Madness in international relations : psychology, security, and the global governance of mental health

Author(s)

    • Howell, Alison

Bibliographic Information

Madness in international relations : psychology, security, and the global governance of mental health

Alison Howell

(Interventions)

Routledge, 2011

  • : hbk

Available at  / 3 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [159]-177) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Madness in International Relations provides an important and innovative account of the role of psychology and psychiatry in global politics, showing how mental health governance has become a means of securing various populations, often with questionable effects. Through the analysis of three key case studies Howell illustrates how such therapeutic interventions can at times be coercive and sovereign, at other times disciplinary, and at still other times benevolent, though not benign. In each case a 'diagnostic competition' is traced, that is, a contestation over how best to diagnose and treat the population in question. The book examines the populations of Guantanamo Bay, post-conflict societies and western militaries, identifying how these diagnostic competitions ultimately rest on shared assumptions about the value of psychology and psychiatry in managing global security, about the value of achieving security through mental health governance, and ultimately about the medicalization of security. This work will be of great interest to all scholars of International relations, critical theory and security studies.

Table of Contents

1. Madness in IR: An Introduction 2. Security, Order, Control: From Anti-Politics to Ethico Politics 3. Approaching Madness:the Psy Disciplines in Critical Perspective 4. Victims or Madmen? The Diagnostic Competition over 'Terrorist' Detainees at Guantanamo Bay 5. The Diagnostic Competition over Post-Conflict Populations: Merging the Psychosocial and Mental Health Models 6. Ordering Soldiers: Contesting Therapeutic Practices in the Canadian Military 7. Conclusion: The Global Politics of Governing Mental Health

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