Political Agency and the Medicalisation of Negative Emotions

Dan Degerman (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

208 Seiten

2022
Edinburgh University Press (Verlag)
9781399504393 (ISBN)

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Argues that the medicalisation of negative emotions is reshaping our ability to act politically

This book explores negative emotions like anger, fear and grief as important drivers of political action. It examines how treating these feelings as medical problems affects society. Drawing on the political thought of Hannah Arendt, the book develops an original understanding of political emotions as fragile and vulnerable to attacks disputing their relevance to public life. It presents and analyses four case studies of emotional politics in the UK, ranging from assertions that UKIP supporters were emotionally primitive to diagnoses of anxiety disorder in the Brexit referendum’s aftermath. It demonstrates how ideas of emotion and mental disorder might be used to both empower and disempower people politically.

Dan Degerman is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bristol. His research explores issues at the intersection of the philosophy and history of emotions, mental disorder, and political engagement, and he has a special interest in the philosophy of Hannah Arendt.

Introduction: The politics of medicalisation

Hannah Arendt, political agency, and negative emotions
The public shape of emotions
Disordered voters: Grieving the Brexit referendum
Mad protesters: Raging with Occupy
Primitive populists: The fear of UKIP
Maladjusted patients: The agency of the user/survivor movement

Conclusion: Political agency after COVID-19

Erscheinungsdatum	02.08.2022
Reihe/Serie	Taking on the Political
Verlagsort	Edinburgh
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
ISBN-13	9781399504393 / 9781399504393
Zustand	Neuware