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University–industry collaborations hold great potential, especially when business and the humanities meet on equal terms. The contributions in this book work towards this ideal, tackling the challenges of such collaborations from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. Drawing on hands-on examples, the different chapters explore how university–industry collaborations create value for both research and business. Throughout the book, we focus especially on the human perspective, a perspective that highlights and illustrates how complex knowledge and a deep understanding of human everyday life enriches companies’ processes, products, services, and ideas. Beyond unpacking this human perspective, the chapters in this book also contribute to the creation of substantial knowledge for humanities and social science scholars and soon-to-be practitioners in research–business collaborations.

This thesis is an examination of adults’ experiences of ADHD. It is a study of life with ADHD, embodied experiences of ADHD, the implications of being diagnosed with ADHD, and ways of relating to the diagnosis. The number of people diagnosed with ADHD has increased within the last couple of decades and so has the number of prescriptions for drugs treating ADHD. We know, however, only little about the effects of diagnosing and about phenomenological aspects of ADHD. By analyzing how individuals experience symptoms of ADHD, interpret themselves through the diagnosis, and make use of the resources following the diagnosis, this thesis is a contribution to a limited literature on adults’ experiences of ADHD. The study is entirely qualitative. The analyses are based on data from interviews, conversations, and from time spent with 13 adults diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood (five men and eight women, ages 26-45); on observations at doctor’s consultations; conferences for people diagnosed with ADHD, their relatives, and professionals working with ADHD; and finally from observations at online forums about ADHD. All research is conducted in Denmark. Following phenomenological and anthropological research on illness experiences, the study comprehends experiences of ADHD as embedded in social and cultural contexts. Hence, it is a general argument in the thesis that experiences of ADHD unfold in relation to social relationships, family struggles, cultural explanations of suffering, and contemporary expectations of being human. Within our specific culture and place in time, certain ways of being in the world and certain ways of understanding oneself are available. In this context, experiences of ADHD are intertwined with the desire of being a good parent, of wanting to navigate in society, of keeping a job, of maintaining friendships, and of being accepted.The thesis is organized into ten parts: six chapters that set the introductory frame, three articles about adults’ experiences of ADHD, and finally a conclusion. In the first six chapters, the thesis presents different sociological, historical, and psychiatric perspectives on the emergence of ADHD as a diagnostic category, research on explanations of psychiatric diagnoses, and theories about medicalization of behavior and biologization of mental illness. A literature review of research on adults’ experiences of getting an ADHD diagnosis demonstrates how being diagnosed with ADHD involves changes on the individual’s self-understandings as well as ambivalence towards the diagnosis. Finally, a description of the theoretical, methodological and methodical background of the study is presented. The first article ”Structuring the self: moral implications of getting an ADHD diagnosis” examines the formative process of getting an ADHD diagnosis and how individuals diagnosed with ADHD use the diagnosis as a part of a self-evaluative and self-constitutive project. The article illustrates how a diagnosis offers a certain narrative, into which the individual’s life-trajectory is interpreted. Moreover, it is described how new everyday practices and routines are changed following the diagnosis, and how medical treatment changes the individual’s way of perceiving and being in the world. These processes of understanding, making use of and experimenting with the opportunities offered by the diagnosis reflect different moral tasks, it is argued, concerning the act of taking responsibility, learning how to manage difficulties in life, and of striving to become a good parent, friend, and partner.The second article “ADHD and temporality: a desynchronized way of being in the world” examines embodied experiences of ADHD. The article explores how to understand ADHD from a phenomenological perspective as a certain being in the world and as a matter of phenomenological difference in rhythm. It is argued that people with ADHD experience time differently than others, and when inner time accelerates in relation to outer time, a desynchronization occurs. This situation of desynchronization may result in discomfort and experiences of social clashes. The article emphasizes the intersubjective and intercorporeal aspects of ADHD and it is suggested that ADHD is not only an individual phenomenon, but symptoms of ADHD appear in relations, clashes, and interactions.The third article “My ADHD and me: identifying with and distancing from ADHD” examines how individuals diagnosed with ADHD relate to ADHD. The study presents two positions of how people diagnosed with ADHD understand themselves and their actions based on neurobiological explanations of ADHD. The first position involves identifying with ADHD as a way of being human and a specific way of managing (and failing to manage) life based on certain neurological structures in the brain. The second position involves distancing from ADHD by separating the self from ADHD, transferring ADHD into an entity, explaining ADHD as caused by neurochemical impulses, and disclaiming behavior connected to ADHD. Lastly it is discussed how the neurobiological explanation of ADHD reduces comprehensions of how to live with ADHD and options for coping with the difficulties ADHD brings about.

