I have a general sense from Psychiatric Power and other works that
Foucault argues that medicine, in early psychiatric practice and until
around the mid-twentieth century or so, has mostly only a disciplinary
function. And for this reason, medicine in psychiatry is frequently not
understood to actually act on or "cure" the underlying disorder, but
rather to, say, curb or eradicate unwanted behaviors, or to reproduce
certain effects of the disorder, or serve as the test of the disorder. But
now we can see drugs working at a "deeper" level, often, ostensibly, at
the very level of the "organic lesion," as with drugs that are understood
to work on brain chemical imbalances that cause, say, depression.
So my question is, can anybody recommend any research on the role of drugs
in psychiatry and the movement towards drugs as a kind of "cure" of the
disorder rather than as a disciplinary technology? Or does anybody know a
place where Foucault is clear about his position on this?
Any thoughts well appreciated!
_____________________
Ed Comstock
College Writing Program
Department of Literature
American University
------------------------------------
The easy possibility of letter writing must--seen theoretically--have
brought into the world a terrible dislocation of souls. It is, in fact, an
intercourse with ghosts, and not only with the ghost of the recipient, but
also with one's own ghost... How on earth did anybody get the idea that
people can communicate with each other by letter!--Franz Kafka
Foucault argues that medicine, in early psychiatric practice and until
around the mid-twentieth century or so, has mostly only a disciplinary
function. And for this reason, medicine in psychiatry is frequently not
understood to actually act on or "cure" the underlying disorder, but
rather to, say, curb or eradicate unwanted behaviors, or to reproduce
certain effects of the disorder, or serve as the test of the disorder. But
now we can see drugs working at a "deeper" level, often, ostensibly, at
the very level of the "organic lesion," as with drugs that are understood
to work on brain chemical imbalances that cause, say, depression.
So my question is, can anybody recommend any research on the role of drugs
in psychiatry and the movement towards drugs as a kind of "cure" of the
disorder rather than as a disciplinary technology? Or does anybody know a
place where Foucault is clear about his position on this?
Any thoughts well appreciated!
_____________________
Ed Comstock
College Writing Program
Department of Literature
American University
------------------------------------
The easy possibility of letter writing must--seen theoretically--have
brought into the world a terrible dislocation of souls. It is, in fact, an
intercourse with ghosts, and not only with the ghost of the recipient, but
also with one's own ghost... How on earth did anybody get the idea that
people can communicate with each other by letter!--Franz Kafka