Care of the self and patient participation in genetic discourse: a Foucauldian reading of the surgeon general's "my family health portrait" program

Journal of Genetic Counseling
Benjamin R Bates

Abstract

Critics of genetic discourse are concerned that deterministic and discriminatory views of genetics are increasingly becoming adopted. These views argue that current genetic discourse becomes a source of power whereby powerful institutions harm people with so-called "bad" genes. This essay argues that current analyses of the power of genetics discourse are grounded in an improper reading that disempowers patients. Deploying Michel Foucault's concept "care of the self," this essay claims that genetics discourse is better understood as a way that patients take on power through rhetoric rather than a force that has power over patients. Through a close reading of the "My Family Health Portrait" program, this paper argues that patients experience a process of "subjection" wherein they become agents of and objects of genetics discourse both. This alternative mode of analyzing the power of genetics discourse has implications for our collective understanding of the operations of the care of the self and the uses of genetic information that we propose.

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Citations

Oct 9, 2009·Journal of Genetic Counseling·Robyn A CreeMelanie F Myers
May 10, 2012·Journal of Community Genetics·Sato AshidaKimberly A Kaphingst
Apr 29, 2009·Sociology of Health & Illness·Aviad E Raz
Mar 31, 2006·Pediatric Annals·Jonette E Keri
Aug 27, 2011·Journal of Investigative Surgery : the Official Journal of the Academy of Surgical Research·John L SchomburgRichard W Bianco
Mar 29, 2011·Social Science & Medicine·Margaret Everett

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