Scary, huh? This is one of my more recent pictures. I have better ones, when I was thinner and had more hair, but, hey, this one will due. Maybe I'll put up a more flattering picture later -- maybe a picture of someone else, like a young Marlon Brando or something. Or maybe I could go totally Quasimodo and put up some deformed face and really scare ya!

Let me tell you why I started the Mythos & Logos web site. I started co-editing an e-journal, called Janus Head, in the summer of '98, and I had to start feeling comfortable working with web pages and such. So, I started putting together this often very haphazard, but lovingly created, monstrosity you are now visiting. As I get better at web publishing and HTML, this site will improve aesthetically and, as always, I will continue to add to the pages. I figure this could be a life-long project in my spare time -- mostly, a fun hobby that I do instead of wasting my time watching TV. In the meantime, along with my dear friends Victor Barbetti and Claire-Cowan Barbetti, we have enjoyed our work together on the Janus Head journal, and we continue to be excited about the directions it has taken in the last several years.

Now, there is something pathetically narcissistic about putting up a web site that includes a big 'ol ugly picture of yourself and information about your own silly life that most people could care less about. Then again, over the past year, I've met some wonderful people on the web by creating these pages. I wouldn't even know where to begin, but you know who you are... So, I justify -- or perhaps rationalize -- my narcissism by thinking that putting my mug on this page and telling you a little about myself is a way that you can give my name a face and a personality, and, thus, humanizes me enough that you might care to engage with me -- drop me a line and say hello, suggest a topic for dialogue, or something of the sort. So, go ahead, and e-mail me if you'd like. I like company. By the way, I have had quite a few people e-mail me to inquire about Duquesne's graduate program in clinical psychology, which I attend. Please feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions. Also, I have gotten quite a few letters from students frustrated with papers in psychology or philosophy courses, who ask for advice, direction or for simple moral support. It is my pleasure to do whatever I can to lend a hand in your studies, if you are a student struggling with some topic presented within my pages.

So, who am I? As I write this, I am 30-years-old, born in August of 1970, a Leo for you horoscope devotees, and I have been married to my wonderful wife, April, for 4 years as of May 11 of this past year. I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in a modest house that desperately needs a paint job and a new garage door, but, otherwise, is very comfortable and rather cozy. In fact, I am now living in the very house where I was raised as a young pup, before going off to St. Louis for my undergraduate degree (and staying there for 5 years).

Contents of this Page

The Bit About My Dogs and Cat
The Bit About My Wife
My Writing On-Line
More About Me, The Professional
Vita
Hobbies
Music
Movies
Links to rest of site

The Bit About My Dogs and Cat

I have two dogs and a cat. Jake is a mixed breed, predominately beagle,with a reddish coat and he likes to 'talk.' He is very expressive -- really! He has that characteristic beagle bark, and, by now, I've come to know what he's trying to tell me, for the most part. He loves to eat and he's getting chubby, just like his dear old dad, and he always knows when I'm leaving the house because I put my socks and shoes on. He does his dance ritual around the house, which ticks off April because he messes up the carpet. When we got Zoe, they told us she was a rotweiler mix, but, I can tell you, she doesn't have much rotweiler in her other than the black and brown markings on her coat. She's very thin, but extremely lovable, and pretty much lives to be petted. She'll take affection over table scraps any day, whereas Jake would be rather ambivalent. When she does bark, which is not often, she goes "poof," like she's trying to whistle or something. Kitty is the rather unimaginative name of our cat, yet the name my wife insisted on. Personally, I liked the name "Misty," but "Kitty" seems to have stuck (April won, as always!). Kitty likes to sit on her 'thrown' in the living room, which consists of a big, white, overstuffed pillow. Kitty and Zoe are best buddies, and they actually clean each other. Its adorable! Jake and Kitty pretty much keep to themselves since Jake is a bit too rambunctious for Kitty's taste, but they get along just fine. In the mornings, April and I give Jake, Zoe and Kitty the leftover milk from our cereal bowls. We have trained the dogs, who drink much faster, to give Kitty the first dibs on the milk -- and I still think it is hilarious to watch too relatively big dogs subordinating themselves to the cat, who always very politely leaves plenty of milk for the dogs. (Don't you hate when people ramble on about their pets?) Really, though, our pets are one of the highlights of my life, and I never cease to have a rotten day out in the cruel world without arriving home to the unconditional love of my dogs and cat -- and always, always feel like its just not so bad after all.

