"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."
We dont need to consult Foucault here: we need only take a selection of about a dozen treatise on madness and nervous complaints written between the late 17th to the late 18th century to establish this theme of 'medicine as management'. If you would like I can reproduce some extracts...
--- On Tue, 22/6/10, Edward Comstock <ecomst@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From: Edward Comstock <ecomst@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Foucault-L] Foucault and Psychoactive Medicine
> To: "Mailing-list" <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Received: Tuesday, 22 June, 2010, 5:32 AM
> 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-L mailing list
>
Foucault argues that medicine, in early psychiatric practice and until
around the mid-twentieth century or so, has mostly only a disciplinary
function."
We dont need to consult Foucault here: we need only take a selection of about a dozen treatise on madness and nervous complaints written between the late 17th to the late 18th century to establish this theme of 'medicine as management'. If you would like I can reproduce some extracts...
--- On Tue, 22/6/10, Edward Comstock <ecomst@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From: Edward Comstock <ecomst@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Foucault-L] Foucault and Psychoactive Medicine
> To: "Mailing-list" <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Received: Tuesday, 22 June, 2010, 5:32 AM
> 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-L mailing list
>