On being seen: Psychic life under the algorithmic gaze

Abstract The paper aims to explore some consequences for psychic life of a growing transparency to the algorithmic gaze. Due to the massive collection of data and its analysis with machine-learning algorithms, more and more can be known about one’s thoughts, intentions, and emotional states. The paper asks what kind of subjective experience can result from a situation of having a transparent mind. It also argues that such transparency has its limits, limits set by the irreducible opacity of the psyche to itself due to its multilayered complexity.