Anna Bortolan - Research

My research interests lie primarily at the intersection of phenomenology, philosophy of emotion, and philosophy of psychiatry. More specifically, some of the main questions I have been exploring in my work concern the relationship between emotions, narratives, and self-understanding; the role of affective experience in psychopathology; and the nature of self-esteem. I am also very interested in how various aspects of lived experience can be affected by the use of digital technology, and how these dynamics may play out int he contemporary workplace.

PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

Bortolan, A. (2026). When feelings do the job: Emotional labour and self-narration in the workplace. Topoi. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-026-10432-3
Bortolan, A. (2026). Pretending to be myself: On camouflaging and selfhood in the experience of anxiety. Philosophical Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2025.2596269
Bortolan, A. (2025). Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety. Erkenntnis. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-025-00986-w
Bortolan, A. (2024). Epistemic Emotions and Self-Trust. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-024-10010-1
Bortolan, A. (2024). Becoming Oneself Online: Narrative Self-Constitution and the Internet. Philosophical Studies, 181: 2405-2427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-024-02169-9
Bortolan, A. (2024). Online Emotions: A Framework. Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 67(9): 3436-3460. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2022.2044378
Bortolan, A. (2023). Healing Online? Social Anxiety and Emotion Regulation in Pandemic Experience. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 22: 1195-1214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-023-09886-2
Bortolan, A. (2022). Selves Hijacked: Affects and Personhood in 'Self-Illness Ambiguity'. Philosophical Explorations, 25(3): 343-362. https://doi.org/10.1080/13869795.2022.2093393
Bortolan, A. (2021). Narrate It Until You Become It. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 7(4), 474-493. https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2020.46
Bortolan, A. (2020). Narratively Shaped Emotions: The Case of Borderline Personality Disorder. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 45(2), 212-230. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhz037
Bortolan, A. (2020). Affectivity and the Distinction Between Minimal and Narrative Self. Continental Philosophy Review, 53, 67-84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-019-09471-y
Bortolan, A. (2018). Self-Esteem and Ethics: A Phenomenological View. Hypatia, 33(1), 56-72. https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12388
Bortolan, A. (2017). Affectivity and Moral Experience: An Extended Phenomenological account. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 16(3), 471-490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-016-9468-9
Bortolan, A. (2017). Affectivity and Narrativity in Depression: A Phenomenological Study. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 20(1), 77-88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-016-9735-0

Book Chapters

Bortolan, A. (2024). Delusions in Depression. In E. Sullivan-Bissett (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Delusion (pp. 158-172). Routledge.
Bortolan, A. (2023). Good Enough to be Myself? The Fraught Relationship Between Self-Esteem and Self-Knowledge. In A. Montes Sánchez & A. Salice (Eds.), Emotional Self-Knowledge (pp. 125-144). New York: Routledge.
Bortolan, A. (2022). Social Anxiety, Self-Consciousness, and Interpersonal Experience. In A. Bortolan, & E. Magrì (Eds.). Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and the Social World: The Continued Relevance of Phenomenology. Essays in Honour of Dermot Moran (pp. 303-321). Berlin: De Gruyter
Ratcliffe, M. & Bortolan, A. (2020). Emotion Regulation in a Disordered World: Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder. In G. Stanghellini & C. Tewes, (Eds.), Time and Body: Phenomenological and Psychopathological Approaches (pp. 177-200). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bortolan, A. (2020). Overcoming the Gaze: Psychopathology, Affect, and Narrative. In A. Daly, F. Cummins, J. Jardine, & D. Moran, (Eds.), Perception and the Inhuman Gaze: Perspectives from Philosophy, Phenomenology, and the Sciences (pp. 192-204). New York, Oxon: Routledge.
Bortolan, A. (2020). Self-Esteem, Pride, Embarrassment and Shyness. In T. Szanto & H. Landweer, (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology of Emotion (pp. 358-368). London, New York: Routledge.
Bortolan, A. (2019). Phenomenological Psychopathology and Autobiography. In G. Stanghellini, M. Broome, A. Fernandez, P. Fusar-Poli, A. Raballo, R. Rosfort, (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology (1053-1064). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Edited Books

Bortolan, A., Magrì, E. (2022). Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and the Social World: The Continued Relevance of Phenomenology. Essays in Honour of Dermot Moran. Berlin: De Gruyter

Edited Special Issues

Bortolan, A. & Salice, A. (Eds.) (2018). Philosophical Perspectives on Affective Experience and Psychopathology. [Special Issue] Discipline Filosofiche, 2.

