My main research interests may be separated into two areas. Firstly, I work with the pathologies of modern day work-life (stress, depression, anxiety, boredom etc.) and how they resonate with our cultural history. In my PhD, which I wrote at CBS, I develop three ‘formations’ in the history of melancholy which are reflected in the way we speak about and act towards stress, burn-out and depression today. More recently, I have been working with the concept of boredom and the status of the phenomenon in a culture that focuses intensely on self-regulation and personal initiative. I am interested in how the experience of boredom through the 20th c. has come to constitute a resource in the development of new markets within social media, cultural design and wellness industries. In this context of a “cultural phenomenology”, I have also been very interested in how the clinical vocabulary of psychopathology has come to dominate our conceptions of subjective malaise.

Secondly, I work with the humanities and their role and use in business education. I am very engaged in the disciplinary development of philosophy in practice, especially through case-based teaching. I am also engaged in a project on the humanities in psychiatric practice and teach medical practitioners.

I have a classical background in philosophy with an emphasis on continental thinking. I have worked broadly with the history of philosophy and with especially Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Gadamer. More recently I have worked with the history and theory of psychoanalysis, especially with Freud, Klein, Winnicot and Lacan.

MPP Research: Video Portrait - Rasmus Johnsen: