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Dylan Evans

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For the rugby player, see Dylan Evans (rugby union).

Dylan Evans
Born (1966-08-18) 18 August 1966 (age 58)
Bristol, England
Alma materLondon School of Economics PhD, 2000. Renounced 2024.
Known forEmotion
placebo
antisemitism
AwardsBritish Medical Association Medical Book Competition (2003)
Scientific career
FieldsBehavioural science
InstitutionsUniversidad Francisco Marroquin 2012

American University of Beirut 2012
University College Cork 2008–2011
University of the West of England 2003–2006
University of Bath 2001–2003

King's College London 2000–2001
ThesisRethinking emotion: New research in emotion and recent debates in cognitive science (2000)
Doctoral advisorJohn Worrall
Nicholas Humphrey

Dylan Evans (born August 18, 1966) is a British former academic and author who has written books on emotion and the placebo effect as well as the theories of Jacques Lacan.

Life and career

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Early life and education

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Evans was born in Bristol on 29 September 1966 and went to private school at Sevenoaks School and the state-funded West Kent College of Further Education. His father is an aircraft engineer, his mother is a teacher.[1]

At Southampton University he studied Spanish and Linguistics and later he received his doctorate in philosophy from the London School of Economics.[1] His thesis, dated 2000, was titled Rethinking emotion: New research in emotion and recent debates in cognitive science.[2]

Evans renounced his doctorate in 2024 as a protest against the LSE. [3] [4]

Academic career

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Evans was a psychoanalyst in the style of Jacques Lacan, and wrote a standard reference work in the field. After several years, however, Evans eventually came to doubt the logical and scientific validity of Lacanianism, and ultimately abandoned the field because he was worried Lacanianism harmed rather than helped patients.[5] Evans worked at the University of Bath and the University of the West of England in artificial intelligence.[1] Evans resigned from the position of senior lecturer at the University of the West of England to start a project in sustainable living called the Utopia Experiment.

Evans was briefly a lecturer in Behavioural Science in the School of Medicine at University College Cork. In 2010 the university gave him the "President's Award for Research on Innovative Forms of Teaching" for his Cork Science Cafe project (together with colleague Catherine O'Mahony).[6]

Risk intelligence is one of his research areas.[7]

On 15 September 2010, Evans, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.[8]

In spring 2010 Evans was accused of sexual harassment of a colleague, Rossana Salerno Kennedy,[9] by showing her a published article about oral sex among fruit bats. His employer imposed a "two-year period of monitoring and appraisal under the university's duty of respect and 'right to dignity' policy," leading Evans to mount a campaign, attracting more than 3000 petition signatures, defending the principle of freedom of expression.[10] In the course of the campaign, confidential documents were leaked, and UCC launched disciplinary action against Evans for alleged breach of confidentiality.[11] Disciplinary proceedings were halted when Evans applied for judicial review at the Irish High Court.[12] On 1 December 2010 the High Court quashed the sanctions imposed on Evans by the President of UCC, which the judge described as "grossly disproportionate", and awarded costs to Evans.[13] The Court upheld the original finding of harassment, but the judge said that "there can be different forms of sexual harassment, ranging from highly objectionable to mildly objectionable" and that "this was at the very lower end of the scale in this case."[13] UCC responded by issuing a statement stating that they were satisfied with the High Court's decision to uphold the original harassment finding, and they declared their intention to proceed with disciplinary proceedings against Evans for alleged breach of confidence.[14]

The Utopia Experiment

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Main article: Utopia Experiment

From 2006 he spent a while running the "Utopia Experiment"[15] in the Highlands of Scotland.[1][16][17][18] This was to be a self-sufficient group of people growing their own food, with no television and limited use of electricity for eighteen months.[16][dead link‍][17] After ten months Evans had become disillusioned with the project and concerned about their health. He went to see a doctor who referred him to a psychiatrist. Evans was then detained under the Mental Health Act for his own safety. After four weeks in a psychiatric hospital he returned to the experiment to inform the volunteers that it was over. However, they wished for the community to continue and renamed it the Phoenix Experiment. As of 2015 some of them were still there.[19]

After the "Utopia Experiment"

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After leaving the experiment Evans moved to Ireland where he was a resident for 5 years. He then relocated to Guatemala. In a 2015 interview he said he was working on a novel set in the region.[20] Evans also became the CEO of Projection Point, a risk intelligence company.[21]

