Prf Darren Langdridge
Professor Of Psychology
Biography
Professional biography
I am Professor of Psychology at the Open University and a UKCP accedited existential psychotherapist. I was Head of Department from 2011 - 2014.
Research interests
- Men and masculinities
- Psychology of health and well-being
- Antimicrobial stewardship
- Phenomenological methodology
- Existential and logo-therapies, mental health and social and political applications
I have completed qualitative (phenomenological) research on a wide variety of topics including the construction of diverse sexual identities, young gay men’s expectations of fatherhood, sharing of genetic origins information following third-party assisted conception, the motivation for parenthood, and also on HIV/AIDS. More recently, I have been focusing my research on two themes: (i) the experience of male survivors of sexual assault, and (ii) antimicrobial stewardship.
I also have interests in psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic theory and research and am a UKCP accredited existential psychotherapist maintaining a small private practice. This enables me to bring together my theoretical work on existentialism, phenomenology and hermeneutics with people practically engaged in constructing and reconstructing their identities.
I am particularly interested in supervising doctoral students wishing to conduct research on men and masculinities and who wish to employ phenomenological methodologies or critical discursive methods in their work.
I founded and was co-editor of the Taylor & Francis journal Psychology & Sexuality until 2017, when we handed over the editorial responsibilities.
A repository of research publications and other research outputs can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online.
Teaching interests
I have been a leading figure in the production of the counselling programme at the OU, opening up a new teaching area for the institution. I have made production and presentation contributions to a very large number of modules in psychology and counselling.
Impact and engagement
I have interests in engaging publics with academic research. To this end, I have acted as academic consultant on the OU/BBC television co-production Prejudice and Pride and co-lead the Art of Relationships project, which was designed to engage the public with social scientific research.
External collaborations
I maintain a small private psychotherapy and consulting practice under the company name Existenz.
Publications
Book
Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy (2012)
Understanding Counselling and Psychotherapy (2010)
Understanding Non-Monogamies (2010)
Introduction to Research Methods and Data Analysis in Psychology, 2nd Edition (2009)
Phenomenological Psychology: Theory, Research and Method (2007)
Safe, sane and consensual: Contemporary perspectives on sadomasochism (2007)
Book Chapter
Beyond Prejudice as Antipathy: Understanding kinder, gentler forms of discrimination (2022)
Working with group-level data in phenomenological research: A modified visual matrix method (2021)
Existential dream analysis (2018)
Benevolent Heterosexism and the “Less-than-Queer” Citizen Subject (2018)
Gay affirmative therapy: recognizing the power of the social world (2014)
Sexuality and embodiment in relationships (2013)
Relationship therapy with lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans clients. (2013)
The therapeutic relationship (2010)
Understanding drug treatments: A biopsychosocial approach (2010)
Existential psychotherapy (2010)
Situating non-monogamies: introduction (2010)
Relating through difference: a critical narrative analysis (2009)
Silencing accounts of silenced sexualities (2009)
Sadmomasochism and the law (2007)
The power of play: The potentials and pitfalls in healing narratives of BDSM (2007)
Speaking the unspeakable: S/M and the eroticisation of pain (2007)
Situating sadomasochism (2007)
Turning the world upside down: Developing a tool for training about SM (2007)
The time of the sadomasochist: Hunting with(in) the ‘tribus’ (2006)
Journal Article
Male survivors’ experience of sexual assault and support: A scoping review (2023)
Lay theories of decreasing homophobia in the UK among an older heterosexual cohort (2023)
Citizenship studies: on the need for tradition and critique (2022)
Working with group-level data in phenomenological research: a modified visual matrix method (2021)
History, culture and practice of puppy play (2020)
LGBQ resilience: a thematic meta-synthesis of qualitative research (2019)
The psychology of puppy play: a phenomenological investigation (2019)
BDSM under Security: Radical Resistance via Contingent Subjectivities (2018)
Editorial from the outgoing editors of psychology & sexuality (2017)
Actively dividing selves: S/M and the thrill of disintegration (2014)
On the biomedicalisation of the penis: the commodification of function and aesthetics (2013)
Gay fathers, gay citizenship: on the power of reproductive futurism and assimilation (2013)
Living with the 'Enemy': HIV and Inter-species Relating (2012)
Becoming a subject: a memory work study of the experience of romantic jealousy (2012)
Men's grief, meaning and growth: a phenomenological investigation into the meaning of loss (2012)
Whatever happened to non-monogamies? Critical reflections on recent research and theory (2010)
Family building in donor conception: parents' experiences of sharing information (2010)
Phenomenology and critical social psychology: directions and debates in theory and research (2008)
II. Bisexuality: working with a silenced sexuality (2008)
Offending the other: deconstructing narratives of deviance and pathology (2007)
Gay affirmative therapy: A theoretical framework and defence (2007)
Analyzing additional variables in the theory of reasoned action (2007)
Ideology and Utopia: Social Psychology and the Social Imaginary of Paul Ricoeur (2006)
Voices from the margins: Sadomasochism and sexual citizenship (2006)
Solution Focused Therapy: A Way Forward for Brief Existential Therapy? (2006)
Editorial: Special feature on same sex marriage (2006)
Actively dividing selves: S/M and the thrill of disintegration (2005)
Between ideology and utopia: Re-thinking conflict and reconciliation in psychotherapy (2005)
Understanding the reasons for parenthood (2005)
The Child's Relations with Others (2005)
The erotic construction of power exchange (2005)
The fundamental attribution error: a phenomenological critique (2004)
The construction of self: The public reach into the private sphere (2003)
Hermeneutic phenomenology: arguments for a new social psychology (2003)
Other
Work-based learning interventions for antimicrobial stewardship: a systematic review (2023)
Presentation / Conference
Investigating affordances of virtual worlds for real world B2C e-commerce (2011)
