My name is Michael Brown, and I am a Teaching Scholar in the Reilly Center for Science Technology and Values at the University of Notre Dame. My research focuses on the complex role of the body in psychiatry and psychology. I have also done extensive research in German Idealism, specifically on Immanuel Kant and G.W.F. Hegel.
My dissertation, "Between the Flesh and the Idea: Situating the Body in the Psychiatry of Self-Harm," examines the tensions between the formation of the psychiatric category of self-harm and the phenomenology of the body in those who self-harm. I investigate the source of this omission of the body through an examination of psychiatric epistemology in general, and the particular historical development of the psychiatric concept of self-harm. I focus on the divide between the behavior's cognitive and compulsive aspects, corresponding to the mental and physiological aspects, respectively. This dichotomy, however, risks omitting the phenomenology of the lived body. Building on this context, I develop an account of the structure of certain bodily experiences reported by self-harm patients, specifically the expression of inner distress, and the felt need for pressure release and purgation. The overarching theme of this account is that the body does not exist in only one aspect, be it physical, biological, psychological, or social, but exists ambiguously as each of these. Only by attending to the movement among these aspects can we arrive at a satisfactory account of a variety of self-harm experiences.
Outside of philosophy, I enjoy writing fiction, painting, playing guitar, and rock climbing.
My dissertation, "Between the Flesh and the Idea: Situating the Body in the Psychiatry of Self-Harm," examines the tensions between the formation of the psychiatric category of self-harm and the phenomenology of the body in those who self-harm. I investigate the source of this omission of the body through an examination of psychiatric epistemology in general, and the particular historical development of the psychiatric concept of self-harm. I focus on the divide between the behavior's cognitive and compulsive aspects, corresponding to the mental and physiological aspects, respectively. This dichotomy, however, risks omitting the phenomenology of the lived body. Building on this context, I develop an account of the structure of certain bodily experiences reported by self-harm patients, specifically the expression of inner distress, and the felt need for pressure release and purgation. The overarching theme of this account is that the body does not exist in only one aspect, be it physical, biological, psychological, or social, but exists ambiguously as each of these. Only by attending to the movement among these aspects can we arrive at a satisfactory account of a variety of self-harm experiences.
Outside of philosophy, I enjoy writing fiction, painting, playing guitar, and rock climbing.