Character Idea: Holographic Assistant Councelor

Would the development of an experimental Holographic Assistant Councelor be a reasonable concept for a character?

Although he would be lacking in direct empathy (true professional detachment?), he would have the bonus of being highly skilled and the use of a Holodeck for role-playing scenarios.

"Look, my records are locked and heavily encripted. Only the Captain or the Head Engineer can override that, and sifting through gigaquads of encripted memory files is about as fun as cleaning out the plasma injectors with toothpicks, so are you going to trust me or not?"

I dunno...the empathy thing is a big thing.

That's why we have psychologists seperate from psychiatrists.

I also don't think so. A Counselor gives you a chance to "open up" to somebody. Quote from "Social Psychology Fifth Edition" (2002, Brehm, Kassin & Fein, p.524-525):"There are two aspects to this emotional means of coping with stress. The first is to acknowledge and understand our emotional reactions to important events;the second is to express these inner feelings to ourselves and others."
I bilieve that only a living being can serve as an other in that respect and therefore a holographic counselor wouldn't be as effective. Of course, if the patient no longer sees the hologram as just a computer program (like Vic Fountaine, for example), it could work. However most Starfleet personnel probably neither have nor want a close relationship with a hologram.

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Originally posted by Ergi
I also don't think so. A Counselor gives you a chance to "open up" to somebody. Quote from "Social Psychology Fifth Edition" (2002, Brehm, Kassin & Fein, p.524-525):"There are two aspects to this emotional means of coping with stress. The first is to acknowledge and understand our emotional reactions to important events;the second is to express these inner feelings to ourselves and others."
I bilieve that only a living being can serve as an other in that respect and therefore a holographic counselor wouldn't be as effective. Of course, if the patient no longer sees the hologram as just a computer program (like Vic Fountaine, for example), it could work. However most Starfleet personnel probably neither have nor want a close relationship with a hologram.

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Yeah, but this is Star Trek. Ship's crew have problems that no amount of empathy (short of a Betazoid) could ever cope to understand.
"Last week, I was possessed by an alien spirit and under his influence I did...unspeakable things."
"Yeah, back at the academy, I did unspeakable things too."
"Did you pick up the captain one handed and throw him across the room?"
"Err. No."
"Did you reprogram the entire computer core to use an ancient alien language to take over the entire ship?"
"Err. No."
"Did you have an entire Constellation class starship under your complete command? And afterwards did you remember everything, including the amazing feeling of power coursing through your very existance?"
"Err. Maybe we should take this one step at a time, there's several issues here."

Next week, a male Vulcan talks with a female Betazoid...
"And how did that make you feel?"
"Vulcans have no emotions."
"Vulcans have emotions, they just repress them, you really should open up."
"I don't think that would be logical."
"Is that anger I sense?"
"Vulcans don't get angry."
"And something else, I sense it."
"There is nothing more to talk about." (he turns to leave)
"You have deep feelings for me?"
(stopped, but still looking away) "I do not wish to discuss this. I am a Vulcan. Good day, counselor."