Reassessing Foucault: Power, Medicine and the Body (Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine)

This study critically examines the implications of Foucault's work for students and researchers in a wide selection of areas in the social and human sciences.Though Foucault is now widely taught in universities, his writings are notoriously difficult. Reassessing Foucault critically examines the implications of his work for students and researchers in a wide array of areas in the social and human sciences.Focusing on the social history of medicine, successive chapters deal with his historiographical, methodological and philosophical writings, his ideas about prisons, hospitals, madness and disease, and his thinking about the body. They engage with principal aspects of his thought and relevance and suggest ways in which Foucault's influence will continue to dominate cultural history and the social sciences. No thinker has had so great an impact upon the intellectual life of the last couple of decades as Michel Foucault. Foucault's work, however, was dense and remains controversial. As we approach the tenth anniversary of his death, it is appropriate to re-examine his ideas and their influence in many areas of the social sciences and the history of ideas and culture. Foucault's work has proved provocative on a number of different planes. In terms of methodology, he challenged the outlooks of the history of ideas, denying continuity and progress and the stability of disciplines. In specific fields of enquiry, such as the history of madness or of prisons, he set out to expose the essentially mythic nature of the established narratives and analytical frameworks. And, most concretely, he produces radically new readings of central figures and bodies of thought, not least of Freud and psychoanalysis. Through his iconoclastic accounts Foucault won many followers and created many enemies. Reassessing Foucault sets out neither to bury Foucault nor to praise him, but to subject his key teachings in many fields to close scrutinay. Chapters dealing with his methodological and philosophical writings, his ideas about prisons, hospitals and other institutions, his views on madness, health and disease, and his thinking about the body successively engage with principal aspects of his thought and relevance, and suggest ways in which Foucault's influence will continue to dominate cultural history and the social sciences. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Notes on contributors......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 11 INTRODUCTION......Page 12 BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE/KNOWLEDGE OF BODIES......Page 28 ON ANTI-MEDICINE AND CLINICAL REASON......Page 39 MEDICINE, HISTORY AND THE PRESENT......Page 59 INVENTING MOUTHS: DISCIPLINARY POWER AND DENTISTRY......Page 84 POWER AND HUMANITY, OR FOUCAULT AMONG THE HISTORIANS......Page 102 BODIES IN SPACE: FOUCAULT'S ACCOUNT OF DISCIPLINARY POWER......Page 124 APPLYING FOUCAULT: SOME PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN THE APPLICATION OF FOUCAULT'S METHODS TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN PRISONS......Page 143 FOUCAULT'S THEORY OF DISCOURSE AND HUMAN AGENCY......Page 163 THE RECEPTION OF MICHEL FOUCAULT'S IDEAS ON SOCIAL DISCIPLINE, MENTAL ASYLUMS, HOSPITALS AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN GERMAN HISTORIOGRAPHY......Page 192 Select Bibliography......Page 224 II Works on Foucault......Page 225 Index......Page 229 Though Foucault is now widely taught in universities, his writings are notoriously difficult. Reassessing Foucault critically examines the implications of his work for students and researchers in a wide range of areas in the social and human sciences.
Focusing on the social history of medicine, successive chapters deal with his historiographical, methodological and philosophical writings, his ideas about prisons, hospitals, madness and disease, and his thinking about the body.
The book also suggests ways in which Foucault's influence will continue to dominate cultural history and the social sciences.
Reassessing Foucault critically examines the implications of Foucault's work for a wide range of areas in the social and human sciences. Focusing on the social history of medicine, successive chapters deal with his historiographical, methodological and philosophical writings, his ideas about prisons, hospitals, madness and disease, and his thinking about the body. The contributors engage with principal aspects of his thought and relevance, and suggest ways in which Foucault's influence will continue to dominate cultural history and the social sciences This study sets out to examine the implications of Foucault's work for students and researchers in a wide selection of areas in the social and human sciences Has any intellectual been more influential since the 1970s than Michel Foucault?