Brent Dean Robbins is associate professor of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

Point Park University Point Park University is a private university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Grea ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

. His areas of research include grief, humor, self-consciousness, spirituality/religion, death anxiety, and the medicalization of the body. He is editor-in-chief and founder of ''Janus Head: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts'', and is a board member for a number of journals, including ''

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies The ''International Journal of Transpersonal Studies'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering theory, research, practice, and discourse in the area of transpersonal studies. It is the official journal of the International Transpers ...

'', the ''International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy'', ''PsyCRITIQUES'', and ''Terrorism Research''. Robbins is a co-editor of ''The Legacy of

R.D. Laing Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illnessin particular, the experience of psychosis. Laing's views on the causes and treatment of ...

'', published by Trivium Press. Robbins is a recipient of the Harmi Carari Early Career Award, from the Society for Humanistic Psychology. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( or ; Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a private Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit , image = Holy Gh ...

. In 2011, Robbins co-authored an open letter from the Society for Humanistic Psychology regarding the '' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders''s fifth edition, the

DSM-5 The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition'' (DSM-5), is the 2013 update to the '' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'', the taxonomic and diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiatri ...

. The letter has been endorsed by thirteen other

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

divisions, and has been signed as a petition by over 15,000 people. In a recent ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'' article about the debate over the DSM-5, Robbins noted that, under the new guidelines, certain responses to grief could be labeled as pathological disorders, instead of being recognized as being normal human experiences. Brent was born into a nominally

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family, became an atheist when in college, and then he reverted to the Catholic faith after experienced something in a retreat.

Selected works

*''Drugging Our Children: How Profiteers are Pushing Antipsychotics on Our Youngest and What We Can Do to Stop It'' with Sharna Olfman, Ph.D., 2012. *Co-author of "A cultural-existential approach to therapy: Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of embodiment and its implications for practice," (with co-author Felder, A.J.) ''Theory and Psychology'', 2011. *"Conflicts of interest in research on antipsychotic treatment of pediatric bipolar disorder, temper dysregulation disorder, and attenuated psychotic symptoms syndrome: Exploring the unholy alliance between big pharma and psychiatry," (with Point Park students/co-authors Higgins, M.; Fischer, M.; and Over, K.) ''Journal of Psychological Issues in Organizational Culture'', 2011. *Co-author of "Resiliency as a virtue: Contributions from humanistic and positive psychology," ''Continuity versus creative response to challenge: The primacy of resilience and resourcefulness in life and therapy'', 2011. *"Joy," ''The Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology'', 2009. *"The self-regulation of humor expression: A mixed method, phenomenological approach to the study of suppressed laughter," (Co-authored with Kyla Vandree), and "What is the good life? Positive psychology and the renaissance of humanistic psychology," ''The Humanistic Psychologist'', 2009 and 2008. *"Lessons from the dead: Undergraduate experiences of work with cadavers," (Co-authored with A. Tomaka, C. Innus, J. Patterson, & G. Styn). ''Omega: Journal of Death and Dying'', 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robbins, Brent Living people 21st-century American psychologists Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism Year of birth missing (living people)