Day 2 - Session 7
May 11, 2:15 - 3:15 pm (EST/USA)
Awe: The Sublime, Fear, & Horror
Presenters:
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Pamela Taylor, PhD
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Assistant Professor, Akita International University (Japan)
Alice Chirico, PhD
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ExperienceLab, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy)
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Expert Panelists:
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Lewis Schlosser, PhD, ABPP
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Board Certified Police and Public Safety Psychologist; Fellow American Psychological Association (USA)
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Adria Adams, PsyD
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Director, Health & Wellness Section, New York City Police Department (NYPD, USA)
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Marcel Queiroz
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Pharmaceutical Sciences Researcher Federal University of Bahia (Brazil)
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International Association for Human Values (USA)
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Session Description
Awe and The Sublime
Robert R. Clewis, PhD​
The concept of the "sublime" is one of the roots of recent psychological research on awe. After giving an overview of the philosophical sources of the sublime, I will discuss several points of comparison and contrast with awe.
More information:
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Does finding “silver linings” to bad events foster awe and acceptance of what happened?
Pamela Taylor
Although awe is usually felt towards positive experiences, sometimes extremely negative experiences also elicit awe. One aspect of negative awe experiences that differentiates them from non-awe negative (e.g., horrific) experiences is the awareness of a “silver lining”, i.e., seeing something good or beautiful occurring because of (or despite) an extremely harmful event. For example, the horrors of war are necessary to the virtue or heroism to arise.
This talk will present preliminary data from an experimental study investigating if thinking about the positive (vs negative) effects of an extremely negative life event increases feelings of awe, acceptance and optimism. The results of this study could guide strategies of cognitive reappraisal that can help people cope with negative life events.
​More information:
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Awe or horror: Differentiating two emotional responses to schema-incongruence
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Individual and Cultural Differences in Predispositions to Feel Positive and Negative Aspects of Awe
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Awe and the Sublime in Virtual Reality: Towards a democratization of human experiences
Alice Chirico, PhD​
The potential of virtual reality (VR) simulations for reproducing even complex forms of experience reaches its climax in the design of complex emotions such as awe and the sublime. These experiences are key for our wellbeing and health but are rare and difficult to reproduce at high intensity. VR allows recreating any kind of emotions in the lab, as well as customizing specific experiences of awe accessible to anyone. Crucially, the balance between positive and negative emotional facets of awe can be replicated into VR to an extent to elicit the same emotional intensity of an equivalent experience in reality. We are moving towards a democratization of human experiences through realistic VR simulations to make key opportunities of wellbeing and health accessible to all of us, beyond physical and mental constraints.
More information:
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BIOGRAPHIES
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Robert R. Clewis, PhD
Robert R. Clewis is professor of philosophy at Gwynedd Mercy University (Pennsylvania) and in 2019/20 was a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. He is developing a theory of the sublime as aesthetic awe. In addition to working on the intersections between awe and the sublime, he is the author of The Kantian Sublime and the Revelation of Freedom (2009) and the editor of Reading Kant’s Lectures (2015) and The Sublime Reader (2019).
Email: clewis.r@gmercyu.edu
Website: https://robertrclewis.com/
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Pamela Taylor, PhD
Pamela Taylor received her PhD in cognitive and behavioral science from Kyoto University in 2020, and is currently an Assistant Professor at Akita International University. Her research focuses on emotional responses to harmful events, with a specific focus on the emotion of horror and how it differs from similar emotions, such as awe, fear and disgust.
Email: ptaylor@aiu.ac.jp
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Alice Chirico, PhD
Alice Chirico, Ph.D., Chartered Psychologist, Singer, Postdoc researcher at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, Advanced researcher at the ATNP-Lab, Italian Auxologico Institute of Milan. Her main research interest concerns the study and the design of complex experiences, e.g., awe, the sublime, optimal group and dyadic creativity, sensorimotor synchronization in HHI and HRI, and Transformative Experiences, through art and technologies. She is currently working on applying complex experiences in the treatment of depressive disorders and to fight school dropout.
Email: Alice.Chirico@unicatt.it
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Lewis Schlosser, PhD, ABPP
Lewis Z. Schlosser, PhD, ABPP, is the managing partner at the Institute for Forensic Psychology, which is a police and public safety focused specialty practice based in Oakland, New Jersey. Dr. Schlosser is a licensed psychologist in New York, New Jersey, and Maine. He is Board Certified in Police and Public Safety Psychology and Counseling Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. Dr. Schlosser has conducted over 10,000 law enforcement psychological evaluations, including pre-employment, promotional, and fitness for duty evaluations. He provides training to police personnel on a variety of topics related to officer mental health, with special expertise in fitness for duty and officer wellness.
Dr. Schlosser is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Police Psychological Services Section. He currently serves on the Executive Board of the Police Psychological Services Section as the General Chair. He is also an Auxiliary Member of the National Sheriff’s Association (NSA) and a Member of the NSA Psychological Services Group. Dr. Schlosser is an affiliate member of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police (NJSACOP) and the Bergen County Police Chief's Association. He currently serves as the Chief Psychologist for the NJSACOP. Dr. Schlosser is a member of the New Jersey Police Surgeons and he is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.
Email: lew@ifp-testing.com
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Adria Adams, PsyD
Dr. Adria Adams is a clinical psychologist in New York City. Dr. Adams obtained a doctorate degree in clinical psychology from the American School of Professional Psychology, Washington D.C Campus, and completed her predoctoral internship in the Forensic Track at Bellevue Hospital/New York University of Medicine. After doctoral training Dr. Adams joined the New York City Police Department (NYPD) as a clinical psychologist in the Psychological Screening Section where she conducted pre-employment psychological evaluations of NYPD officer and civilian candidates, participated as an expert witness in Civil Service Commission hearings, and provided critical incident trauma response services. Dr. Adams then went on for the next decade to direct the Interim Crisis Clinic at Bellevue Hospital and also held the role of Associate Director of the Bellevue Hospital Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program. In March 2020 Dr. Adams returned to the NYPD as the Director of the Health and Wellness Section. In this role she develops and oversees wellness and mental health initiatives and policy. Dr. Adams also created a comprehensive preventative critical incident stress management program for members of the department. Additionally, she provides supportive clinical consultation to peer counselors in the Employee Assistance Unit and members of the Peer Support Program.
Email: Adria.Adams@nypd.org
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Marcel Queiroz
Marcel serves as the Executive Director for SKY Resilience Program. He has been working with Trauma Relief Projects, Prison Programs and teaching Law Enforcement since 2015. In last 5 years, has overseen global initiatives that impacted more than 3000 officers and has trained teachers in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, South Africa, Philippines and the United States. Works as project manager in the strategic planning committee for Brazil Government, improving the entire productive sector in the country’s third largest state, Bahia. His passion and experience is to accelerate institutional change in public and private institutions, focusing on individual’s resilience, stress relief, human-centered leadership, productivity and personal management.
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