Critical consideration of applications of affective robots to mental therapy from psychological and sociological perspectives

This paper deals with the contemporary situation that affective robots are applied to the field of Mental therapy, and critically considers problems of these applications by referring to the research works in psychology and sociology on mental reaction of human for computers, social situations on reception of computers, and extreme sensitivity for emotions in the modern society. Based on this consideration, this Paper focuses attention on applications of these robots to animal assisted therapy and activity, and narrative therapy, and then considers the problems of these applications.