The Love of Art and the Art of Love: Brent Robbins and Arts-Based Phenomenology

This paper reviews Brent Robbins’ 25 years of work as an arts-based phenomenological researcher—dedicated to reshaping the field of psychology to become a force that awakens intuitive, embodied meanings of being-in-the-world. First, it introduces Robbins’ positioning of art as a cultural therapeutic to resist the dominance of instrumental rationality in our technological world. Then, it traces the developmental origins of his arts-based approach to phenomenological research, outlining two areas of study in which Robbins has employed this method to re-awaken beautiful meanings of being-in-the-world in times of cultural despair—the lived experience of joy and the lived experience of agape love. The paper concludes with an arts-based phenomenological study conducted by the co-authors as a gift of love for Brent Robbins, which investigated the question: What is the lived experience of being in the presence of Brent Robbins? Research findings revealed that Brent’s presence is experienced as a rare invitation to drop alienating social norms to receive: life-giving conversations that traverse the spectrum of human existence, a wide-open space for safe, non-judgmental relating, a presence that embodies and teaches love as a guiding ethic, and a steady river of intellectual generosity to be nourished by.