This chapter is a cautious call to arms, to understand the political context of UberTherapy and how therapy's ideological capture has allowed us to miss what is at stake in its transformation into a sector of e- commerce. What I want to encourage you to understand is that what is happening politically is not just an attack on thinking; it is also an attack on doing anything about shaping an alternative business model of RealTherapy™.

Dirty little ideological secrets

The UberTherapy payouts to consumers (FTC, 2024) should prepare us for the reality that the regulation of UberTherapy is likely to be as a result of legal precedence set in court. As a result, we need to pay attention to the legal cases taken by antitrust and advertising standards agencies, health and safety and professional standards bodies, workers’ rights and consumer rights organizations alongside the policies of the private medical insurance sector (Mundell, 2024) that are setting the regulatory landscape for digital therapy. To understand the litigious nature of this process I want to tell you a story about an American woman, Dorothy, and a group of progressive psychotherapists who were sued by DigitalBFF for millions of dollars for asking the question, whether a text- based service is real therapy.

Dorothy: It's a funny story beginning in 2018. There was the very first advertisement that came out from DigitalBFF that featured an Olympic runner Micky Peeps. It was a beautiful ad. It was compelling. It was visually gorgeous. It was emotional. And he's in the middle of an empty track and he says, you know, I’ve had these mental health problems and I got help and I want therapy for all.