Michael Brown

I research bodies, specifically insofar as they are objects of biological and psychological study. My dissertation examines the challenges that fundamental ambiguities of the human body present to psychology, focusing on the psychiatric phenomenon of self-harm. (Long story short, I’m interested in the tensions between treatments of the body as a measurable object among objects, and the body each of us lives through and experiences first-personally. One body; two intertwined aspects.)

Besides that, I also research the historical and contemporary treatment of the biological concept of life, and study the notions of organism and life in Kant, Schelling, and Hegel. In general, I’m interested in the body as the problematic and evolving chiasm between the realms of nature and spirit.

My own personal body spends its free time bouldering, practicing yoga, guitar-playing, and creative writing.