From 2019 to 2023 Evans worked at Mindlab International, a market research agency based in Brighton UK, first as an account manager and then as Head of Internal Research. [22]

Controversy

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Evans was publicly outed as an antisemite in 2023 [23] which resulted in his expulsion from Twitter (now known as X). [24] [25] He has recently stated his support for the Iranian state's ambition to possess nuclear weapons [26] and holds controversial views regarding the Holocaust:

"Hitler’s greatest crime was not, in fact, the murder of six million Jews, but saying out loud what every other European politician thought but would never have had the indecency to confess (except in hushed tones in the privacy of his club). A gentleman can be forgiven anything — except telling the truth." [27]

Personal Life

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Evans identifies as an Islamic Marxist. [28]

Selected publications

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Books

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  • The Utopia Experiment (2015)
  • Atheism: All That Matters (2014)
  • Risk Intelligence: How to Live with Uncertainty (2012)
  • Emotion, Evolution and Rationality (2004)
  • Placebo: The Belief Effect (2003)[29]
  • Introducing Evolution (2001)
  • Emotion: The Science of Sentiment (2001)[29]
  • Introducing Evolutionary Psychology (1999)[30]
  • An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis (1996)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Dylan Evans: Biography". Archived from the original on 22 April 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  2. ^ Evans, Dylan (2000). Rethinking emotion: New research in emotion and recent debates in cognitive science (PhD). London School of Economics and Political Science. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  3. ^ "Dylan Evans on LinkedIn: Open letter to the LSE | 27 comments". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
  4. ^ Evans, Dylan (30 November 2024). "Open letter to the LSE". Medium. Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
  5. ^ Evans, Dylan "[www.dylan.org.uk/lacan.pdf From Lacan to Darwin]", in The Literary Animal; Evolution and the Nature of Narrative, eds. Jonathan Gottschall and David Sloan Wilson, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2005
  6. ^ Hannah Fearn, "Surprise twist in 'fruitbatgate' row", Times Higher Education, 18 November 2010
  7. ^ How's your risk intelligence? Archived 21 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Mark Henderson, The Times, 18 January 2010, retrieved 17 May 2010
  8. ^ "Letters: Harsh judgments on the pope and religion". The Guardian. London. 15 September 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
  9. ^ Katherine Donnelly, "Woman in bat-sex row is expert nutritionist," The Independent, 18 May 2010
  10. ^ Hannah Fearn, "Sex life of fruit bat lands lecturer in hot water", Times Higher Education, 17 May 2010
  11. ^ Hannah Fearn, "Disciplinary proceedings halted in 'fruitbatgate' case", Times Higher Education Supplement, 5. July 2010
  12. ^ Daniel O'Carroll, "Fruit-bat-gate lecturer begins legal battle over sexual harassment", Irish Scentral, 2. Jule 2010
  13. ^ a b "Bill No: 2010 750 JR" "Date Accused". Archived from the original on 4 July 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  14. ^ "UCC lecturer has sanctions quashed". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  15. ^ "Dylan Evans: The Utopia Experiment". Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  16. ^ a b The Utopia Experiment: A radical crash course in self-sufficient living, James Durston, The Independent, 19 July 2007, retrieved 17 May 2010
  17. ^ a b Anjana Ahuja (8 June 2006). "Home is where the yurt is..." The Times. Archived from the original on 9 February 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2009.
  18. ^ Apocalypse now, Ross Anderson, The Times, 26 April 2007, retrieved 18 May 2007
  19. ^ "My Private Utopia". Npr.org.
  20. ^ "The Utopia Experiment, an interview with author Dylan Evans". Irishtechnews.ie. 14 April 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  21. ^ "Beyond Originality". Iai.tv. 10 October 2015.
  22. ^ "Dylan Evans LinkedIn profile".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  23. ^ gjwpadmin1 (24 December 2023). "Dylan Evans - GnasherJew". gnasherjew.com. Retrieved 22 December 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  24. ^ https://x.com/antisemitism/status/1717132729995653214. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  25. ^ "x.com". X (formerly Twitter). Archived from the original on 26 November 2024. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
  26. ^ Evans, Dylan (7 December 2024). "It's time for Iran to go nuclear". Medium. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
  27. ^ "The Dishonesty of D-Day". Medium.
  28. ^ https://medium.com/@evansd66/why-i-am-a-marxist-muslim-2dabb9978835. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  29. ^ a b "Dylan Evans". The Guardian.
  30. ^ "Search". Paperplus.co.nz.
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