According to the official diagnostic manual, ADHD is defined by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity and patterns of behaviour are characterized as failure to pay attention to details, excessive talking, fidgeting, or inability to remain seated in appropriate situations (DSM-5). In this paper, however, I will ask if we can understand what we call ADHD in a different way than through the symptom descriptions and will advocate for a complementary, phenomenological understanding of ADHD as a certain being in the world – more specifically as a matter of a phenomenological difference in temporal experience and/or rhythm. Inspired by both psychiatry’s experiments with people diagnosed with ADHD and their assessment of time and phenomenological perspectives on mental disorders and temporal disorientation I explore the experience of ADHD as a disruption in the phenomenological experience of time and a state of desynchronisation with the environment. I will present empirical data collected from interviews with adults diagnosed with ADHD and observations while visiting, hanging out with and chatting with the interviewees. From small data excerpts I will illustrate how the verifiable impairment in time in people with ADHD is manifested in an embodied experience of being out of sync and I will argue that the experience of ADHD is both characterised as 1) an inner restlessness and bodily arrhythmia; 2) an intersubjective desynchronisation between the individual and its surroundings; and 3) a feeling of lacking behind socially due to difficulties in social skills. I will end my presentation by opening up for a discussion about ADHD as not only a disorder located in the individual but also as an intersubjective phenomenon.

During the last decade, more and more people have received prescriptions for ADHD drug treatment, and simultaneously the legitimacy of the ADHD diagnosis has been heavily debated among both professionals and laymen. Based on an anthropological fieldwork among adults with ADHD, I illustrate how the ADHD diagnosis both answers and produces existential questions on what counts as normal behaviour and emotions. The diagnosis helps the diagnosed to identify, accept and handle problems by offering concrete explanations and solutions to diffuse experienced problems. But the diagnostic process is not only a clarifying procedure with a straight plan for treatment and direct effects. It is also a messy affair. In a process of experimenting with drugs and attempting to determine how or whether the medication eliminates the correct symptoms the diagnosed is put in an introspective, self-analysing situation trying to answer: What is ADHD and what is me and my personal features? When are the drugs having the right effect? And since I have never been normal then how would I know what behavioural ideal I am striving for? Moreover, the public questioning of the diagnosis calls the individual to constantly claiming recognition of the diagnosis. I end by discussing the moral implications of this striving for the unknown normal and ask if the pathologization of inattentive and hyperactive behaviour is to be addressed as a problematic moral issue or if we have a moral obligation to help people who struggle to navigate and live up to the ideals of our contemporary society.

How do we perceive ourselves and what explanations are we drawing upon in order to understand ourselves as morally acting individuals? In this presentation, I focus on how we live with, accept, and work on parts of ourselves that we find less desirable or even pathological. Based on interviews with adults diagnosed with ADHD, I illustrate how the process of entification (transforming a trait, temperament, emotion, or some other psychological phenomenon into a thing or agent) can be a way to understand, accept and handle the symptoms of ADHD. In this context, ADHD is perceived on the one hand as a part of the self, a kind of quirk, and on the other hand as separated from the self, a foreign agent. By making a parallel to phenomena as spirit possession, I discuss how the entification process can be understood as 1) a distancing to what is perceived as amoral actions and a liberating process of acknowledging that some actions are beyond control; and 2) a way of concretising problematic actions and parts of oneself in order to work on and subdue these traits and reactions.

