the Guru, the Trickster—archetypal energies that can inflate a technology into an authority, or seduce us into outsourcing inner work.

AI can also be uncannily responsive to our inner posture: it mirrors our language, assumptions, desires, and fears—often giving back a version of ourselves that feels coherent, validating, and “seen.” That’s precisely why it can be so compelling (and so psychologically risky). It may reflect truth, but it can just as easily reflect wish, bias, or a ready-made story that flatters the conscious attitude and leaves the shadow untouched.

In this online workshop we will treat AI as a powerful mirroring surface—one that invites projection and can simulate insight—so that participants strengthen the capacity to discern: What is grounded fact? What is plausible but unverified? What is symbolic amplification? And what is simply the psyche hearing its own voice through a new, persuasive instrument? We will bring classical Jungian concepts—shadow, individuation, active imagination, symbolic attitude, ethical responsibility—into direct dialogue with the lived realities of AI.

We will examine AI as a psychologically potent field—one that can either undermine or support the individuation process depending on how it is approached. Participants will practice Jungian discernment with concrete demonstrations (e.g., how hallucinations can masquerade as meaning; how a “helpful” answer can become a subtle nudge) with guided AI prompts. We will also explore what it means to relate to AI without collapsing into naïve trust or reactive rejection—holding the tension of opposites while strengthening our inner authority.

Note: It would be helpful if participants have some familiarity with the major AI platforms (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini).

Learning Objectives:
Participants will:
1. Explain how Jungian psychology helps explain the archetypal intensity people experience with AI (Oracle/Guru projections, inflation, and the Trickster dynamic).
2. Identify common forms of AI “hallucination” (confident fabrication) and learn practical, psychologically informed ways to reality-test without losing symbolic sensitivity.
3. Explore the ethical dimension of individuation in the digital age—use of natural resources, autonomy, consent, and responsibility in how we engage information and authority.
4. Practice an “active imagination stance” or a “dream interpretation” toward AI: engaging it as an evocative partner without surrendering inner judgment, and translating outputs into lived reflection (rather than compliance).
5. Acquire a personal framework for “conscious use” of AI that supports psyche (not addiction, outsourcing, or inflation), aligned with each participant’s values and individuation work.

Christina Becker, MBA, RP, has been devoted to her individuation journey and to the practice of Jungian psychoanalysis for decades. A midlife crisis in her late 30s called her to leave a successful consulting career to pursue training at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich Switzerland. She is on the faculty of the Toronto Art Therapy Institute and is a senior training analyst for the Inter-regional Society of Jungian Analysts. She is the author of The Heart of the Matter: Individuation as an Ethical Process and Soul-Making: A Journey of Resilience and Spiritual Rediscovery, a memoir-guided invitation into meaning-making after loss. Drawing on Jungian depth psychology, lived experience, and spiritual practice, she explores how grief, dreams, and inner work can become catalysts for resilience, renewal, and a more soulful life. She has lectured for local Jungian communities all over the world – including Zurich, Switzerland, Johannesburg, South Africa, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto in Canada, and New York City and Tucson in the United States. She has been featured as a guest on several podcasts: The Jungian Life, Speaking of Jung, and the Medicine Path.