University Lecturer
Email: rd522@medschl.cam.ac.uk
Tel: 01223 746426
Background
Dr Robbie Duschinsky is a social scientist based in the Primary Care Unit in the School of Clinical Medicine. His research has primarily focused on children, families and theories of human behaviour, integrating approaches from psychology, sociology, history and philosophy. He has published in a variety of journals, including articles in Sociology; Journal of Social Policy; Sociological Review; Nursing Inquiry; Philosophy; and Review of General Psychology. Before joining Cambridge in 2015 he was Research Lead, Research Ethics Coordinator and a Reader in the Department of Social Work & Communities, Northumbria University. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Gender Studies.
Research Interests
Robbie is currently Principal Investigator on a New Investigator Award from the Wellcome Trust for research on debates in attachment theory and their implications for clinical and social welfare practice. As part of this project, his research has addressed young children’s emotion regulation, stress behaviours and capacities for self-management. Together with international collaborators, he is engaged in empirical research on differences in emotional dysregulation among infants identified as at risk, and work conceptualising the relationship between infant attachment and experiences of fear in relation to their caregiver.
Robbie has conducted evaluation research on the integration of health with social care services. This is part of a broader interest in the intersection of health and social care, particularly in relation to primary care and community mental health. He also has an interest in pathways linking early emotional life with later health outcomes such as medically unexplained symptoms. He is one of the conveners of ‘Biopolitics and Psychosomatics: Participating Bodies’, a conference taking place at CRASSH in 2016: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/26189
He is also concerned with the conceptual, ethical and social questions that can arise within clinical and professional practice. He recently co-edited special issues of the Archives of Sexual Behavior and of Psychology & Sexuality addressing the implications of new classifications of gender and sexuality in the 5th Edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. He is the co-author of a forthcoming book on themes of power and powerlessness in professional practice.
Other topics of research to date have included: dilemmas associated with clinical practice and multiple-source funding in nursing homes; anthropological theory, particularly the work of Mary Douglas on purity and impurity; and the history of political thought. He is the co-editor of Foucault, the Family and Politics and Juliet Mitchell and the Lateral Axis, both for Palgrave Macmillan.
Teaching
Robbie is the convener for the MVST 1A paper Social Context of Health and Illness.
Selected Recent Publications
Duschinsky, R., Greco, M. & Solomon, J. (2015) ‘The Politics of Attachment: Lines of Flight’ Theory, Culture & Society, in press
Duschinsky, R. (2015) ‘The Emergence of the ‘Disorganised/Disoriented (D) Attachment’ Classification, 1979-1982’ History of Psychology, 18(1): 32–46
Thompson, J., Cook, G. & Duschinsky, R. (2015) ‘‘I feel like a salesperson’: the effect of multiple-source care funding on the experiences and views of nursing home nurses in England.’ Nursing Inquiry 22(2): 168–177