Foucault News

Magnus Paulsen Hansen, Non-normative critique. Foucault and pragmatic sociology as tactical re-politicization, European Journal of Social Theory February 2016 vol. 19 no. 1, 127-145

doi: 10.1177/1368431014562705

Abstract
The close ties between modes of governing, subjectivities and critique in contemporary societies challenge the role of critical social research. The classical normative ethos of the unmasking researcher unravelling various oppressive structures of dominant vs. dominated groups in society is inadequate when it comes to understand de-politicizing mechanisms and the struggles they bring about. This article argues that only a non-normative position can stay attentive to the constant and complex evolution of modes of governing and the critical operations actors themselves engage in. The article outlines a non-normative but critical programme based on an ethos of re-politicizing contemporary pervasive modes of governing. The analytical advantages and limitations of such a programme are demonstrated by readings of both Foucauldian studies and the works of and debates regarding the French pragmatic sociology of Boltanski and Thévenot.

Keywords
Boltanski critique Foucault politics pragmatic sociology re-politicizing Thévenot unmasking

Samta P Pandya, Governmentality and guru-led movements in India, Some arguments from the field, European Journal of Social Theory February 2016 vol. 19 no. 1, 74-93

doi: 10.1177/1368431015602355

Abstract
The concept of governmentality has a textual and philosophical basis as well as being concerned with what might be called the practices of government. This article discusses and develops the governmentality argument with respect to the guru-led movements. It outlines the basics of Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, its analytical frame, the fact that governmentality moves beyond only the practices of the state and its nuances in a neoliberal frame of reference, drawing on Zygmunt Bauman and others. It then discusses the governmentality of guru-led movements through: (1) the political acts and powers of the gurus; (2) the supplementary and complementary efforts to aid the state by the guru-led movements; (3) instances of resistance and taking on the state, and (4) the flipside of governmentality, which manifests as hegemony, Hindutva politics and Hindu nationalism. Through the governmentality argument, aspects of the surveillance, discipline, control, interactivity and competition of the guru-led movements emerge. What is discussed is a post-disciplinary model of governance which devolves power downwards from crumbling state institutions to new agencies of control, in this case, the gurus and their institutions. This devolution, however, is not without its tensions and the article also argues that guru governmentality betrays traces of hybridity and non-linearity.

Keywords
field arguments governmentality guru-led movements India

Bowen Paulle, Beneath rationalization: Elias, Foucault, and the body,European Journal of Social Theory February 2016 vol. 19 no. 1 39-56

doi: 10.1177/1368431015602355

Abstract

Elias and Foucault ended up making the same core discovery about the same fundamental social process, which we term the ‘social constraints towards self-discipline’ process. We show how three distinct biographical and intellectual factors were important in guiding them toward this discovery: (1) their shared exposure to philosophical traditions associated with Heidegger’s break from Husserl; (2) their common, sustained contact with ‘clinical’ practices; and (3) the traumatic events each experienced in relation to intentional injury and death.

Keywords
clinical practices Elias embodiment Foucault Heidegger rationalization self-control trauma

Thamy Ayouch, Psychanalyse et transidentités : hétérotopies, L’Évolution Psychiatrique, Volume 80, Issue 2, April–June 2015, Pages 303–316

doi:10.1016/j.evopsy.2015.01.004

Résumé
Objectifs
Repenser la filiation psychiatrique de nombre de théorisations analytiques de la « transsexualité », en désigner les points de butée, pour voir si et comment il est possible de penser une psychanalyse de la post-transsexualité. Chercher à voir si la théorisation psychanalytique peut se départir de certains dogmatismes théoriques et recouvrer sa visée hétérotopique.

Méthode
Mise en exergue de l’hétérotopie comme motif commun aux transidentités et à la psychanalyse. Qu’elles présentent un mimétisme de la binarité de genre ou une conception transgenre bouleversant cette binarité, les transidentités produisent des hétérotopies des modèles du féminin et du masculin. L’approche psychanalytique vise, elle aussi, dans son fonctionnement, une dimension hétérotopique : elle articule un paradoxal « savoir de l’inconscient », où le savoir et ses catégories positives sont déconstruits, dans un questionnement de l’origine et de l’adresse de toute posture discursive, et suit, elle aussi, les six principes foucaldiens de l’hétérotopie. Mise en exergue de l’historicité de catégories de la métapsychologie, perpétrant une préoccupante maltraitance théorique, clinique et idéologique, et procédant de visions essentialisées des sexes et des genres. La fluidité de la théorisation analytique se rigidifie dans certaines théorisations des « transsexualités », les rapprochant de la psychose ou de la perversion et les inscrivant dans un refus de la différence des sexes.

