This seminal early work of Foucault is indispensable to understanding his development as a thinker. Written in 1954 and revised in 1962, _Mental Illness and Psychology _delineates the shift that occurred in Foucault's thought during this period. The first iteration reflects the philosopher's early interest in and respect for Freud and the psychoanalytic tradition. The second part, rewritten in 1962, marks a dramatic change in Foucault's thinking. Examining the history of madness as a social and cultural construct, he moves outside (...) of the psychoanalytic tradition into the radical critique of Freud that was to dominate his later work. _Mental Illness and Psychology _is an important document tracing the intellectual evolution of this influential thinker. A foreword by Foucault scholar Hubert Dreyfus situates the book within the framework of Foucault's entire body of work. (shrink)

This article reflects on some ethical dilemmas presented by an ethnographic study of prostitution that I conducted in the 1990s. The study drew one research subject into a long and very close relationship with me, and though she was an active and fully consenting participant in the research, she was also objectified within both the field relationship and the textual products it generated. This kind of contradiction has been recognized and discussed as a more general problem for ethnography by feminist (...) and critical ethnographers. In this article it is considered specifically in relation to informed consent as an ethical issue. If an ethnographer secures the free and informed consent of a research subject, does this necessarily make the intimacy of their subsequent relationship ethical? Is it possible for anyone to genuinely consent to being objectified through the research process? (shrink)

Abstract:This paper discusses narratives which identify experiences of deployment – in particular the difficulties of post-deployment reintegration and associated mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder – as causal in the domestic abuse perpetrated by servicemen in the British military. Drawing on a qualitative study of domestic abuse in this context, it challenges the notion that these narratives always have an empirical basis and instead draws attention to their discursive power. The paper argues that theorists of militarism should look (...) not only to its enactments on the geopolitical stage but to the mundane, everyday gendered social relations which make such enactments possible. It illustrates how discourses which position post-deployment reintegration and PTSD as causal of domestic abuse both reproduce and depoliticise militarism by reinforcing and naturalising the everyday gendered structures of inequality by which it is underpinned in the contemporary British context. (shrink)