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Towards a genealogy of pharmacological practice

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Abstract

Following Foucault’s work on disciplinary power and biopolitics, this article maps an initial cartography of the research areas to be traced by a genealogy of pharmacological practice. Pharmacology, as a practical activity, refers to the creation, production and sale of drugs/medication. This work identifies five lines of research that, although often disconnected from each other, may be observed in the specialized literature: (1) pharmaceuticalization; (2) regulation of the pharmaceutical industry; (3) the political-economic structure of the pharmaceutical industry; (4) consumption/consumerism of medications; (5) and bio-knowledge. The article suggests that a systematic analysis of these areas leads one to consider pharmacological practice a sui generis apparatus of power, which reaches beyond the purely disciplinary and biopolitical levels to encompass molecular configurations, thereby giving rise not only to new types of government over life, but also to new struggles for life, extending from molecular to population-wide levels.

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Notes

  1. Biopolitics refers to a power that does not exclude disciplinary technology, but rather, encapsulates it, integrating and partially modifying it; although it operates on another level (Foucault 2003, p. 242).

  2. Note that Foucault discussed themes related to medicalization in his classic work The Birth of the Clinic, as well as in his course Psychiatric Power. Pharmaceuticalization is, however, a more recent phenomenon to which Foucault was unable to dedicate significant research effort.

  3. Note that The Human Brain Project includes a subproject named Neromorphic Computing that aims ‘to design, implement and operate a Neuromorphic Computing Platform that allows non-expert neuroscientists and engineers to perform experiments with configurable Neuromorphic Computing Systems (NCS) implementing simplified versions of brain models developed on the Brain Simulation Platforms as well as on genetic circuit models’ (https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/neuromorphic-computing-platform consulted on February 2, 2014).

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Acknowledgments

Research funding for this article was provided by Fondecyt Regular No. 1140901.

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  1. Faculty of Social and Juridical Sciences, Universidad de Talca, Santa Elena 2222, San Joaquín, Santiago, Chile

    Ricardo Camargo

  2. Nucleus on Biopolitics and Ideology (NIBI), Universidad de Chile, Pío Nono Nº 1, Providencia, Santiago, Chile

    Nicolás Ried

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Camargo, R., Ried, N. Towards a genealogy of pharmacological practice. Med Health Care and Philos 19, 85–94 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-015-9648-3

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