On the Heels of Ignorance
Psychiatry and the Politics of Not Knowing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4897912 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael E Staub (Baruch College, City University of New York, New York, New York, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 107 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 508-509 |
| Publication date | 2020-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaaa249 |
| OpenAlex | W3088128303 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
Why do we have psychiatry?” inquires the sociologist Owen Whooley—not a question he asks as prelude to yet another “antipsychiatry screed,” but, he avers, rather “as a serious puzzle in need of explanation” (p. 5). All professions worry over the legitimacy of their authority, Whooley observes, but in this regard psychiatry exists in a class by itself. “Ignorance is the consistent driving force behind the history of American psychiatry,” he writes (p. 9, emphasis in original). Or, as Whooley declares in another generalizing passage, psychiatry suffers “at root” from repetition compulsion, “asserting its authority on the basis of its expertise, all the while knowing that such claims are built on the shakiest of intellectual foundations” (ibid.). This brings Whooley to his framing query: If psychiatry in the United States has survived, and (for quite a time after World War II) even managed remarkably to thrive, by what mechanisms has this survival been made possible
Criminology · Framing (construction · Ignorance · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Worry · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · History · Law · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,6 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |