I am Assistant Professor of Psychology at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. Prior to my appointment at Point Park University, I served as Assistant Professor of Psychology at Daemen College in Buffalo, NY and as Visiting Assistant Professor at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. In addition, I've worked as a part-time instructor for Walden University, Massey University, and the Consortium of the Niagara Frontier, a program for prisoners at the Wyoming Correctional Facility in Attica, NY.

I have a B.A. in Psychology and Media Communications from Webster University (St. Louis, MO), and a PhD in Clinical Psychology for Duquesne University. I completed my pre-doctoral internship at University of Pittsburgh Counseling Center.

I am Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder of Janus Head: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts, and a Board member for a number of journals, including PsycCRITIQUES: APA Review of Books, Terrorism Research, International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, and the International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy. I am Editor of the Philosophical Psychology book series published by Trivium Press, and am currently co-editing two forthcoming volumes, The Legacy of R.D. Laing and Humanistic and Positive Psychology: Toward a Rapprochement.

I am a recipient of the Harmi Carari Early Career Award for Inquiry, granted by the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32 of the American Psychological Association). My areas of research include the phenomenology of emotion, humor, self-consciousness, religion/spirituality, death anxiety, embodiment, and the medicalization of the body. His clinical research has been especially focused on an existential-phenomenological approach to treatment, which is informed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty's flesh ontology. Additional areas of clinical and research interest include panic disorder other anxiety disorders. I am a strong proponent of epistemological diversity, and a significant portion of my scholarship includes work in the philosophy of science, especially phenomenological and Goethean approaches to science.

Recent Publications:

Robbins, B.D., Tomaka, A., Innus, C., Patterson, J., & Styn G. (in press). Lessons from the dead: Undergraduate experiences of work with cadavers. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying.

Robbins, B.D., & Vandree, K. (in press). The self-regulation of humor expression: A mixed method approach to the study of suppressed laughter. The Humanistic Psychologist.

Robbins, B.D. (in press). Listening to the other: Toward an integration of humanistic, existential, and psychodynamic practice. The Humanistic Psychologist.

Robbins, B.D. (in press). Joy. In S. Lopez (Ed.), The encyclopedia of positive psychology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Robbins, B.D. (2008). Cultural therapeutics: The recovery of metaphoricity. Janus Head, 10(2), 415-423.

Robbins, B.D. (2008). What is the good life? Positive psychology and the renaissance of humanistic psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 36(2), 96-112.

Robbins, B.D. & Parlavecchio, H. (2006). The unwanted exposure of the self: A phenomenological study of embarrassment. The Humanistic Psychologist, 34(4), 321-345.

Robbins, B.D. (2006). The delicate empiricism of Goethe: Phenomenology as a rigorous science of nature. The Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 6, np. Retrieved July 5, 2008 from the IPJP database: http://www.ipjp.org

Robbins, B.D. (2006). An empirical-phenomenological study: Being joyful. In C.T. Fischer (Ed.), Qualitative research methods for psychologists: Introduction through empirical studies (pp. 173-212). New York: Academic Press.

Robbins, B.D., & Goichoechea, J. (2005). The psychogenesis of the self and the emergence of ethical relatedness: Klein in light of Merleau-Ponty. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 25(2), 191-223.

Robbins, B.D. (2005). New organs of perception: Goethean science as a cultural therapeutics. Janus Head, 8(1).

Robbins, B.D. (2003). The question of method for existential psychology. The International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy, 1(1). 

Robbins, B.D. (2003). The phenomenological truth of visual emissions. American Psychologist, 58(6/7).

Barriga, A.Q., Doran, J.W., Newell, S.B., Morrison, E.M., Barbetti, V., & Robbins, B.D. (2002). Relationship between problem behaviours and academic achievement in adolescents: The unique role of attention problems. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 10(4), 233-240.

Robbins, B.D. (2001). Scientia media, incommensurability, and interdisciplinary space. Janus Head, 3(suppl).

Robbins, B.D. (2000). Schreber’s soul-voluptuousness: Mysticism, madness and the feminine in Schreber’s memoirs. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 31(2), 1-38.

Robbins, B.D. (2000). On the history of rhetoric and psychology. Janus Head, 3(1).

Robbins, B.D. (1998). Kuhn in light of Heidegger as a response to Hoeller’s critique of Giorgi. Janus Head, 1(1).