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THE POWER OF NORMALISATION: FOUCAULDIAN PERSPECTIVES ON CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN HEALTH CARE PRACTICES
Author(s) -
Cheek Julianne,
Rudge Trudy
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.1993.tb00928.x
Subject(s) - panopticon , sociology , power (physics) , project commissioning , discipline , hegemony , health care , publishing , politics , biopower , michel foucault , discourse analysis , epistemology , social science , public relations , political science , law , philosophy , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics
Foucault's analysis provides social and political insights into the way that contemporary health care practices in Australia have been, and are being, constructed. His notion of discourse provides a useful starting point to analyse the taken‐for‐granted nature of reality that is so hegemonic in many health care practices. An analysis of discourse reveals the panoptic tendencies inherent in the Australian health care system. The notion of panopticism calls into question some very fundamental assumptions about the relationship between power, knowledge and truth. At the core of such panopticism are disciplinary techniques which promote normalisation. The examinations carried out by health care professionals, the case notes that are subsequently developed, along with an associated proliferation of diagnostic tests and procedures resulting in the production of the docile body, are symptomatic of the process designed to restore normalisation.