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The Bit About My Wife

April, my wife, is the same age as me, but born in September, and she works as a social worker at a long-term care facility in Mt. Lebanon, if you're familiar with the Pittsburgh area. She loves her job, and that is a relief, because she has pretty much hated every job she's had since I've known her. After being with April for over 5 years -- 3 of which we have been married -- I still don't understand her politics. This is a person who listens to Howard Stern in the mornings, Dr. Laura in the afternoons, then tunes into Michael Reagan in the evening -- except on Sundays, when she listens to bluegrass and Celtic music on public radio -- but she voted for Clinton and says she did so because she thought he was better looking than Dole. Aside from her strange a-political politics, April is one of the most caring and giving people that I know. She has volunteered her time to many different charities, including Catholic Charities and Beginning Babies with Books, but , mostly, she unselfishly offers her time to her friends and even remote acquaintances -- and she rarely takes credit for her goodness. When you first meet her, she's very shy, but once you get to know her, she'll talk your ear off -- and the more comfortable she is with you, the more you realize she is HILARIOUS! My wife has the best sense of humor -- bizarre, sarcastic, ironic and dry, just like mine, and, put us together, and we are infinitely goofy. April is a self-proclaimed homemaker, who is a wizard at interior decorating and the only person I know who actually enjoys vacuuming.  Most of the time, when I'm working on the web, she's watching TV. I have a contempt for television, which started back when I began studying media communications in undergrad, so while she's watching Cops and Walker, Texas Ranger, I'm reading Deleuze , doing HTML, web surfing or something along those lines. However, we both have a love for off-beat art-house films and have very similar tastes in music. Our favorite thing to do is eating out -- mostly at Tom's Diner -- and, second only to eating, we enjoy taking long drives to places where we've never been.  We make a great pair -- while I'm the space cadet, 'absent-minded professor' type, April is down-to-earth and practical. And where I'm cool and calm under pressure, April gets a bit rattled, so we're a lot like two pieces of a puzzle that just fit very nicely together.

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More About Me, the Professional

As you've seen, Mythos & Logos explores the topics of continental philosophy (mostly existential-phenomenology), psychoanalysis/psychology, and perennial philosophy. That ought to tell you quite a bit about me right there, eh?
I a fifth year doctoral student in clinical psychology at Duquense University -- where I am currently teaching and working at the University Counseling Center. I begin my pre-doctoral internship in August 2001 at University of Pittsburgh Counseling Center. If you haven't figured it out by now, I am quite enamored with Heideggarian existential-phenomenology and, at Duquesne, I actually get to theorize about it and explore practical applications of it (probably the only graduate school where I could do that in the whole United States). I am mostly interested in the implications of Martin Heidegger's thought for the discipline of psychology, clinical psychology in particular, and I draw quite a bit from Medard Boss and Maurice Merleau-Ponty in my work. More recently, I have begun to explore, in a similar way, the thinking of Emmanuel Levinas, Gilles Deleuze, and Jacques Lacan, all of whom are very different, though all of whom are in the tradition of continental philosophy. In part, I am interested in the on-going dialogue between psychoanalytic thought -- including humanistic and transpersonal orientations -- and continental philosophy. However, I feel that existential-phenomenology still has much to contribute to neuroscience, particularly with Merleau-Ponty's work on embodiment. All of these interests are reflected in the pages I've posted on this web site. My most central interest as a scholar right now is the work I am doing on the phenomenology of emotion. I am interesting in applying my research of joy to psychotherapy. My work is also directed toward a cultural critique of the pervasive instrumental thinking of modernity.

