Re: [Foucault-L] Pathologies of Power


--- Samuel G Taylor <10012953@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Michael,
>
> Power was far too vague, let me refine that a bit.
> I've thought about
> quite a bit and I haven't been able to identify a
> distinct type of
> power that I associate with pathological forms.
> Instead of a type, I
> think of it as an imbalance in power relations.

An idea: We might identify what Foucault called 'the
spiral of truth production and reality denouncement',
which is always 'off-centre', with the persecutory
complex operating at the heart of christian morality.



> Sovereign power is one
> example, the origins of slave morality could be
> related to a pathology
> of power, and maybe even the bad conscience itself
> could be a pathology
> of power.
> The Stachniewski book is out of print, do you know
> of a place where it
> can be found?

Yes, I know. No, I dont. I am trying to get a hold of
it myself.

> The Laing book is at Amazon.com for VERY cheap.
>
> Thank you for the directions, it is something I've
> been thinking about
> and I appreciate any help.
>
> Thanks again!
> sam
>
>
>
> michael bibby wrote:
>
>
> >"For us, the human body defines, by natural right,
> the
> >space of origin and distribution of disease; a
> space
> >whose lines, volumes, surfaces and routes are laid
> >down, in accordance with a now familiar . . .
> >anatomical atlas. But this order of the solid,
> visible
> >body is only one way--in all likelihood neither the
> >first, nor the most fundamental--in which one
> >spatializes disease. There have been, and will be,
> >other distributions of disease." Foucault, Birth of
> >the clinic.
> >
> >Having said that, we are now better prepared to
> >entertain other possibilities of distributions of
> >disease apart from those which confine them to the
> >space defined by the human body.
> >
> >Before I said anything further on the matter, I
> would
> >first ask you to paraphrase your questions by
> finding
> >synomous terms and expressions for the- all too
> often
> >encumbant- word 'power'. (I.e., if power is
> productive
> >of truth-effects, then all truth-effects imply a
> power
> >regeime).
> >
> >I can, however, suggest the following work of
> >histiography: 'The Persecutory Imagination: English
> >Puritanism and the Literature of Religious
> Despair',
> >by John Stachniewski, (Clarendon, 1991). On this
> note,
> >a historical study on the persecutory imagination
> >should, I believe, take two historical related
> themes
> >deeply into its consideration: 1) the structure and
> >organization of the persecution complex which
> >functions at the heart of what Nietzsche called
> slave
> >moralities, 2) the formation of the conscience
> (both
> >phylogenic and ontogenci).
> >
> >If you are interested in looking into alternate
> >distributions of the idiopathological complexes
> >characteristic of the schizophrenia groups, such as
> >delusions of persecution and self-reference,
> >catatonia, mutism, negativism, waxi-flexibility,
> etc.,
> >then I recommend checking out R.D. Laings study on
> >'Sanity, madness and the family' which attempts to
> >make the process of the formation of the
> >symptomalogical complexes typical of the
> schizophrenia
> >group as they take shape in the naturalistic
> setting
> >of the family intelligible in terms of social
> praxis.
> >
> >
> >There are many other directions whcih lay open to
> >us...
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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Re: [Foucault-L] Pathologies of Power, Samuel G Taylor
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