Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Interrupting the Psy-Disciplines in Education pp 1–12Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Introduction

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

In the seminal book Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977) French philosopher Michel Foucault described how the psy-disciplines—his collective term for psychiatry, psychology, psycho-analysis and other psycho-therapies—became entangled in new forms of government. 18th and 19th century liberal Europe was faced with the challenge of governing the population to ensure morality and order, but in ways that also guaranteed the freedom of individuals and a free economy. Expertise, including the social sciences, psy-disciplines, economics, statistics etc., came to provide solutions for this challenge by producing scientific knowledges about persons, society and the economy (Foucault 1988). The emerging psy-disciplines helped to make sense of individuals ‘as speaking, living, working individuals’ and also provided avenues for these individuals to understand, form and regulate themselves according to these scientific discourses (Foucault 1994: 281). In this way, expertise enabled a shift from coercive control into ‘the conduct of conduct’ and practices of self-formation. Psy-disciplines in this way are ‘technologies of the social’ (Fendler 2001), rather than simply scientific areas amassed following simple rules and propositions internal to scientific discovery. As Michel Foucault indicated, and, as has since been elaborated by Nikolas Rose (1998, 1999), among others, educational institutions and actors have been, and continue to be, central to the continuation of the psy-disciplines, their knowledges and practice, which often emerge and operate as natural, inevitable, ethical and liberating.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Billington, T. (1996). Pathologizing children: Psychology in education and acts of government. In E. Burman, G. Aitken, A. Aldred, R. Allwood, T. Billington, G. Goldberg, A. Gordo Lopez, C. Heenan, D. Marks, & S. Warner (Eds.), Psychology discourse practice: From regulation to resistance. London: Taylor and Francis Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S. D., & Stenner, P. (2009). Psychology without foundations: History, philosophy and psychosocial theory. London: Sage. Burman, E. (1994). Deconstructing developmental psychology. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cannella, G. S. (1997). Deconstructing early childhood education: Social justice and revolution. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dreyfus, H. L., & Rabinow, P. (1982). Michel Foucault. Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fendler, L. (2001). Educating flexible souls: The construction of subjectivity through developmentality and interaction. In K. Hultqvist & G. Dahlberg (Eds.), Governing the child in the new millennium (pp. 119–142). New York/London: RoutledgeFalmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1988). The political technology of individuals. In L. M. Martin, H. Guttman, & P. H. Hutton (Eds.), Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault (pp. 145–162). London: Tavistock Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1994). The ethics of the concern for the self as a practice of freedom (R. Hurley, Trans.). In P. Rabinow (Ed.), Michel Foucault ethics subjectivity and truth (Vol. One, pp. 281–302). London: Allen Lane/The Penguin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (2007). Security, territory, population: Lectures at the College de France, 1977–1978. Houndmills/Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Füredi, F. (2004). Therapy culture: Cultivating vulnerability in an uncertain age. Milton Park: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham, L. J. (2007). Out of sight, out of mind/out of mind, out of site: Schooling and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20(5), 585–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, L. J. (2008). From ABCs to ADHD: The role of schooling in the construction of behaviour disorder and production of disorderly objects. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 12(1), 7–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harwood, V. (2006). Diagnosing ‘disorderly’ children: A critique of behaviour disorder discourses. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harwood, V. (2010). Mobile asylums: Psychopathologisation as a personal, portable psychiatric prison. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 31(4), 437–451.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harwood, V., & Allen, J. (2014). Psychopathology at school: Theorizing mental disorders. Milton Park: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henriques, J., Hollway, W., Urwin, C., Venn, C., & Walkerdine, V. (Eds.). (1984). Changing the subject: Psychology, social regulation and subjectivity. London/New York: Methuen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hook, D. (2007). Foucault, psychology and the analytics of power. London/New York: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hultqvist, K. (1997). Changing rationales for governing the child: A historical perspective on the emergence of the psychological child in the context of preschool – Notes on a study in progress. Childhood, 4(4), 405–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hultqvist, K., & Dahlberg, G. (Eds.). (2001). Governing the child in the new millennium. