Research interests

My work focuses primarily on the analysis of conceptual debates in psychiatry and clinical psychology that are pertinent to mental health practice and policymaking. It draws from a broadly situated perspective, connecting non-descriptive views of mind with functional-analytic and post-cognitivist views of psychotherapy and related key notions. In this sense, my research has a marked inter- and multidisciplinary scope. It is also strongly collaborative. With my colleagues from Utrecht University and the project Shaping our action space: A situated perspective on self-control, I’m currently investigating how the interplay of situated and regulative views of mind and key notions like self-knowledge or self-regulation offers innovative answers to clinical and political problems in mental healthcare (w. Annemarie Kalis, Josephine Pascoe, Jelle Stegers, Cato Benschop, etc.). This work also draws from and contributes to maintaining an international network with colleagues working at FiloLab (University of Granada) integrating the Utrecht-Granada Philosophy Hub. My expressivist framework comes primarily from them, with whom I take part in a series of research projects (The Social Roots of Mental Disorder, The Social Roots of Mental Health) on applications of evaluative and mindshaping views of mind and mental health to the analysis of key debates in the field, including the analogy between mental and somatic disorders, the distinction between psychopathology and social deviancy, or the defense of doxastic views of delusions (w. Víctor Fernández Castro, Manuel Almagro Holgado, Virginia Ballesteros, etc.). I am also exploring similar topics in my current work on 4E Cognition approaches to mental health (w. Pablo López Silva).

This research partially stems from my previous research on the conceptual and practical implications of contemporary functional-analytic views of psychotherapy and their challenges to traditional cognitivist accounts, done in collaboration with my colleagues from the Acoveo Research Group (Autonomous University of Madrid) and the project Functional Study of the Clinical Interaction in Patients with a Diagnosis of Mental Illness. Among other topics, we focused on the observational analysis of verbal interactions in psychotherapy, the role of beliefs in psychological assessment and treatment, and the conceptualization and treatment of delusions, hallucinations, and other psychotic experiences (w. Jesús Alonso Vega, Caru Basakatua, Ricardo de Pascual Verdú, Gladis Lee Pereira, and many others). I have also conducted research on the conceptual foundations of behavior analysis, as well as on the implications of its social dimension (cultural systems analysis) for the notions of agency and normativity. Other than that, I have also recently worked on the analysis of ethical concerns related to the development and implementation of Automated Driving technologies, collaborating with philosophers, psychologists, and engineers in the context of the Horizon 2020 HADRIAN project.

For me, continuous collaboration with (and support from) many friends and colleagues across philosophy and psychology has been key to developing my inter- and multidisciplinary skills. Other than those already mentioned, this includes the people I met in Granada (Amalia Haro, Alba Moreno, Ana Muros, Daniel Galdeano, Eduardo Pérez, Javier Osorio, Llanos Navarro, Manuel Heras Escribano, Neftalí Villanueva, etc.), the many people I met in or through Acoveo (including people from ITEMA, SAVECC, SINCA, and ITECOC, etc.), and a growing list of many others. It also includes Amalia’s cat, Socrates; it was the main inspiration for the design of this website’s improvised logo, which roughly represents psychological analyses of behavior (purple figure) as embedded in the conceptual and philosophical frameworks from which they necessarily stem (bluish background).

You can take a look at my CV here.