The thesis examines the phenomena ’feelings’ in regard to high school students. The thesis is qualitatively oriented and the analysis builds on interviews. The general principle is that feelings are embedded in social, cultural and material contexts, and thus cannot be comprehended as private entities belonging to the individual. The interest of recognition is dual; firstly, it centres on what a focus on feelings conveys about the life of high school students, and secondly, it deals with questions related to the ontological and epistemological character of feelings. Feelings are a complex object of study and the knowledge has been produced through an abductive approach, wherein theoretical and empirical resources have affected each other mutually. Based on this, the feelings of high school students in regard to ‘the good grade’ are examined. With concepts departing from affective theory and the sociology of emotions, it is demonstrated how feelings are intertwined with a range of cultural norms and ideals regulating the way in which the students experience and practice feelings. Central pointes address how individualistic norms, orientations towards the future as well as a focus on the positive in the existence enter emotional life and create divisions between good and bad feelings.

The purpose of the current study was to explore the videojournalist work with “vulnerable sources” in the tv and documentary film genre. The main focus of the study was to investigate the ethical dilemmas and relational challenges experienced by the videojournalist when working with vulnerable sources, as well as which considerations the videojournalist takes into account with the aforementioned clientele. It is an empirical study which is based on phenomenological interviews with six videojournalists whom are working with vulnerable sources, and participant observations of supervisory meetings between videojournalists and a supervising psychologist. The data gathered from the interviews and observations have been analyzed through a hermeneutical method, which has resulted in the discovery of themes relevant for the study. The results of the analysis showed that when working with vulnerable sources, the videojournalist feel a greater relational commitment to the sources, as well as experiencing difficulties in navigating between the expectations and demands of the source, the illustrated factual reality to the intended viewer and the production goals, which is largely due to ethical dilemmas. The results also showed that vulnerable sources are at higher risk of experiencing negative consequences as a result of participating in a documentary production, and often require special attention to their vulnerable factors, to reduce the risk of having a negative experience in relation to their participation. The videojournalist employ their empathetic skills, conscience and situational awareness to reduce such risks for the vulnerable sources. In this regard, it was found that both psychology and ethical philosophical considerations hold a promising perspective in preventing harm coming to the vulnerable sources as well as the videojournalist.

Cancer is a big health issue in Denmark. In 2014, 35.532 Danes were diagnosed with cancer. This means that about one third of the Danish population will get the diagnosis a year. Breast cancer is the most frequent form of cancer in Denmark. Every year 4643 women will be told that they have breast cancer and every year 1158 will die from the disease. Ovarian cancer is not as frequent as breast cancer, but every year 553 women will be diagnosed and 376 will die and that makes it a very lethal disease. There may be several causes of breast and ovarian cancer and one of the is heredity. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are two tumorsuppressor genes which functions in DNA repair. An inherited mutation, from mother or farther, in these genes can cause an elevated lifetime risk of breast and ovarian cancer. If a woman gets tested and she has this mutation, then she has a choice. She can be checked regularly with MRI and mammography, for breast cancer and ultrasound and CA-125 biomarker for ovarian cancer. She can also choose to get prophylactic surgery of the breast and ovaries.The aim of this thesis is to examine what reasons BRCA positive women have based their choice of prophylactic surgery on. To investigate this, I have conducted four interviews with four different women about their personal experiences and what they believe was the reason for the choice they had made.The background and theory section are divided into two parts. Part I summarizes: cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, statistics, BRCA and lifetime risk, technology and the operations. Part II summarizes what some of the newest research says about this topic, the used primary theory critical psychology and the secondary theory health psychology.In the analysis is divided up into little section each with the keywords of what was the prominent issues for the interviewed women in this situation. Because, it was, more or less, the same for all women. It is analyzed with critical psychology as the primary theory and the concept, coping from health psychology as the secondary theory.It is concluded that it was not biological knowledge or knowledge about cancer statistics and survival that made a difference. It was the personal experience with cancer and seeing loved one get sick and sometime die is the main reason, because it has developed a fear of cancer, in conjunction with the wish, that their own children should not experience the same. In the light of It is lifetime risk was a big issue and they wanted to minimize it as much as possible.