Multiple truths and contested identities : power, gender, and governance in first-hand accounts of shock therapy

Abstract

This thesis explores relationships of power and resistance, and the production of truths and subjects in first-hand accounts of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Using a feminist poststructuralist approach and Foucauldian genealogical methods, I analyse texts from ECT professionals and former patients in order to destabilize dominant understandings of “mental illness” and ECT. I investigate patterns, contradictions and consistencies within and between dominant and obscured knowledges in these texts. Connections between electroconvulsive therapy, gender and class relations, and governmentality—including processes of reponsibilization and individualization—are highlighted. I discuss evidence of the production of particular subjects, specifically the “still mad” former patient, and active citizens.