Politics of Psychic Life Speaker Series
The Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, and the Politics of Psychic Life Speaker Series will host:
Rasmus Birk, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication & Psychology, Aalborg University, Denmark.
He will present:
鈥淭his city is not doable anymore鈥�: On psychological ecologies and 鈥榠dioms of urban distress鈥� in Southeast London
Please register
BIO:
Rasmus Birk is Assistant Professor in Psychology at the Department of Communication & Psychology, Aalborg University, Denmark, and Affiliated Research Associate at King鈥檚 College London. His work explores topics such as the relationships between urban life and mental health, the rise of 鈥渄igital phenotyping鈥�, and the development of novel (neuro)ecosocial theories for understanding, conceptualizing and theorizing mental health.
ABSTRACT:
In this presentation, I will take my point of departure in the many quantitative studies that have demonstrated empirical relationships between living in cities and the development of mental distress. Specifically, I will explore some of the ways experiences of distress become entangled with experiences of, and reflections on, urban life more broadly. Drawing on the well-known concept of 鈥榠dioms of distress鈥�, I will use qualitative empirical materials to illustrate how young people living in Southeast London use 鈥榠dioms of urban distress鈥�. These idioms of urban distress both reflect culturally available repertoires about contemporary, precarious urban life and they are simultaneously expressions of particular experiences of mental distress. I will argue that this suggests that, in a time of increasing focus on urban mental health, there is a need for conceptual and empirical engagement with how particular 鈥榩sychological ecologies鈥� furnish us with ways of reflecting on and experiencing the world.
