Outwardly, Misinterest is concerned with dreams and forgetting and Eros and soaring dogs and groups and suicidal suburban teenagers and sex and jury duty and Nazis and fathers and hatred and holy parrots and fundamentalists and plagues and other things that may or may not be interesting. Ultimately, however, it seeks, like Jules Renard, “en restant exact” [...]

In this book, just released by Phoenix Publishing House, David P. Levine and I continue our exploration of cultural and political trends organized around the conviction that the world we live in is a dangerous place to be, that it is dominated by hate and destruction, and that in it our primary task is to survive [...]

"Severe Social Withdrawal: Cultural Variation in Past Hikikomori Experiences of University Students in Nigeria, Singapore, and the US" will appear in 2020. Hikikomori (social withdrawal that lasts six months or longer) is a growing problem among Japanese adolescents and young adults with recent estimates that approximately 1% of Japanese youth will suffer from an episode [...]

In the latest (2019) issue of "Montaigne Studies," my work on the meaning of experience was reviewed and classed as part of a second wave or "second generation" of political theoretical criticism of the Renaissance humanism, modernism, and naturalism exemplified by the French essayist Michel de Montaigne. You can read the article here.

In this book, to be released by Phoenix in the Spring/Summer of 2019 by Phoenix Publishing House, David P. Levine and I continue our exploration of cultural and political trends organized around the conviction that the world we live in is a dangerous place to be, that it is dominated by hate and destruction, and that [...]

I have been commissioned by Phoenix Publishing House (formerly Karnac Books) to edit a scholarly volume comprising psychoanalytic studies of the phenomenon known in Japan (but emergent all over the world) as hikikomori, or severe social withdrawal / shut-in syndrome, which afflicts individuals for periods extending up to several years.  I have studied hikikomori, isolation, [...]

In: Free Associations 71, 1-17 (2018) Abstract Tension between the ideal of analytic neutrality — although conceived and applied in various ways — and the putative danger of political neutrality is intrinsic to psychoanalytic investigations of culture and society. It presents itself with urgency in times of social conflict, especially when such conflict is characterized [...]

Stella Gaon provides the first fully philosophical account of the critical nature of deconstruction, and she does so by turning in an original way to psychoanalysis. Drawing on close readings of Freud and Laplanche, Gaon argues that Derridean deconstruction is driven by a normative investment in reason’s psychological force. Indeed, deconstruction is more faithful to [...]

Go to Book's Site at Punctum Books Summary Misinterest: Essays, Pensées, and Dreams, is a compendium of expository essays, terse pensées, and dream-transcripts in which M.H. Bowker meditates on the destruction of interest as a psychological, social, and political impulse. Because interest entails the possibility of novelty and change in relationships between interest’s subjects and objects, [...]

Conducted by Avery Schneider (Nov. 8, 2018) Avery Schneider: What did you think when you saw the signs around the city of Buffalo? [The signs referred to read: “Diana Prince [Wonder Woman]: Willing to Fight for Those Who Cannot Fight for Themselves — Paid for by the Amazons to elect Wonder Women.”] Matthew H. Bowker: [...]

Interview for Elle (UK) Conducted by Otegha Uwagba, Founder of Women Who and Sunday Times Bestselling Author  Otegha Uwagba: Why do we as a society fear and stigmatise solitude – and especially so when it comes to women? Matthew H. Bowker: This is a great question, and there are several (overlapping) answers to it. 1. Solitude can [...]

My book with David P. Levine, entitled, A Dangerous Place to Be: Identity, Conflict, and Trauma in Higher Education, has been published by Routledge as of March of 2018. In it, we investigate recent conflictual events on college and university campuses, including protests directed at university leaders deemed victimizers, debates over the inclusion of “trigger warnings” on [...]

I am guest editing, with David W. McIvor, a special issue of the Journal of Psycho-Social Studies on the American tradition of psycho-social theory, more commonly known in the US as psychoanalytic political theory. The issue will feature contributions from some of the world's leading experts in psycho-social studies, including C. Fred Alford, Kurt Jacobsen, [...]

In two recent articles on the meaning and benefits of solitude, I was interviewed by Brent Crane for The Atlantic, and Stefania Prandi for Azione ["Action," a Swiss magazine]. There is some discussion in these articles of my work. The essays, entitled "The Virtues of Isolation," and "I benefici della solitudine" are available online at [...]

Routledge's new Psychoanalytic Political Theory book series will publish the highest quality scholarship at the intersection of psychoanalysis and political theory. We are particularly interested in works that advance both political and psychoanalytic theory, while remaining accessible to scholarly audiences of diverse backgrounds. The series welcomes contributions from all areas of political theory (ancient/classical, contemporary, [...]