The Dutch on the Couch: Stine Jensen

A country sees the doctor — the Netherlands is suffering from burnout, we are working ourselves to pieces. If in theory, one can lead a perfect life, should we do so? Professor of Psychiatry Damiaan Denys is the therapist, philosopher Stine Jensen is patient the Netherlands.

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Information

Date and time Friday 20 January 2017 20:00 tot 20:40 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2

A country sees the doctor — the Netherlands is suffering from burnout. Young and old are working themselves to pieces: placement tests of elementary schoolchildren can make or break their futures; graduates can't find work without four Masters and dozens of side activities; the retirement age keeps getting raised. We live in a continual rat race, and what at first seemed an advantage — endless possibilities compared with the past — is slowly  becoming a hindrance. It's the stress of so many choices, and the idea that, since one can in theory lead a perfect life, one ought to. With Professor of psychiatry Damiaan Denys and, as patient The Netherlands, filosopher Stine Jensen. In Dutch.

Stine Jensen has taken the place of Joke Hermsen, who had to cancel because of a flue. Damiaan Denys replaces Gündüz Vassaf, who was announced in the brochure.

Stine Jensen

(Denmark, 1972) is a Danish/Dutch philosopher, literary scholar and writer. Her initial work dealt with love and evil in person-to-animal and person-to-person relationships; now she turns her gaze inside with Go East, her quest for spirituality, and Mag ik je wat vragen over lust en liefde (Can I ask you something about lust and love), a workbook to increase happiness.Turkse Vlinders (Turkish Butterflies, 2005) explored her own experience with intercultural love affairs. Leugenaars (Liars, 2006) was a philosophical inquiry into Latin lovers, crooks and other shady characters. The cultural differences between East and West formed the leitmotif of her first novel, Dokter Jazz (Doctor Jazz, 2009). For television, she made a series about philosophy and Scandinavia. Her debut children's book, Lieve Stine, weet jij het? (Dear Stine, Do You Know?) won the 2015 Silveren Griffel award.
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Damiaan Denys

(1965) is a prominent psychiatrist, neuroscientist, writer and theatre actor. Born in Flanders, he works and lives in The Netherlands. He studied philosophy and medicine in Belgium, graduated in psychiatry from Utrecht University, and worked as head of anxiety disorders of UMC Utrecht. He is a professor at the University of Amsterdam and department head of psychiatry at AMC Amsterdam. Denys developed Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), a method to master compulsive thoughts. In his book Angstparadox (Anxiety Paradox, 2016) he states: "If there is a single word that holds the essence of the world in which we live now, of what guides us and of what holds us back, it is anxiety." Denys writes and acts in theatre monologues, among them Van angst naar vrijheid (From Anxiety to Freedom, 2016), which is "about the sense and nonsense of our contemporary culture of anxiety".
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