Foucault News

Fabienne de Bilbao, Paola Bonavitacola, The abuses of a certain knowledge
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis,
First published: 5 April 2016

DOI: 10.1111/1745-8315.12493

Abstract
In the psychiatric institution, the sex act is a matter of controversy, all the more so when elderly patients with dementia are concerned. Yet, a question imposes itself: thinking beyond the biomedical model, the current governing paradigm for explaining senile dementia, what effects does the repression of the sex act have on the symptoms of the demented patient? The psychoanalytic exploration of the institutional situation described here suggests that the sexual demands of the patient suffering from dementia would not be meaningless, but would constitute a defensive modality against the return of a former threat of castration. Their repression, by means of practices that impede the libido in its search of an object, would reinforce the process of dementia by encouraging a regression toward earlier stages of development. More generally, the authors argue that unconscious dynamic processes might play a major role in the development of senile dementia. They show that psychoanalysis constitutes an essential method for the understanding of dementia and challenges the predominance of the biomedical model and its therapeutic arsenal in this context.

Keywords:
Alzheimer disease;institution;sex act;biological psychiatry;incest taboo;castration anxiety;repressive measures;regression;treatment;psychotropic drugs;morality

Lefebvre, A.
The Rights of Man and the Care of the Self
(2016) Political Theory, 44 (4), pp. 518-540.

DOI: 10.1177/0090591714556355

Abstract
In this article, I claim that Mary Wollstonecraft and Edmund Burke both conceive of the rights of man as a medium for individuals to care for and cultivate the self. Beginning with Michel Foucault’s doubts that a concern with the care of the self can be found in modern political thought, I turn to Wollstonecraft and Burke in order to show that their debate turns precisely on the question of whether the rights of man enables or disables a care of the self. For Wollstonecraft, on the one hand, the rights of man provide women with a means to overcome a destructive set of virtues—such as beauty, chastity, and modesty—that leave them spiritually destitute and deeply unhappy. For Burke, on the other hand, such rights devastate the system of manners that had previously nurtured the self’s relation to itself. Regardless of this disagreement, my key claim is that both thinkers conceive of the rights of man not just as a juridical construction but also as a comprehensive way of life. In this way, I extend Foucault’s notion of the care of the self—along with his conception of ethics, conversion, and personal cultivation—to a foundational debate in the human rights tradition. © 2014, © 2014 SAGE Publications.

Author Keywords
Burke; care of the self; Foucault; human rights; Rights of Man; Wollstonecraft

Uggla, Y., Lidskog, R.
Climate risks and forest practices: forest owners’ acceptance of advice concerning climate change
(2016) Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 31 (6), pp. 618-625.

DOI: 10.1080/02827581.2015.1134648

Abstract
Based on qualitative interviews with Swedish forest owners this study focuses on climate change, risk management and forest governance from the perspective of the forest owners. The Swedish forest governance system has undergone extensive deregulation, with the result that social norms and knowledge dissemination are seen by the state as important means of influencing forest owners’ understandings and practices. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of governmentality this study contributes knowledge on how forest owners understand and manage climate-related risk and their acceptance of advice. From the interview study, three main conclusions can be drawn: (1) forest owners’ considerations largely concern ordinary forestry activities; (2) knowledge about forest management and climate adaptation combines experiences and ideas from various sources; and (3) risk awareness and knowledge of “best practices” are not enough to ensure change in forestry practices. The results of this study show that the forest owners have to be selective and negotiate about what knowledge to consider relevant and meaningful for their own forest practice. Accordingly, local forest management can be understood as situated in a web of multifarious interests, claims, concerns and knowledges, where climate change adaptation is but one of several aspects that forest owners have to consider. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Author Keywords
adaptation; advisory practices; climate change; Forestry; governmentality; risk

Index Keywords
Forestry, Risk management, Risk perception, Risks, Timber; adaptation, advisory practices, Climate change adaptation, Climate related risks, Forestry practices, Governmentality, Knowledge dissemination, Qualitative interviews; Climate change

Ravinder Sidhu, Navigating unfreedoms & re-imagining ethical counter-conducts: Caring about refugees & asylum seekers, Educational Philosophy and Theory,
Pages 1-12 | Published online: 05 Oct 2016
10.1080/00131857.2016.1225558

Abstract
This article uses Foucault’s concept of the care of the self to interrogate the accounts of ethical agency provided by professionals involved in the settlement of refugees, in a global and national context marked by fear of the stranger and the embrace of neoliberal political rationalities. An argument is made to ‘free the professional self’ by refusing an individualised, psychologised and dehistoricised approach in working with refugees and asylum seekers. In its place, a threefold ‘ethics of engagement’ for ‘international citizenship’ is proposed as a way forward to further professionalism and civic action. By understanding the refugee problem as an ‘integral part of North-South relations’ rather than as a ‘Third World’ problem, new possibilities are opened for an ethics of civility and an ethics of care.

Keywords: Social justice, care of the self, refugees, settlement, asylum seekers