Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy on 15/02/2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13698230.2018.1438334
Accepted author manuscript, 561 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Brexit Anxiety
T2 - A Case Study in the Medicalization of Dissent
AU - Degerman, Dan
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy on 15/02/2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13698230.2018.1438334
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - This paper illustrates how concepts of mental disorder have been deployed to medicalize negative emotions and, thereby, weaken the political agency of some individuals. First, I theorise the link between political agency and emotions, arguing that effective political action entails the transformation of emotions into public issues. Using the British referendum on membership in the EU as a case study, I then examine how medically loaded terms and rhetoric were used to describe suffering after the vote. Finally, I argue that this generated conditions that interrupted or even reversed the transformation of subjective experiences into politically meaningful issues.
AB - This paper illustrates how concepts of mental disorder have been deployed to medicalize negative emotions and, thereby, weaken the political agency of some individuals. First, I theorise the link between political agency and emotions, arguing that effective political action entails the transformation of emotions into public issues. Using the British referendum on membership in the EU as a case study, I then examine how medically loaded terms and rhetoric were used to describe suffering after the vote. Finally, I argue that this generated conditions that interrupted or even reversed the transformation of subjective experiences into politically meaningful issues.
KW - political agency
KW - Hannah Arendt
KW - emotions
U2 - 10.1080/13698230.2018.1438334
DO - 10.1080/13698230.2018.1438334
M3 - Journal article
VL - 22
SP - 823
EP - 840
JO - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy
JF - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy
SN - 1369-8230
IS - 7
ER -