PSY | When the Extreme Becomes Everyday: SFU Researcher Explores the Psychology of Intense Experiences in Japan
Our world is increasingly perceived as “extreme” – whether in debates about performance, pressure, identity or crisis. Yet psychology still lacks a clear understanding of what “extreme” actually means. Because many intense experiences are closely linked to questions of psychological strain and coping, the project approaches the topic with a strong clinical awareness.
Ass.-Prof. Dominik Mihalits of the Faculty of Psychology has been awarded a twelve-month Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan’s national research funding agency, and is conducting his research at Ritsumeikan University in Osaka. As a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, he investigates Extreme Experiences & Cultural Self-Regulation in a cultural context where extremes are understood and framed in particularly nuanced ways.
Japan provides a unique setting for this work. Long-standing traditions of discipline, endurance and aesthetic refinement coexist with the pressures and possibilities of hyper-modern urban life, creating a rich context for examining how extreme experiences are shaped, interpreted and managed.
Together with a small research team at Ritsumeikan, the project investigates how individuals navigate intense forms of experience – from artistic dedication and high achievement to withdrawal, overload and retreat. Through qualitative fieldwork, narrative interviews and the analysis of cultural materials, the study explores how such experiences function as strategies of emotional and cultural self‑regulation. The aim is to better understand when extremes are seen as admirable or meaningful and when they begin to place psychological strain on individuals.
The findings are expected to offer practical insights for clinical work, counselling and performance psychology, particularly in contexts where ambition, pressure and identity formation intersect. In addition, the project strengthens long‑term research collaboration between SFU and Japanese partners and contributes to the development of an interdisciplinary research program on extreme experiences.
16 June 2026