Machines and mental health

I've been reading Carl Rogers, and he made some interesting remarks about how a person can be placed "in a helping relationship with a Machine"(45) based on a study by O R Lindsley. The example given was of a person with chronic schizophrenia who was put in contact with a machine that would give him rewards when he pulled the lever. Oddly this resulted in a distinct improvement in his condition. Then the rewards were taken out, so when you pulled the lever nothing happened - and he quickly deteriorated. Rogers reading of this wass that "even in a relationship to a machine, trustworthiness is important if the relationship is to be helpful."(46)

It's quite amazing to think that this would make such a difference - and I wonder if this makes far more sense in terms of Seligman's notion of learned helplessness than in Roger's relationship analogy. After all, what the patient has been granted is control over their environment. But the idea of having these kind of relationships with machines is fascinating. The proof is in the detail, so really I need to track down Lindsley's original study.