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My Writing On-Line

The Psychology-Rhetoric Relationship (1999)
A Brief History of Psychoanalysis (1999)
The Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Positions in the Psychogenesis of the Self (1998)
Emotion, Movement and Psychological Space (1998)
Spirit and Soul in the Therapeutic Relationship (1998)
Madness and Liberation: A Journey to Cader Idris (1998)
Phenomenology, Psychology, Science and History (1997)
The Psychotic Dr. Schreber (1997)
A Story of Children's Stories (1997)
Reflections on Being a Psychotherapist (1996)

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Vita

Brent Dean Robbins
Department of Psychology
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, PA
Phone: (412) 561-1704
e-mail: bdeanrob@sgi.net

Education

B.A., Media Communications, Webster University, 1992
B.A., Psychology, Webster University, 1995
M.A., Psychology, Duquesne University, 1997
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Duquesne University, in progress

Teaching Experience

Teaching Assistantship, Duquesne University, 1997-present
Teaching assistant, Seton Hill College, 2000

Courses Taught

Introduction to Psychology (4 semesters), Duquesne University
Systematic Psychology (4 semesters), Duquesne University
Phenomenology of Human Development (assistant teacher, 6 semesters), Duquesne University
Introduction to Assessment: Rorschach (assistant teacher, 1 semester), Duquesne University

Clinical and other work experience

Psychology Intern, University of Pittsburgh Counseling Center, Pittsburgh, PA, 8/6/01-present
Psychology Intern, University Counseling Center, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, 2000-2001
Psychology Intern, Auberle Foundation, Pittsburgh, PA, 1999-2000
Co-editor, Janus Head, 1998-present
Psychotherapist-in-training, Duquesne Psychology Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA, 1997-present
Part-Time Instructor, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 2000-present
Human Resource Consultant, Pittsburgh Telephone Answering Service, 1995-present
Behavior Specialist, The Verland Foundation, Pittsburgh, PA, 1996-1997
QMRP, The Verland Foundation, Pittsburgh, PA, 1995-1997
Program Manager, Judevine Center for Autism, St. Louis, MO, 1994-1995
Behavior Coach, Judevine Center for Autism, St. Louis, MO, 1993-1994
MERSHouse Director, Metropolitan Employment and Rehabilitation Service, 1993
Overnight Supervisor, Metropolitan Employment and Rehabilitation Service, 1991-1993

Areas of Interest

Existential-phenomenological psychology
History and systems of psychology
Phenomenology of emotion
Emotion in psychotherapy
Freud and phenomenology
Metabletics
Psychology of embodiment
Psychology of mystical experience
Interdisciplinarity
Psychology and the philosophy of science
Critical psychology
Phenomenology of human development
Psychology and literature
Intersection of dynamic and experiential psychotherapy
Play therapy
Hermeneutic-phenomenological research methodology
Art-based research
Phenomenological investigation of psychopathology, including:
Psychosis
Borderline personality
Panic Disorder
Autism
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Somatization
Obsessive-compulsive Disorder
ADHD (Attention-Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder)
Conduct Disorder
Oppositional-Defiant Disorder

Major Influences

Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Martin Heidegger
Sigmund Freud
Herbert Marcuse
Medard Boss
Jan Hendrick van den Berg
Robert Romanyshyn
James Hillman
Carl Jung
Harry Stack Sullivan
D. W. Winnicott
Carl Rogers
Martin Buber
Emmanuel Levinas
Jacques Lacan
R. D. Laing
Melanie Klein
Ernest Becker
Norman O. Brown
Margaret Mahler
Aron Gurwitsch
Luce Irigaray
Daniel Stern
Heinz Kohut
Gilles Deleuze
Eugene Gendlin
Ernesto Grassi
Kurt Lewin
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Herman Hesse
Meister Eckhart
Lao Tzu
William James
Friedrich Nietzsche
Leslie Greenberg

Publications

       Dissertation in progress: Joy and the Politics of Emotion: Phenomenology and Critical Theory of Emotion as a Cultural Therapeutics. Director: Michael P. Sipiora. Readers: Eva-Maria Simms, Constance T. Fischer.

       Review of Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art and Madness by Robin Hemley, Metapsychology Review, May 2001.

       w/ A. Barriga, J. Doran, S. Newell, E. Morrison, & V. Barbetti, Relationships Between Problem Behaviors and Academic Achievement in Adolescents: The Unique Role of Attention Problems. (in review).

