Using deepfake to talk to a perpetrator. It is possible with an application that professor of clinical psychology Agnes van Minnen has used for a therapy in trauma processing. After a pilot in two patients, a subsidy has now been requested for a larger study.
“I hope you drop dead,” Meg slams the laptop shut. She has a conversation via the computer with an offender who abused her as a child. Meg is now 48 and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Afterwards she says that for the first time she had the feeling of being in charge. The conversation makes her feel like she can stand up for herself and express her anger.
Meg, a fictitious name, didn’t actually speak to her unsub. A deepfake (a digitally counterfeit video of a person, ed.) was used based on a photo of the perpetrator. His mouth and eyes start to move. A therapist spoke on behalf of the perpetrator. The dialogue is included in the article that Van Minnen published in the magazine Frontiers in Psychiatry about the use of deepfake in trauma processing.
Restoration Mediation
The deepfake therapy was used as a pilot on two patients of PsychoTrauma Expertise Center PSYTREC, where Van Minnen is director of the treatment program. A subsidy has now been applied for to apply the therapy to ten patients and to conduct controlled research into its applicability.
‘There is already recovery mediation,’ says Van Minnen about the treatment. This is a conversation between the perpetrator and the victim. Then it is important that the perpetrator shows remorse and apologizes. But in many cases you can’t; if there is no insight into the perpetrator, if it concerns a stalker or if no report has ever been made, for example. There are many cases where it is not advisable to start a conversation. Deepfake as an alternative is then very valuable.’
“If a deepfake says it wasn’t their fault, that can help”
Van Minnen was approached by Theo Gevers, professor of Computer Vision at the University of Amsterdam, who markets the software commercially. Gevers wanted to offer a party the opportunity to use the technology in society. Van Minnen immediately thought of this option, because victims often walk around with a feeling of guilt.
‘Victims were often very young when they were abused,’ explains Van Minnen. “They wonder why this happened to them and sometimes think they brought it on themselves. Then if a deepfake says they were an accidental victim and it wasn’t their fault, that can help. They can now also stand above the perpetrator, partly because they are older than when it happened.’
What the therapist should say as the voice of the deepfake is based on clinical feeling and what works in restorative mediation, says Van Minnen. “We need to investigate further what is helpful. What matters is that the perpetrator expresses remorse and that the victim can talk about the impact on life.’
Notification in de Volkskrant about the deepfake therapy generated many reactions. Van Minnen: ‘There is a group that questions new therapy. There are people who have ethical concerns. After all, the perpetrator does not know that his photo is being used. That could be people who have never been convicted. Is privacy well guaranteed? And someone asked whether there is a danger that someone is less careful after therapy with a potentially dangerous perpetrator. The latter risk seems small to me. People know very well that they have spoken to a deepfake offender.”
Head barely moves
One of the participants in the pilot was out of treatment, but the perpetrator still lived with her in the village. She avoided the street where he lived and the shop where he worked. After the deepfake therapy, she now dares to enter the street and the shop again.
‘As soon as there was any movement on the screen, you saw the patients freeze’
Even though the deepfake is not very realistic – the voice is different and the head barely moves – it still feels very real to the victims. Van Minnen: ‘When we were still setting everything up and only the picture of the perpetrator was shown on the screen, the patients were still relatively relaxed, but as soon as there was any movement on the screen, you saw them stiffen. .’ Afterwards, the patients indicated that they had also experienced this and would like to do it again.
In therapy, photos are already used to talk to or with imagination to talk to a perpetrator. But that effect is often not nearly as strong as with deepfake. ‘That is really striking,’ says Van Minnen. She compares her application to virtual realityin which people also react strongly to images that they cognitively know are not real.
Hazards
In the new study, Van Minnen wants to apply the therapy to ten patients in the final phase of trauma processing. She hopes this will yield concrete results. ‘I am especially curious about the dangers of this therapy. There is a lot of enthusiasm, but we have to investigate it properly first.’
There are more variants to think of to apply deepfake as a therapy. It is already used in mourning, so that you can talk to a deceased person. ‘Perhaps in a few years we will all have an app on our phones that will allow us to talk to a deepfake,’ says Van Minnen. “There are concerns that people are going to do this too much, but I wonder what is too much. Is it too much if someone visits a grave every week?’
Van Minnen suspects that the technology will become useful if you still have something to deal with with someone and are experiencing a lot of discomfort. ‘Of course that could also be an ex who treated you badly or a bully. Someone you don’t easily confront in real life. Then this remedy can be really useful.’
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