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"SF is a controlled way to think and dream about the future."
- Gregory Benford

Machine Psychologist  
  A computer that understands and uses its knowledge of human psychology to benefit human users.  

This seems like a fairly early reference to the idea of a machine psychologist.

"Dead though they are, the machines aren't ignorant of human psychology - far from it. They know very well that some students respond better to reward than punishment, and that others have to be driven by fear. The second kind is usually the less intelligent, and they know that, too; how could they not know it after so many generations of experience. You're lucky they've put you in the first category."
Technovelgy from Cities in Flight, by James Blish.
Published by Avon in 1957
Additional resources -

The machines referred to here are of course the city fathers, an early sfnal description of artificial intelligence.

The machines also diagnose specific problems:

The sister, the City Fathers tell us now, is borderline psychotic, which is why she never made citizenship herself...

Compare this device with the robot psyche tester from Colony (1953) by Philip K. Dick, Sigrid von Shrink from Gateway (1970) by Frederik Pohl, the mechanotherapist from Bad Medicine (a 1956 Robert Sheckley story), Dr. Smile, from Dick's 1964 novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Cities in Flight
  More Ideas and Technology by James Blish
  Tech news articles related to Cities in Flight
  Tech news articles related to works by James Blish

Machine Psychologist-related news articles:
  - MindMentor Computer-Based Psychotherapy
  - 'Virtual Space Station' NASA Software Psychologist
  - AI Identifies Suicidal Behavior With 93 Percent Accuracy
  - Your Computer Therapist Will See You Now
  - Fear of Dentists App, iPhone-based Therapist

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