O wen W hooley . On the Heels of Ignorance

In On the Heels of Ignorance: Psychiatry and the Politics of Not Knowing, Owen Whooley offers a forceful argument that places ignorance at the center of the history of the United States psychiatric profession from its origins at the beginning of the asylum period to the present. In order to make this argument, Whooley draws on sociological studies in ignorance, and he uses this theoretical basis to forge an analysis of historical cycles in the development of the psychiatric profession. For Whooley, a deep analysis of these cycles of (re)professionalization reveals both the profound ignorance that has continuously permeated psychiatry and the ways in which the psychiatric profession has shored up this ignorance to survive and, in some respects, thrive. Whooley contends that ignorance has been a driving force in Western society that deserves more attention and that explains the history of psychiatry rather well. As Whooley puts it:...

Argument (complex analysis) · Criminology · Economics · Ignorance · Order (exchange) · Political science · Politics · Professionalization · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Medicine · Psychology