Foucault and the Madness of Classifying Our Madness

Bibliographic Data

ID12947683
AuthorsDrew Ninnis (Australian National University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Pages117-137
Publication date2016-06-28
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFoucault Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1832-5203 • E-ISSN: 1832-5203
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.22439/fs.v0i0.5016
OpenAlexW2481276197
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited1

This paper notes the re-ignited controversy surrounding the publication of a new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), suggesting that the early work of Michel Foucault can explain why the mere diagnosis of or criteria for mental illness remains a heated flashpoint. In particular, it argues that Foucault articulates a common issue within the philosophical foundations of psychiatry and psychology that the paper terms the ‘subjectivity problem.’ It observes, using Foucault’s work, that these disciplines treat not just simple objects but complex subjects that are capable of interacting with that labelling and who are shaped by it. Drawing on the related work of Ian Hacking on kind-making as world-making, the article fleshes out why the subjectivity problem remains persistent within psychiatry and psychology as forms of knowledge, preventing them from operating as many commentators might desire them to – as pure and objective sciences. Finally, the paper reflects on the relationship of psychiatry and psychology as forms of knowledge, the manner in which they constitute their objects, and how this might shape the biopolitical episteme in which we find ourselves today

Biopower · Episteme · Epistemology · Mental health · Mental illness · Michel foucault · Politics · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Subjectivity · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Law · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Psychology

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