Mad, bad, or virtuous? The moral, cultural, and pathologizing features of defiance

Bibliographic Data

ID20400809
AuthorsNancy Nyquist Potter (University of Louisville, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume22
Issue1
Pages23-45
Publication date2012-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTheory & Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-3543 • E-ISSN: 1461-7447
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0959354310385746
OpenAlexW2324830995
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited26

Defiance is sometimes treated as behavior that needs to be punished or even diagnosed, especially when it is expressed by the subjugated. In contrast to that view, I argue that the readiness to be defiant is a virtue. Drawing upon an Aristotelian framework, updated by an uncompromising challenge to hegemonic power differences, I indicate a way for the subjugated and disenfranchised to recoup self-worth and moral agency. Defiance even may help correct for burdened virtues, as Lisa Tessman analyzes them. Thus, this article falls within the domains of moral psychology and social change. Difficulties in conceptualizing and operationalizing defiance as a virtue, especially since defiance tends to be divisive within society, are discussed in terms of cases. Special attention is paid to medicalizing discourses that take defiance to be a sign of pathology, especially with members of oppressed groups

Epistemology · Hegemony · Moral agency · Operationalization · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Virtue · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Law · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology

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