Dylan Evans (born August 18, 1966) is a British former academic and author who has written books on

emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...

and the placebo effect as well as the theories of

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...

Life and career

Early life and education

Evans was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

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. At Southampton University he studied Spanish and Linguistics and later he received his doctorate in philosophy from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. His thesis, dated 2000, was titled ''Rethinking emotion: New research in emotion and recent debates in cognitive science''. Evans renounced his doctorate in 2024 as a protest against the LSE.

Academic career

Evans was a psychoanalyst in the style of

, 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.Evans, Dylan " ww.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 Evans worked at the University of Bath and the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a Public university, public research university, located in and around Bristol, England, UK. With more than 39,912 students and 4,300 staff, it is the largest provider of hi ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. Evans resigned from the position of senior lecturer at the University of the West of England to start a project in

sustainable living Sustainable living describes a lifestyle (sociology), lifestyle that attempts to reduce the use of Earth's natural resources by an individual or society. Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their ecological footprint (including their carbo ...

called the Utopia Experiment. Evans was briefly a lecturer in Behavioural Science in the School of Medicine at

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...

. 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). Risk intelligence is one of his research areas. On 15 September 2010, Evans, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', stating their opposition to

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

's state visit to the UK. In spring 2010 Evans was accused of

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

by a colleague after he showed her an article about the sex life of fruit bats. After an investigation by an external team, Evans was cleared of the charge of sexual harassment. He was ordered by UCC to undergo a "two-year period of monitoring and appraisal under the university’s duty of respect and 'right to dignity' policy". In the course of the campaign, confidential documents were leaked. Disciplinary proceedings were halted when Evans applied for judicial review at the Irish High Court. 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.

The Utopia Experiment

From 2006 he spent a while running the " Utopia Experiment" in the Highlands of Scotland.The Utopia Experiment: A radical crash course in self-sufficient living
James Durston, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 19 July 2007, retrieved 17 May 2010 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. 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.

After the "Utopia Experiment"

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. Evans also became the CEO of Projection Point, a risk intelligence company. 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.

Personal life

Evans is Muslim and a Marxist.

Selected publications

Books

*''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) *'' Introducing Evolution'' (2001) *''Emotion: The Science of Sentiment'' (2001) *''Introducing

Evolutionary Psychology Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regard to the ancestral problems they evolved ...

'' (1999) *''An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis'' (1996)

References

External links

HomepageRead Dylan Evans's articles in the 5th Estate blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Dylan 1966 births Living people Academics of King's College London Academics of University College Cork British psychologists British psychoanalysts Evolutionary psychologists British humanists British expatriates in Ireland British scientists People educated at Sevenoaks School