       Being Joyful: An Empirical, Phenomenological Study, In Constance T. Fischer (Ed.), Qualitative Research Methods for Psychologists: Case Demonstrations. New York: Guilford. (in press, 2001).

       Review of What Emotions Really Are by Paul E. Griffiths, Metapsychology Review, February 2001.

    Scientia Media, Incommensurability and Interdisciplinary Space, Janus Head, Supplemental Issue, Winter 2001.

       Schreber's Soul-Voluptuousness: Mysticism, Madness and the Feminine in Schreber's Memoirs, Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Fall 2001.

       Reflections on Being a Psychotherapist, BioMed, December 2000.

       Review of Psychoanalysis and the Philosophy of Science, Collected Papers of Benjamin B. Rubinstein by Benjamin B. Rubinstein, Metapsychology Review, September 2000.

       On Cats and Carnivores: An Interview with Brady Lewis, Janus Head, 3.1, Spring 2000.

       On the History of Rhetoric and Psychology, Janus Head, 3.1, Spring, 2000.

       w/ C. Cowan-Barbetti & Victor Barbetti, Scientia Media, Janus Head, 2.2, Fall, 1999.

       w/ C. Cowan-Barbetti & Victor Barbetti, The Onion, Janus Head, 2.1, Summer, 1999.

       Question Essays: Exploring the Margins of Students' Thought, Center for Teaching Excellence Newsletter, Spring 1999.

       w/ C. Cowan Barbetti & Victor Barbetti, Tower of Babel: Shadow of the Interdisciplinary, Janus Head, 1:3, Spring, 1999.

       w/ C. Cowan-Barbetti & Victor Barbetti, A Return to the Humanities, Janus Head, 1:2, Fall, 1998.

       w/ C. Cowan-Barbetti & Victor Barbetti, On Janus Head, Janus Head, 1:1, Summer, 1998.

       Kuhn in Light of Heidegger as a Response to Hoeller's Critique of Giorgi,  Janus Head, 1:1, Summer 1998.

Presentations

       Being Joyful: An Empirical, Phenomenological Study, Sidney M. Jourard Student Award Symposium, The American Psychological Association's 109th Annual Convention, August 24-28, 2001.

       Laing, Marcuse and the Politics of Experience, The American Psychological Association's 109th Annual Convention, August 24-28, 2001.

       Lacan: The Limits of Love and Knowledge, Knowing Subjects: Human Lives, Human Worlds, The George Washington University Program in the Human Sciences, 7th Annual Conference Honoring the work of Peter Caws on the occasion of his 70th Birthday, April 20-21, 2001.

       Magic Tales: Child as Other, Child as Dream, Conversations with the Other: The 8th Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference at Duquesne University, Friday and Saturday, March 23-24, 2001.

       Ethics of Alterity: Implications of Levinas for Psychotherapy, Third Annual Conference on Counseling and Spirituality: Trends, Traditions and Ethics, Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania, September 22-23, 2000.

       Symptomatic Dys-Appearance: Implications of a Phenomenology of Embodiment for Psychotherapy, The First Annual Conference of the International Network on Personal Meaning, Searching for Meaning in the New Millenium, Vancouver, British Columbia, July 13-16, 2000.

       The Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Positions: A Reading of Klein in Light of Merleau-Ponty, Human Science Research Conference, Southamptom College of Long Island University, Southampton, Long Island, June 12-June 15, 2000.

    Phenomenological-Humanistic-Psychoanalytic Practice: Working Toward Synthesis in Praxis, Old Saybrook 2 Conference: Coming Home to the Third Millenium, State University of West Georgia, May 11-14, 2000.

       Scientia Media, Incommensurability and Interdisciplinary Space, Rethinking the Human Sciences: Interdisciplinary Studies, Global Education, & the Languages of Criticism,  Conference at The George Washington University, April 7 & 8, 2000.

       Incommensurability and the Gestell: The Enframing of Progress and the End of Metaphysics, Rethinking Progress, Pennsylvania State University Graduate Student Conference, 2000.

