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dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1951/55423
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11401/70863
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.en_US
dc.formatMonograph
dc.format.mediumElectronic Resourceen_US
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherThe Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
dc.typeDissertation
dcterms.abstractThe field of problems that comprise Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) here in the early 21st Century may best be described as a maelstrom, one that implicates public health policy, the epistemological status of mental illness, and the way Western subjects constitute themselves in and through these discourses and practices. Juxtaposing discursive examples from each of these three domains reveals several conceptual irresolvabilities that permeate this tri-partite structure, such that it produces an untenable subjectivity of PTSD. Upon closer examination, this untenability reflects and exemplifies a much broader set of problems within our practices for studying, treating, and managing mental illness. By delving into the intellectual history of this maelstrom--using primarily Foucault's The Birth of the Clinic--I argue that many of its terms were determined by a similar scientific, institutional, and intrapsychic crisis roughly 200 years ago, at a time when pathological anatomy became the basis of medical experience in the West, irrevocably altering the meaning of death, the organization of space, and the philosophical relationship between universal and individual. This analysis of what Foucault would call “the historical a priori” of the PTSD crisis forms the basis for my argument that (a) the crisis is reaching fever pitch and thus cannot go on indefinitely (b) its fallout will not turn on finally discovering the “truth” of PTSD but rather on constructing a coherent pathological framework for psychiatric practice (in particular, vis-à-vis general medical practice), and (c) these new practices will have a profound, global impact on the social, the scientific, and the role of the state in managing the public (mental) health, and therefore, on the way all human subjects mediate their concrete existence in both public and private spaces. In brief, PTSD stands as both exemplar and catalyst for propelling the West across the philosophical threshold at which it now stands. While I do maintain the profound ethical importance of this historical moment, I do not offer the standard normative conclusion. Rather, I examine shame as an old philosophical nemesis that has transferred its potency to mental illness and follow Nietzsche in experimenting with ways of cutting off this artery, which feeds the storm.
dcterms.available2012-05-15T18:03:17Z
dcterms.available2015-04-24T14:44:53Z
dcterms.contributorRawlinson, Mary C.en_US
dcterms.contributorEdward S. Caseyen_US
dcterms.contributorDavid B. Allisonen_US
dcterms.contributorLisa Diedrichen_US
dcterms.contributorE. Ann Kaplan.en_US
dcterms.creatorFlink, Sarah B.
dcterms.dateAccepted2012-05-15T18:03:17Z
dcterms.dateAccepted2015-04-24T14:44:53Z
dcterms.dateSubmitted2012-05-15T18:03:17Z
dcterms.dateSubmitted2015-04-24T14:44:53Z
dcterms.descriptionDepartment of Philosophyen_US
dcterms.formatApplication/PDFen_US
dcterms.formatMonograph
dcterms.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/1951/55423
dcterms.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/11401/70863
dcterms.issued2010-08-01
dcterms.languageen_US
dcterms.provenanceMade available in DSpace on 2012-05-15T18:03:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Flink_grad.sunysb_0771E_10243.pdf: 657044 bytes, checksum: 4573bba7fd43bcdf7dddd4ff120e4047 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1en
dcterms.provenanceMade available in DSpace on 2015-04-24T14:44:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 1en
dcterms.publisherThe Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
dcterms.subjectPhilosophy.
dcterms.subjectDSM, Foucault, PTSD
dcterms.titleThe Untenable Subjectivity of PTSD: A Foucauldian Analysis
dcterms.typeDissertation


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