Article Summary by Michael Sharpe and Monica Greco THIS IS A PREVIEW; the article will appear in the June issue. Please send your commentaries and e-letters based on the printed article. Link coming. In this piece, we explore the controversy concerning the treatment of the illness called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS, which is sometimes […]
Latest articles
Vital Spaces: Mental Health and the Biopolitics of Enabling Places
Article Summary by Steven Brown and Paula Reavey In this article for June’s special issue, Steven Brown and Paula Reavey discuss “vital spaces” and “mental health.” As a Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at The Open University, Brown is particularly interested in ‘vulnerable’ populations whose memories are often treated as problematic. Paula Reavey, a Professor […]
Women United: The RCOG celebrates the International Day of Action for Women’s Health
Tuesday 28 May 2019 – International Day of Action for Women’s Health 16:00-20:00 Lecture Theatre, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 27 Sussex Place, Regents Park, London, NW1 4RG Please register at reception. Overview Introduction Women United is a medical documentary film forum that showcases a diverse selection of international short films, all in the […]
A New Outlook on Psychosomatics?: June’s Special Issue
Brandy Schillace in conversation with Dr. Monica Greco What are Biopolitics? And what, for that matter, are psychosomatics? Join us today on the podcast to hear a preview of our June special issue with Monica Greco. Let’s look at an example: ‘Smokers and obese people “soft targets” for NHS savings’, says a surgeon quoted in […]
On Illness and Value: Biopolitics, Psychosomatics, Participating Bodies
Article Summary by Monica Greco In its heyday, around the mid-twentieth century, psychosomatic medicine was heralded as a new science of body/mind relations that held the promise of transforming medicine as a whole. Sixty years on, the field has achieved no more than a respectable position as a research specialism within a model of practice […]
The History of a Superstition
Reflection by GL Krishna (The ministry of AYUSH, Government of India, recently issued an advisory that reiterated its long held official view that “the principles, concepts and approaches of ayurveda are not at all comparable with those of the modern medical system.” This view of an absolute dichotomy between the two systems implicitly disputes the […]
Agency, Embodiment and Enactment in Psychosomatic Theory and Practice
Article Summary by Laurence Kirmayer and Ana Gómez-Carrillo I know so little about the activity of the pineal gland Really, what do I have in common with my body. — Anna Swir (1996, p. 62) This quote from a poem by Anna Swir speaks to the problem of agency in illness experience: What can we […]
“Pulling the World In and Pushing it Away”: Participating Bodies and Survival Strategies
Article Summary by Robbie Duschinsky What do thinking, eating and engaging in sex have in common? This seems a strange question. Participation in thinking, food and sex are really quite different activities. But Monica Greco’s work helps us think about the meaning of participation. In this paper we draw on ideas from Greco and Lauren […]
Effecting Change in Perspective is a Challenging (and Hence Critical) Endeavour
On Madness and the Demand for Recognition: A philosophical inquiry into identity and mental health activism by Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed (Oxford University Press, 2019), and how ‘soft and pure’ disciplines must take the lead to enrich our repertoire in how we think about ourselves and others today Book Review and Provocation by Kai Syng Tan […]
Psychosomatic Subjects and the Agencies of Addiction
Article Summary by Darin Weinberg In this article I show how debates in addiction science have, in various ways, echoed broader debates opposing freewill and determinism—or more specifically, a neurologically determinist understanding of human behaviour and more voluntaristic understandings of human behaviour as caused by choices. I show that this has resulted not only in […]