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Joseph E. Davis Ph.D.

About

Joseph E. Davis is Research Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Picturing the Human working group of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. His research explores the intersecting questions of self, morality, and cultural change. In writing on medicine, psychiatry, and public health, he has examined trauma psychology, narratives of suffering, the rise of biological explanations of mental life, medicalization, psychoactive drug use, and the cultural dreams of technological mastery.

His new book is Chemically Imbalanced: Everyday Suffering, Medication, and our Troubled Quest for Self-Mastery (Chicago, 2020).

He is also the author of Accounts of Innocence: Sexual Abuse, Trauma, and the Self (Chicago), editor of Identity and Social Change (Transaction) and Stories of Change: Narrative and Social Movements (SUNY). He is co-editor (with Ana Marta González) of To Fix or to Heal: Patient Care, Public Health, and the Limits of Biomedicine (NYU), and (with Paul Scherz) of The Evening of Life: The Challenges of Aging and Dying Well (Notre Dame). He recently coedited a special number of the journal Social Research (Winter 2019) on Persons without Qualities: Algorithms, AI, and the Reshaping of Ourselves.

Books by Joseph E. Davis Ph.D.
Recent Posts
Don’t Be Fooled by AI
Chatbots and other AI-powered applications are being tricked out to fool us into treating them like people. Such social interaction will not leave us unaffected.
Is the Youth Mental Health Crisis a Myth?

The troubles of youth are real but should not be confused with mental disorder or an intensification of the sort of problems that kids have always encountered.

The troubles of youth are real but should not be confused with mental disorder or an intensification of the sort of problems that kids have always encountered.

For a Moratorium on Parent Blaming

Much of the criticism of parents is misplaced. They didn’t cause the mess we’re in. Like everyone else, they’re trying to cope with it.

Much of the criticism of parents is misplaced. They didn’t cause the mess we’re in. Like everyone else, they’re trying to cope with it.

What's Really Behind Burnout

To understand burnout, we have to consider not only organizational deficiencies but the way in which achievement is defined in our society.

To understand burnout, we have to consider not only organizational deficiencies but the way in which achievement is defined in our society.

The Real Roots of Student Cheating

Young people are in a bind with achievement expectations that sorely test their honesty. We need to shape an environment that mitigates their plight.

Young people are in a bind with achievement expectations that sorely test their honesty. We need to shape an environment that mitigates their plight.

Our Mysterious Epidemic of Despair Has a History

While our malaise seems new, it goes back decades. Looking back helps us to see deeper roots in the wearing away of enabling institutions and traditions.

While our malaise seems new, it goes back decades. Looking back helps us to see deeper roots in the wearing away of enabling institutions and traditions.

Will ChatGPT Replace Psychiatrists?

AI-powered chatbots cannot replicate the human element of care, but they may become more popular as the human qualities of psychiatric practice are increasingly sidelined.

AI-powered chatbots cannot replicate the human element of care, but they may become more popular as the human qualities of psychiatric practice are increasingly sidelined.