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Road
Less Traveled for MCCC Professor,
Musician and Author Matthew Giobbi
10/7/10
West
Windsor, N.J. - Matt Giobbi, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology
at Mercer County Community College, has realized the fruits
of his labors in recent days. Giobbi boldly takes on the American
psychological establishment in his new book, "A Postcognitive
Negation: The Sadomasochistic Dialectic of American Psychology,"
published by Atropos Press (NYC/Dresden). In it, he examines
the history of American psychological discourse, and posits
the direction he believes the discipline needs to go in the
future.
As he states in the book's introduction, "American psychology
and psychologists remain firmly planted in an Enlightenment-age,
mechanistic, reductionist world view." He points out that
the rest of the sciences - physics, mathematics and biology
- have moved on from this Newtonian viewpoint, but that "American
psychology remains solidly a proponent of it." He poses
these questions: "Can this deeply entrenched world view
be dislodged? Is it possible to uproot such an embedded belief
system?"
In Giobbi's view, scientific psychology is no longer a method,
but has become a media event. He predicts his book will serve
as a challenge to editorial boards of academic journals, which
"are gatekeepers of the status quo and err on the side
of safe ideas."
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Matt
Giobbi, Ph.D., with his new book
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Early
reviews of the book have been positive. Observes reviewer Robert
Craig Baum, Ph.D., professor of psychology and philosophy at River
Valley Community College, "With his formidable command of psychology,
philosophy, cultural studies, and transdisciplinary psychology,
this meditation/analysis/manifesto explores many unspoken (and feared)
questions from within the field. Giobbi's clear willingness and
unmistakable ability to encourage experimental psychologists to
let go of their own privileged center and experience the ideology
of a non-experimental paradigm envisions a more useful science."
Dr. Baum continues: "Giobbi has achieved the near impossible:
a first book whose challenges go beyond the contemporary debates
within psychology and restages the history of the problem itself
without losing sight of the vitality and necessity of a radicalized
transdisciplinary psychological model."
In
another affirmation of his teaching and research, Giobbi recently
received notice of a lifelong appointment as an Erich Fromm Postdoctoral
Research Associate at The European Graduate School of Interdisciplinary
Studies (EGS) in Switzerland. According to Giobbi, the appointment
is a wonderful opportunity that will give him access to all seminars
at the university, a platform to present his research, and an offer
of publication of any research that he completes related to Erich
Fromm.
"Fromm may prove even more relevant in the 21st century than
in the 20th century," he says, noting that Fromm was very concerned
with the future of the culture when he wrote in the 1960s. "It's
great to know my next project will be published."
Giobbi's first career was as a musician. He was principal trombonist
with Carnegie Hall's New York Youth Symphony and toured throughout
China, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Europe with various
symphony orchestras. In 1996 Giobbi served as principal trombonist
for the Orquesta Filarmonica de Lima in Peru.
By
the late 1990s, with many unanswered questions in mind, Giobbi turned
his attention to the study of psychology and philosophy. In 2001
he received his B.S. in Psychology from East Stroudsburg University
(PA) and, in 2004, his M.A. in Psychoanalytic Studies from the New
School for Social Research (NY). He completed his Ph.D. at EGS in
Media and Communications: Psychodynamic/Critical Media Theory in
2010.
In 2008 Giobbi established the International Association of Transdisciplinary
Psychology and serves as the editor of its journal.
In addition to teaching at MCCC since 2006, he is an adjunct lecturer
on the history and systems of psychology at Rutgers University,
Newark, NJ, DeSales University (Allentown, PA), and East Stroudsburg
University (PA).
Giobbi
is an avid street photographer and participates as a contributing
photographer in art and gallery events.
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