Résultats
Déconstruction de certains outils analytiques ou psychiatriques pour repenser les transidentités. Les réaménagements sont théoriques : il s’agit de penser une psychanalyse hétérotopique, foucaldienne et ouverte aux apports féconds des Gender, Queer et Transgender Studies. Il s’agit également d’aborder par la multiplicité les apories de la binarité ou de l’identité. Les réaménagements sont également cliniques et articulent une tentative de repenser les protocoles, de pointer la maltraitance des visées « thérapeutiques » et de restituer l’expertise aux sujets trans.

Discussion
Comment concilier la pertinence d’instruments théoriques et leur véridiction (leur archéologie et leur généalogie), pour les resignifier ? Le propos est de concevoir des instruments métapsychologiques et cliniques susceptibles de rendre compte de la spécificité des identifications et des vécus transidentitaires, et construits par-delà la normativité sociale, culturelle et politique de la binarité des sexes.

Conclusions
Nécessité pour une approche psychanalytique d’écouter les savoirs locaux et minoritaires. Nécessité pour cette approche de se détacher des visées psychiatriques d’évaluation de la « transsexualité » et du « vrai sexe ». Nécessité de réaffirmer l’hypersingularité de chaque sujet trans par-delà la généralité de la nosographie ou des catégories étiologiques. Nécessité de repenser les contre-transferts théoriques et cliniques induits par ces questions et d’historiciser la catégorie de « différence des sexes ».

Abstract
Objectives
The aim of this article is to explore the psychiatric origin of many psychoanalytical theories of “trans-sexuality” and pinpoint their limits, so as to envisage the possibility of post-trans-sexuality psychoanalysis. The article asks whether psychoanalytical theory can move away from theoretical dogmatism and recover its heterotopic viewpoint.

Method
The article starts by proposing heterotopia as a motive common to trans-identities and psychoanalysis. Trans-identities, whether they mimic the binarity of gender or overturn it, invariably generate heterotopias of femininity and masculinity. The psychoanalytical approach too, by way of its functioning, is also aiming for a heterotopic dimension: it sets out a paradoxical “knowledge of the unconscious” that deconstructs positive knowledge categories, and questions the origin and the recipient of any discursive position. In this respect, it follows the six Foucauldian types of heterotopia. Our paper goes on to consider the historical dimension of certain metapsychology categories that prove to be theoretically and clinically harmful, and proceed from essentialized conceptions of sex and gender. The generally flexible perspective of psychoanalysis can rigidify in the setting of certain theories of “trans-sexuality” assimilating it to psychosis or perversion, or to a denial of sexual differences.

Results
Certain psychoanalytical and psychiatric tools need to be deconstructed in order to reappraise trans-identity. The reorganisation is theoretical: the aim is conceive to a form of heterotopic psychoanalysis that is Foucauldian and open to the fertile perspective of what are known as “gender, queer and transgender studies”. This multiplicity of approach is intended to enable an apprehension of the aporiae of binarity and identity. The reorganisation also concerns the clinical sphere, endeavouring to question official protocols, pinpoint deleterious “therapeutic” perspectives, and restore the expertise to the “trans” subjects.

Discussion
How can we reconcile the relevance of theoretical tools and their veridiction (their archaeology and genealogy), in order to resignify them? The task is to try to design metapsychological and clinical tools liable to reflect the specific identifications and experiences of trans-identity, escaping from the social, cultural and political normativity of sexual binarity.

Conclusions
There is a need in psychoanalytical approaches to lend an ear to local and minority knowledge. There is likewise a need for these approaches to look beyond psychiatric assessments of “trans-sexuality” and determination of the “real sex” of an individual. The hyper-singularity of every “trans” subject should be reasserted, freed from the general nosographies and etiological categories. And there is a need to re-think the theoretical and clinical counter-transferences generated by these questions, and to historicize the category of “sexual difference”.

Mots clés
Transidentités; Transsexualisme; Psychanalyse; Genre; Différence des sexes; Hétérotopies; Foucault M.

Keywords
Trans-identities; Trans-sexuality; Psychoanalysis; Gender; Sexual difference; Heterotopias; Foucault M.