Please welcome our newest member Mark Vernon

Mark Vernon is a writer and psychotherapist based in London (UK).
Mark became academically interested in love when writing a PhD on the role of friendship in Plato’s philosophical practice. He then wrote a book on friendship, The Meaning of Friendship (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), which was aimed at a general audience with the goal of asking what friendship is, how it has carried social weight at various points in history, and how it plays a role in contemporary contexts, from identity politics to social media. As a psychotherapist, Mark has an interest in love from the perspective both of developmental psychology and in terms of the role of love in the therapeutic relationship. Another book, Love: All That Matters (Hodder Education, 2013) provides an account of how love can develop through periods of crisis, both personal and social, and alongside psychology draws on philosophy, mythology and everyday experience. Another strand of interest in love relates to love in spiritual traditions. In particular, his book, Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey (Angelico Press, 2021), in part examines how love relates to the intellect and to guides, fostering a dialectic of unfolding and expansion. Mark’s current interest is focused on a design project, funded by the Fetzer Institute, which is looking at how love can be fostered in different environments through the aid of artefacts, practices and rituals. Working with designers, this project will produce practical outcomes that might make a difference in specific contexts. He is keen to work collaboratively and learn from as wide a range of experiences as possible.