       The Demise of Rhetoric and the Rise of Natural Science Psychology, Culture and Vision: The 7th Annual Graduate Student Conference in the Liberal Arts at Duquesne University,  November 1999.

       On-Demand and Electronic Publishing in the 21st Century, Culture and Vision: The 7th Annual Graduate Student Conference in the Liberal Arts at Duquesne University, November 1999.

       Phenomenology, Psychology, Science and History, The Ninth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Science and Culture, Kentucky State University, March 1998.

       The Psychotic Dr. Schreber, American Psychological Association's 106th Annual Convention, August 1998.

       Spirit and Soul in the Therapeutic Relationship, Counseling and Spirituality: Conflict or Convergence: 1st Annual Conference, Gannon University, September 1998.

Academic Projects I'm Doing or Thinking About

-- Working toward completion of my dissertation, Joy and the Politics of Emotion: Phenomenology and Critical Theory Towards a Cultural Therapeutics, directed by Michael P. Sipiora, Ph.D.

-- A phenomenological reading of Freud's case of the "Rat Man," in collaboration with Andrew Felder.

-- A case study of a 4-year-long psychotherapy with a young boy diagnosed with major depressive disorder and oppositional-defiant disorder. The method includes a protocol analysis of multiple perspectives of the boy's progress in therapy including the boy himself, his parents, his sister, his relatives and teachers at school.

-- In collaboration with Bruce Fink, an investigation of the convergences and divergences in the philosophies of Jacques Lacan and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (particularly concerned with implications for psychotherapy).

-- Investigation of the qualitative development of narrative in children's storytelling and the relationship to ego development.

-- Continuing investigation of the relationship between psychosis and mystical experience.

-- Critical evaluation of Darwin's concept of "fitness" in evolutionary theory and implications for psychology.

-- Development of a textbook for history and systems of psychology that places the emphasis on epistemological issues.

-- Examination of the cross-influences and other relationships between the epistemological assumptions and research methodologies of Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Wundt.

-- Critical phenomenological analysis of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

-- Critical analysis of emotion-focused psychotherapy.

-- Phenomenological investigation of magical thinking and its possible role in the "unconscious."

-- Literature review of commentaries on Freud's notion of the "death instinct," and investigation of the implications of current biological research of cell death and reproduction on Freud's theory of the "death instinct."

-- Exploration of the relationship between Robert Kugelmann's metabletics of stress and the "crisis of masculinity."

Awards and Honors

2001 Sidney M. Jourard Student Award
Elected Regional Director, International Network on Personal Meaning, 2000-2001
Awarded Scholarship by APA Division 32 to attend Old Saybrook II Conference
Nominated for Student Teaching Award, Duquesne University, 2000
Elected Class Representative by peers in doctoral program, Duquesne University
Granted full scholarship and assistantship for Ph.D. at Duquesne University
Granted half-tuition scholarship and assistantship for M.A. at Duquesne University
Departmental honors, Psychology, Webster University
Departmental honors, Media Communications, Webster University
Elected Phi Beta Kappa as undergraduate at Webster University
Chosen as representative of Webster University for the Elie Wiesel Ethics Essay Competition, 1991
First place prize in Carnegie Art Museum's Freedom to Draw Context, 1987

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Hobbies

What do I like to do? Here is a list of some of my favorite things:

Movies
Music
Playing guitar
Reading
Spending time with my wife, especially shopping and walks in the park with Jake and Zoe
Spending time with my dogs, Jake and Zoe
Spending time with my cat, Kitty
Drawing and painting (when I can find the time -- not lately!)
Surfin' the net (no kidding!)
Meditation
Collecting artwork, especially Buddhist art & sculpture
Chess

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Music

Well, I like all kinds of music -- rock, electronica, trip-hop, jazz, blues, bluegrass, folk, punk, funk, classical... If it moves me, I'll listen to it. I've designed a whole host of pages dedicated to the best music of the 20th century:

Mythos & Logos Music Selections. Check it out!

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Movies

If you'd like to know about my favorite films, visit my movies page.

The movie page includes a list of my favorite films of all time, and my picks for the top ten films for the last decade or so.

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