Foucault News

Rajendran, P.
Parrhesia and clinical practice: A case study of Dr. Esdaile’s mesmeric hospital in Hooghly
(2021) Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 13 (2), pp. 1-13.

DOI: 10.21659/RUPKATHA.V13N2.05

Abstract
This paper seeks to explore the complex negotiation between mesmerism (as unauthorised medical practice) and the State by analyzing the singular example of Dr. James E. Esdaile, a Scottish civil surgeon stationed in Hooghly, Calcutta, in the 1840-50s; one of the few known medical practitioners of mesmerism in colonial India. His diary titled Mesmerism in India, and its Practical Application in Surgery and Medicine contains a record of every patient who walked into Esdaile’s clinic in Hooghly complaining of pain, the subsequent interaction that took place between the doctor and the patient, usually in the form of a simple sequence of questions and answers, and a description of the procedure by which the patient was treated. The documentation of Esdaile’s controversial clinical practice offers several important insights into the practice of parrhesia (a theory of truth-telling proposed by Foucault) in conjunction with the practice of mesmerism as medicine. Within the annals of medical history, clinical egodocuments such as Esdaile’s surgical diary exemplify the emergence of a difficult relationship between the historical subject and the desire to speak the truth. It reveals how a unique moment in colonial medical history becomes emblematic of a negative relationship with the parrhesiastic act. © AesthetixMS 2021.

Author Keywords
Colonial medicine; Esdaile; Mesmerism; Parrhesia; Surgical diary

Gravesen, J.D., Birkelund, R.
The discursive transformation of grief throughout history
(2021) Nursing Philosophy

DOI: 10.1111/nup.12351

Abstract
In recent decades, the phenomenon of grief, when you lose a loved one, has been the subject of exploration and discussion among researchers. Because of this, prolonged grief is now recognized as a possible mental disorder as the latest version of the diagnosis manual; ‘International Classification of Diseases’ (ICD-11) being published in 2018 is featuring a new diagnosis called ‘prolonged grief disorder’. The commencement of this new disorder indicates a shift in the way grief is being articulated why the notion of rupture from the French philosopher Michel Foucault is applied as a philosophical approach in this paper. A Foucault-inspired discourse analysis has been prepared and by considering the issue historically and tracing how the concept of grief has been articulated in different time periods throughout history, the aim is to map out the discursive transformation that has taken place and to gain insight into how the societal context has supported and enabled this transformation. This paper takes a historical look back from the 1800s to present and identifies when changes can be observed in the way grief is being articulated. These changes or ruptures are identified in the work of Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud and Margaret Stroebe & Henk Schut who all must be assumed to have contributed significantly to how grief is perceived in various historical time periods. The discourse analysis identifies how prominent thinkers have articulated grief in each period and how today’s perception of grief, as a possible mental disorder, both relates to these prominent thinkers but also reflects dominant societal values and ideologies. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Author Keywords
bereavement; foucault; grief; medicalization; mental disorder; pathologization

Riemann, M.
“As Old as War Itself”? Historicizing the Universal Mercenary
(2021) Journal of Global Security Studies, 6 (1).

DOI: 10.1093/jogss/ogz069

Abstract
IR scholarship has increasingly begun to scrutinize the ahistorical and ahistoricist assumptions pervading the discipline. Specifically, attention has been turned to those concepts, actors, and practices that appear to be without history and that therefore assumed the status of universals. This article contributes to this scholarship by critically investigating the seemingly transhistorical figure of the mercenary, whose history, it appears, is little less than the history of organized warfare itself. This article questions this assumption by investigating how the Renaissance Landsknechte, actors invoked to support the transhistorical mercenary claim, were problematized within their own historical specificity. Through this analysis, this article rejects the notion that the mercenary is a transhistorical phenomenon as the ideas and categories associated with this figure are tied to specific modern accounts of statist political community and individual identity, as well as a modern account of self-interest. It is argued that the mercenary is not a phenomenon that predates the emergence of the modern state and the system of states, but its own existence is grounded within them. This article, thus, reinstates the historicity of this figure and argues that the mercenary is not “as old as war itself”but a product of specific modern conditions. © 2020 Crown.

Author Keywords
Foucault; genealogy; history; mercenaries

Häberlen, J.C.
Spiritual Politics: New Age and New Left in West Germany around 1980
(2021) European History Quarterly, 51 (2), pp. 239-261.

DOI: 10.1177/02656914211004441

Open access

Abstract
In the late 1970s, an increasing number of West German ‘alternative’ leftist authors and activists turned to spiritual ideas. A milieu that had once been characterized by what Timothy Scott Brown called a ‘scholarly-scientific imperative’ now turned to magic and mystics, fairy tales and stories about American Indians. The article explores this turn to spirituality within the ‘alternative left’ in West Germany around 1980. Drawing on a close reading of several books, mostly published by Munich’s famous left-wing publisher Trikont Dianus, the article argues that fairy tales, myths and accounts of American Indian shamans promised a deeper and more holistic understanding of the world that was beyond the grasp of rational scientific thinking, including Marxism. This holistic understanding of the world provided the basis for a form of politics focused on living in harmony: in harmony with oneself, not least in a bodily sense; in harmony with nature and the universe; and in harmony with the community and the past, which is why authors began to re-evaluate notions of Heimat (homeland), a notoriously right-wing concept. For leftists tired of the confrontational and often violent politics of the 1970s, such ideas proved appealing. The article suggests understanding the fascination with spiritualism as part and parcel of a moment when old, confrontational forms of politics were rapidly losing appeal and were replaced by a politics concerned with questions of self-hood. Spiritual politics were, to quote Michel Foucault, part of the struggles that attacked ‘not so much “such and such” an institution of power, or group, or elite, or class, but rather a technique, a form of power’, namely a power that determined ‘who one is’. © The Author(s) 2021.

Author Keywords
New Age; New Left; religion; spirituality; West Germany