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingleby, D. (1985). Professionals as socializers: The ‘psy complex’. Research in law, deviance and social control, 7 (79), 109.Laws, C. (2011) Poststructuralism at work with marginalised children. Sharjah: Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laws, C., & Davies, B. (2000). Poststructuralist theory in practice: Working with “behaviourally disturbed” children. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 13(3), 205–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacLure, M., Jones, L., Holmes, R., & MacRae, C. (2012). Becoming a problem: Behaviour and reputation in the early years classroom. British Educational Research Journal, 38(3), 447–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLeod, J. (2000). Subjectivity and schooling in a longitudinal study of secondary students. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 21(4), 501–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meredyth, D., & Tyler, D. (Eds.). (1993). Child and citizen: Genealogies of schooling and subjectivity. Griffith University QLD Australia: Special Publication of the Institute for Cultural Policy Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Griffith University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millei, Z., & Joronen, M. (2016). The (bio) politicization of neuroscience in Australian early years policies: fostering brain-resources as human capital. Journal of Education Policy, 31(4), 389–404.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millei, Z., & Petersen, B. E. (2015). Complicating ‘student behaviour’: Exploring the discursive constitution of ‘learner subjectivities’. Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties, 20(1), 20–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Millei, Z., Griffiths, T. G., & Parkes, R. J. (Eds.). (2010). Re-theorizing discipline in education: Problems, politics, and possibilities. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nisbet, J. (2005). What is educational research? Changing perspectives through the 20th century. Research Papers in Education, 20(1), 25–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson, D. R., & Bruner, J. S. (1996). Folk psychology and folk pedagogy. In D. R. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.), The handbook of education and human development: New models of learning, teaching and schooling. Cambridge: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petersen, B. E., & Millei, Z. (2015). Psychological cogs in the education machine. Knowledge Cultures, Special issue on Re-claiming the past and re-conceptualising the present of educational psychology. Knowledge Cultures, 3(2), 127–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popkewitz, T. (1998). Struggling for the soul: The politics of schooling and the construction of the teacher. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popkewitz, T., & Brennan, M. (1998). Foucault’s challenge: Discourse, knowledge, and power in education. New York/London: Teachers College, Columbia University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rimke, H. M. (2000). Governing citizens through self-help literature. Cultural Studies, 14(1), 61–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1985). The psychological complex: Psychology, politics, and society in England, 1869–1939. London/Boston: Routledge/Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1996). Governing ‘advanced’ liberal democracies. In A. Barry, T. Osborne & N. Rose (Eds.), Foucault and political reason: Liberalism, neo-liberalism and rationalities of government (pp. 37–64). London: UCL Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1998). Inventing our selves: Psychology, power and personhood. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1999). Governing the soul: The shaping of the private self. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. S., & Abi-Rached, J. M. (2013). Neuro: The new brain sciences and the management of the mind. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Staunæs, D. (2011). Governing the potentials of life itself? Interrogating the promises in affective educational leadership. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 43(3), 227–247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walkerdine, V. (1994). Psychology, post-modernity and the popular.PSYCHOLOGIST-LEICESTER. 7(61–61).Walkerdine, V. (1993). Beyond developmentalism? Theory & Psychology, 3(4), 451–469.Wright, K. (2011). The rise of the therapeutic society. Washington: New Academia Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Eva Bendix Petersen

  2. University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Zsuzsa Millei

Authors
  1. Eva Bendix Petersen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zsuzsa Millei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Eva Bendix Petersen

  2. Institute of Advanced Social Research and SPARG, University of Tampere, Tampere, Australia

    Zsuzsa Millei

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Petersen, E.B., Millei, Z. (2016). Introduction. In: Bendix Petersen, E., Millei, Z. (eds) Interrupting the Psy-Disciplines in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51305-2_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51305-2_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-51304-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-51305-2

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation