Juhani Ihanus has belonged to the Faculty of the University of Helsinki since 1982 (PhD in psychology in 1990) and worked as a Senior Lecturer in Psychology until 2021. Currently, he holds the title of Docent in Cultural Psychology at the University of Helsinki, in Art Education and Art Psychology at Aalto University, and in the History of Science and Ideas at the University of Oulu. He has also been a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science, at the University of Cambridge, and at Tallinn University.
Since 1982, every academic year Ihanus has taught several lecture and web courses in clinical psychology, personality psychology, developmental psychology, psychotherapy, history of psychology, theoretical psychology, and the psychology of art and literature. He has supervised numerous graduate and postgraduate theses, and served as a pre-examiner and opponent for several doctoral dissertations. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Open University of the University of Helsinki (2007–2010, vice-member 2010–2014), and from 2014 to 2017 he served on its executive board. Since 1989, he has also acted as the chief of several continuing education training programmes.
Ihanus is the author of over 530 publications, including refereed journal articles, refereed book chapters, 17 books, 12 edited volumes, as well as essays, reviews and popular articles. He has published in different fields, including psychology, psychoanalysis, psychohistory, history of science, literature and visual arts. As a pioneer of poetry therapy in Finland, he has written and edited several books on poetry therapy and therapeutic writing. He is the founder and an honorary member of the Finnish Association for Biblio/Poetry Therapy.
He serves on the Editorial Boards of several journals, including The Arts in Psychotherapy, Clio’s Psyche, Journal of Poetry Therapy, Journal of Psychohistory, Scriptum: Creative Writing Research Journal and Kirjallisuusterapia. He was Co-Editor-in-Chief (2013–2023) and is, from 2024 onward, Editor of Psykoterapia. He is also a reviewer for several academic journals. At the Psychology Section of the Board for National (Finnish) Student Examinations, Ihanus serves as a censor.
In addition to his scientific publications, Ihanus has written four books of poetry (two in English), two books of aphorisms (one in English), a book of short prose, literary essays and critiques, and numerous individual poems published in various forums. He is a member of both the Union of Finnish Writers and the Finnish Association of Non-fiction Writers. Ihanus has translated works from English, German, French and Swedish into Finnish, including writings by G. C. Lichtenberg, E. M. Cioran, Juliet Mitchell, Karl Kraus and Fredrik Hertzberg.
He is also a member of the transartistic and transdisciplinary group Sjählö 9, taking part in its exhibitions and activities.
