CMNS 304W Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Billie Holiday, Identity Politics, Codependency
8 May 2018
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Humour and Music: Subversive language in Everyday Life
A Critical Theory of Therapeutic Discourse
• Therapeutic discourse frames undesired behavior as a medical problem.
• The etal health sstes futio is to ork as a for of soial otrol.
• Many institutions in everyday life have the same kind of organizational structure as prisons.
• Therapeutic language tends to place the responsibility for managing socially-caused problems
on the individual.
Thomas Szasz (1920 – 2012). The Myth of Mental Illness idetifies to geeral tpes of etal illess:
• The essetial helplessess of hildre… ad help giig atiit of the paret… ad
• The internal conflicts caused by the teachings and practices of religions.
Anne Applebaum (b.1964), Gulag: A History (2003)
• From the Soviet psychiatric system:
o Sluggish shizophreia
o Creepig shizophreia
• These diagnoses could be used to have anyone locked up in a prison hospital for politically-
related behaviours that were considered to challenged Soviet authority.
Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984)
• Discipline and Punish (Surveiller et Punir) – 1975
• A eoo of suspeded rights. P.11
• Punishment aimed equally at the guilty and potentially guilty (P.108)
Foucault, Discipline and Punish
• Group Coordination requires
1. That the individual becomes a movable part
2. Time coordination of parts
3. Precise system of command,
4. Integration,
5. Examination
According to R. D. Laing (Scottish psychiatrist, 1927 – 1989),
• Medical psychiatry ignores the context underlying various symptoms,
• It fails to consider the underlying meaning of such behaviours.
• Laig takes the positio that a shizophrei ight e desried as aoral ut it does ot
follow that she is necessarily unhealthier than so-alled oral idiiduals.
Applig Althussers otios of ideologic & repressive state apparatuses to therapeutic discourse:
• The culture of knowledge and power described by Foucault depends on discourses that combine
ideology and repression.
o Ideologic State Apparatus + Repressive State Apparatus = Therapeutic State Apparatus
Therapeutic jargon that has passed into the language of everyday life as dead metaphors:
• From Codependents’ Guide to the Tele Steps (Melodies Beattie, 1990).
o Addition
o Family-of-origin
o Boundaries
o Denial
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Humour and music: subversive language in everyday life. The myth of mental illness ide(cid:374)tifies t(cid:449)o ge(cid:374)eral t(cid:455)pes of (cid:858)(cid:373)e(cid:374)tal ill(cid:374)ess(cid:859): the esse(cid:374)tial helpless(cid:374)ess of (cid:272)hildre(cid:374) a(cid:374)d help gi(cid:448)i(cid:374)g a(cid:272)ti(cid:448)it(cid:455) of the pare(cid:374)t a(cid:374)d, the internal conflicts caused by the teachings and practices of religions. Michel foucault (1926 1984: discipline and punish (surveiller et punir) 1975, punishment aimed equally at the guilty and potentially guilty (p. 108) (cid:858)a(cid:374) e(cid:272)o(cid:374)o(cid:373)(cid:455) of suspe(cid:374)ded rights. (cid:859) (cid:894)p. 11(cid:895) Foucault, discipline and punish: group coordination requires, that the individual becomes a movable part, time coordination of parts, precise system of command, According to r. d. laing (scottish psychiatrist, 1927 1989): medical psychiatry ignores the context underlying various symptoms, It fails to consider the underlying meaning of such behaviours. Lai(cid:374)g takes the positio(cid:374) that a s(cid:272)hizophre(cid:374)i(cid:272) (cid:373)ight (cid:271)e des(cid:272)ri(cid:271)ed as (cid:858)a(cid:271)(cid:374)or(cid:373)al(cid:859) (cid:271)ut it does (cid:374)ot follow that she is necessarily unhealthier than so-(cid:272)alled (cid:858)(cid:374)or(cid:373)al(cid:859) i(cid:374)di(cid:448)iduals.