Other Publications

Bortolan, A. & Salice, A. (2018). Introduction. Discipline Filosofiche [Special Issue: Philosophical Perspectives on Affective Experience and Psychopathology], 2, 5-20.
Bortolan, A. (2017, March 14). Unthinkable. What lies behind your self-esteem? Interview by J. Humphreys. Irish Times.

PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

Bortolan, A. (2026). When feelings do the job: Emotional labour and self-narration in the workplace. Topoi. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-026-10432-3

Bortolan, A. (2026). Pretending to be myself: On camouflaging and selfhood in the experience of anxiety. Philosophical Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2025.2596269

Bortolan, A. (2025). Filling the Silence: Self-Experience and Communication in Social Anxiety. Erkenntnis. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-025-00986-w

Bortolan, A. (2024). Epistemic Emotions and Self-Trust. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-024-10010-1

Bortolan, A. (2024). Becoming Oneself Online: Narrative Self-Constitution and the Internet. Philosophical Studies, 181: 2405-2427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-024-02169-9

Bortolan, A. (2024). Online Emotions: A Framework. Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 67(9): 3436-3460. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2022.2044378

Bortolan, A. (2023). Healing Online? Social Anxiety and Emotion Regulation in Pandemic Experience. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 22: 1195-1214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-023-09886-2

Bortolan, A. (2022). Selves Hijacked: Affects and Personhood in 'Self-Illness Ambiguity'. Philosophical Explorations, 25(3): 343-362. https://doi.org/10.1080/13869795.2022.2093393

Bortolan, A. (2021). Narrate It Until You Become It. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 7(4), 474-493. https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2020.46

Bortolan, A. (2020). Narratively Shaped Emotions: The Case of Borderline Personality Disorder. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 45(2), 212-230. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhz037

Bortolan, A. (2020). Affectivity and the Distinction Between Minimal and Narrative Self. Continental Philosophy Review, 53, 67-84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-019-09471-y

Bortolan, A. (2018). Self-Esteem and Ethics: A Phenomenological View. Hypatia, 33(1), 56-72. https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12388

Bortolan, A. (2017). Affectivity and Moral Experience: An Extended Phenomenological account. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 16(3), 471-490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-016-9468-9

Bortolan, A. (2017). Affectivity and Narrativity in Depression: A Phenomenological Study. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 20(1), 77-88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-016-9735-0

Book Chapters

Bortolan, A. (2024). Delusions in Depression. In E. Sullivan-Bissett (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Delusion (pp. 158-172). Routledge.

Bortolan, A. (2023). Good Enough to be Myself? The Fraught Relationship Between Self-Esteem and Self-Knowledge. In A. Montes Sánchez & A. Salice (Eds.), Emotional Self-Knowledge (pp. 125-144). New York: Routledge.

Bortolan, A. (2022). Social Anxiety, Self-Consciousness, and Interpersonal Experience. In A. Bortolan, & E. Magrì (Eds.). Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and the Social World: The Continued Relevance of Phenomenology. Essays in Honour of Dermot Moran (pp. 303-321). Berlin: De Gruyter

Ratcliffe, M. & Bortolan, A. (2020). Emotion Regulation in a Disordered World: Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder. In G. Stanghellini & C. Tewes, (Eds.), Time and Body: Phenomenological and Psychopathological Approaches (pp. 177-200). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bortolan, A. (2020). Overcoming the Gaze: Psychopathology, Affect, and Narrative. In A. Daly, F. Cummins, J. Jardine, & D. Moran, (Eds.), Perception and the Inhuman Gaze: Perspectives from Philosophy, Phenomenology, and the Sciences (pp. 192-204). New York, Oxon: Routledge.

Bortolan, A. (2020). Self-Esteem, Pride, Embarrassment and Shyness. In T. Szanto & H. Landweer, (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology of Emotion (pp. 358-368). London, New York: Routledge.

Bortolan, A. (2019). Phenomenological Psychopathology and Autobiography. In G. Stanghellini, M. Broome, A. Fernandez, P. Fusar-Poli, A. Raballo, R. Rosfort, (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology (1053-1064). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Edited Books

Bortolan, A., Magrì, E. (2022). Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and the Social World: The Continued Relevance of Phenomenology. Essays in Honour of Dermot Moran. Berlin: De Gruyter

Edited Special Issues

Bortolan, A. & Salice, A. (Eds.) (2018). Philosophical Perspectives on Affective Experience and Psychopathology. [Special Issue] Discipline Filosofiche, 2.

Other Publications

Bortolan, A. & Salice, A. (2018). Introduction. Discipline Filosofiche [Special Issue: Philosophical Perspectives on Affective Experience and Psychopathology], 2, 5-20.

Bortolan, A. (2017, March 14). Unthinkable. What lies behind your self-esteem? Interview by J. Humphreys. Irish Times.