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Calendar of Events
Announcing the MacLaurin Insitute's Summer Seminar, "The Problem with the Modern Self: Imagining Personhood in Light of Limitations, Disability, and Suffering"
August 2, 2011; 7:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
The Problem of the Modern Self // Medicalizing Suffering: Thoughts on Its Meaning for Persons and Personhood
Joseph E. DavisAssociate Professor of Sociology; Associate Director, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia
Summer Seminar
Location: The Campus Club, Coffman Memorial Union, University of Minnesota
300 Washington Avenue SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
An ever-growing swath of troublesome human behavior and emotion has been recast as a mental disorder. Shyness, sadness, perfectionism, school misbehavior, underperformance—each of these and many more are now conceived in terms of an illness with an accompanying prescription drug on offer as a treatment. This “medicalization” of everyday problems has broad implications for society and individuals. Drawing on the experience of college students, Professor Davis will explore how the colonizing power of medical language and practice is reshaping understandings of personhood, self-address, and suffering.
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