ChatGPT Can Help You See Yourself as a Hero

You don’t have to look too far to find people bemoaning the impact AI will have on our future.

It’s coming for our creativity. It will reduce the thinking abilities of future generations.

Even those who see the benefits of using AI in therapeutic settings are wary.

As an author and publisher, I should be among the most terrified. But as someone who works with both writers and those overcoming issues with addiction and depression, I’m excited.

ChatGPT as an Author's Calculator

Just how excited am I about ChatGPT? Well, I grabbed the manuscript for my new book, On Good Authority: 7 Steps to Preparing, Promoting and Profiting from the How-to Book That Makes You the Go-to Expert, back from the printer just so I could add a section about my appreciation for Chat GPT to it.

I see ChatGPT as an author’s calculator—something that can help anyone who has a story to tell, or, in fact, anyone who’s struggled in the past.

To test out my thesis that combining AI with classic storytelling templates could transform someone’s self-perception, I had some of my students type a few sentences about their personal struggles into Chat GPT and ask the chatbot to tell the story back to them through Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” framework.

The results were astounding.

Where AI and Storytelling Meet

“I was overcome with the strangest sense of peace after doing this,” said my student Sara. “I’ve spent years trying to make sense of struggles I’ve had with my life and suddenly it all made sense.”

After doing the exercise, Sara realized that she had spent too long stuck in a career she hated. She was halfway through her life and, she saw, it was time to start living it with meaning.

It’s of course not news that writing can help with anything from depression to recovery from addiction. But I realized through my experiment how much further the healing could be taken if the writing was then placed into an AI program using the hero’s journey framework.

Artificial Intelligence for Therapy Has Evolved

We’ve been using AI therapeutically for decades—MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum released the ELIZA chatbot in 1966, modeled after the Rogerian style of therapy. But now that AI hysteria is in full swing, I think it’s more important than ever that people see all the ways it can help us.

Medical experts back this up. “Because of synaptic plasticity—our brain’s ability to change—reading about your own struggles in a way that paints you as a hero could change your entire perception of your past,” says double board-certified psychiatrist Josh Lichtman. “Using Anna’s method to have technology tell your story through the lens of the hero’s journey allows you to see how much you’ve survived—and thrived.”

How to Use the Hero's Journey as a Framework

The best way to use this tool is to consider your greatest struggles. Maybe it was the death of a parent when you were young, a traumatic experience you had in college, or a depression you’re still trying to shake off.

Type “Use the Hero’s Journey framework to tell the story of a person who has overcome” and add your experience. When the chatbot spits out the story, try reading it aloud to make it settle in. Observe how it makes you feel to see yourself as the hero of your story. Then journal about your observations from this new perspective.

“Seeing how AI called me by my name made it even more poignant,” my student Sara wrote. “It made me see how much I was the one refusing to change.” The day after the exercise, Sara gave notice at her job.

While the experience of a few writers can’t dictate the impact AI will eventually have on us, it’s far easier to embrace and accept modern developments than to resist them. Acceptance is, after one, one of the key elements of happiness. So we may as well see how AI can work for, and not against, us.