---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 13:23:07 -0500
From: TOM DILLINGHAM <tomdill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Foucauldian examinations of The Market
The suggestion that Foucault influenced the deinstitutionalizing of
mental "patients" is ridiculous. The development of drug treatments
(specifically Thorazine in 1952, as was discussed recently on one of
the news magazines) was the primary force driving that policy; second
but not necessarily less important was the wish of officials to save
public monies by emptying the asylums and reducing food and staff
expenses. The impact of _Madness and Civilization_ was certainly
significant in intellectual circles, but hardly a puff in the
direction of public policy.
Tom Dillingham