Individual, Health and Society
Code: 42285 ECTS Credits: 15| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4313223 History of Science: Science, History and Society | OT | 0 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Jorge Molero Mesa
- Email:
- Jorge.Molero@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
Teachers
- Annette Mulberger
- Jon Arrizabalaga Valbuena
- Isabel Jiménez Lucena
- Andrea Graus Ferrer
- Sara Lugo Márquez
- Álvaro Girón
- Silvia Cora Levy Lazcano
- Monica Balltondre Pla
- Elena Fernández García
External teachers
- Andrea Graus Ferrer
- Isabel Jiménez Lucena
- Jon Arrizabalaga
- Álvaro Girón
Prerequisites
There are none.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The module consists in a critical historical study of the processes of medicalization and psychologization (both material and symbolic) in the Western world, with special attention to the contemporary period. Through the study of the categories of class, gender and race, the module analyzes the different agents, social processes and institutional arrangements involved in such processes at the core of modernity. The module also assesses the consequences of the process of medicalization and psychologization for the legitimacy of social control, the perception of health and illness, and the self-perception of the mind -body duality. Finally, through the analysis of relations of power/knowledge underlying these processes, the module studies the factors that allowed the biomedical sciences to become one of the most influential areass of knowledge in order to justify human hierarchy and inequality.
Competences
- Develop an original, interdisciplinary historical narrative that integrates humanistic and scientific culture.
- Display a sound knowledge of history so as to pinpoint the great events of the past with accuracy: authors, theories, experiments, practices, etc., and their stages of stability and transformation.
- Display rigorous, advanced knowledge of the evolution of science throughout history.
- Work in interdisciplinary teams, showing leadership and initiative.
- Work independently: solving problems, taking decisions and making innovative proposals.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse psychological practices at different moments in history.
- Analyse the consequences of the process of medicalisation and psychologisation regarding legitimisation of social control , perception of health and illness and self-perception.
- Analyse the role of public health in the policies of the European states in the 18th and 19th centuries.
- Assess the role of science and technology in the process of medicalisation.
- Compare cases in which gender has played a historically significant role in defining pathologies and the production and application of scientific-medical knowledge in different contexts.
- Compare favourable and critical viewpoints on psychology as a scientific undertaking.
- Critically analyse the tendency to codify social problems in terms of pathologies.
- Explain the change in views regarding subjectivity and the possibility of a science of the mind in the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Gauge the influence of psychological technology on social regulation.
- Identify and problematise the processes of medicalisation and psychologisation (material and symbolic) in their historical contexts as a key aspect of modernity.
- Identify the changes and continuances in the forms and content of the process of medicalisation and psychologisation and the role played in them by gender, class and race systems.
- Identify the different agents, social processes and institutional mechanisms that have intervened in the processes of medicalisation and psychologisation.
- Interpret the process of medicalisation and psychologisation as a fundamental part of the process of civilisation, rationalisation and social disciplining of the lower classes.
- Recognise the channels of demarcation and interaction between the science of psychology and society.
- Relate the political meaning of collective diseases among the working class to the interventionist health programmes of social medicine.
- Understand gender biases in western scientific medicine and understand the way in which medicine has contributed to the configuration (formulations and reformulations) of the systems of gender relationships.
- Understand the political, economic and social factors determining the development of public health in Europe.
- Work in interdisciplinary teams, showing leadership and initiative.
- Work independently: solving problems, taking decisions and making innovative proposals.
Content
I.1. History of individuals I.
I.2. History of individuals II.
I.3. History of individuals III.
II.1. Science and pseudoscience: psychical research.
II.2. Genius and intelligence: genius kids.
III.1. Contemporary history of women and gender I.
III.2. Contemporary history of women and gender II.
IV.1. Civilizing the unconscious: psychoanalysis and mental hygiene.
IV.2. Civilizing the unconscious: psychoanalysis and the Law.
V.1. The measurement of the mind: anthropometry and psychometric psychology.
V.2. Measuring the Mind: The Uses of the Psychological Tests.
VI.1. Humans as objects of medical research: STD inoculation experiments in vulnerable populations.
VI.2. The patient movement in historical perspective: the rebellion of women with breast cancer.
VII. Synthesis final session.
Methodology
The teaching methodology combines face-to-face sessions (seminars, master classes, text commentary, cineforum ...), student readings and the completion and presentation of a final written essay.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Theoretical and practical sessions on the contents of the module | 94 | 3.76 | 3, 2, 1, 9, 5, 6, 17, 16, 8, 7, 11, 12, 10, 13, 14, 15, 4 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Support tutorials for the understanding of the subject and development of the objectives | 64 | 2.56 | 3, 2, 1, 9, 5, 6, 17, 16, 8, 7, 11, 12, 10, 13, 14, 15, 19, 4 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Individual study, consultation of the bibliography, preparation of the topics, problem solving and preparation of written works | 198 | 7.92 | 3, 2, 1, 9, 5, 6, 17, 16, 8, 7, 11, 12, 10, 13, 14, 15, 19, 18, 4 |
Assessment
The final note of the module is constituted as follows: On the one hand the continuous attendance and participation of each student in the classroom in the debates on the readings is taken into account with 20%. 50% of the note is given by the performance of a written work. The remaining 30% will result from the oral defense of said work.
In the event that activities and tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on TEAMS, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools or will offer them feasible alternatives.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance and active participation in class and seminars | 20% | 0 | 0 | 3, 2, 1, 9, 5, 6, 17, 16, 8, 7, 11, 12, 10, 13, 14, 15, 19, 18, 4 |
| Delivery of reports / written works | 50% | 16 | 0.64 | 3, 2, 1, 9, 5, 6, 17, 16, 8, 7, 11, 12, 10, 13, 14, 15, 19, 18, 4 |
| Exposition of written works | 30% | 3 | 0.12 | 3, 2, 1, 9, 5, 6, 17, 16, 8, 7, 11, 12, 10, 13, 14, 15, 19, 18, 4 |
Bibliography
BARRAL, Mª José, et al. (1999) Interacciones ciencia y género. Discursos y prácticas científicas de mujeres, Barcelona, Icaria.
BARRÁN, J. P. et al. (1993) La medicalización de la sociedad. Montevideo, Ed. Nordan-Comunidad-Inst. Goethe de Montevideo.
BYNUM, C. W. (1995). Why All the Fuss about the Body? A Medievalist’s Perspective, Critical Inquiry, 22, 1-33.
CAMPOS, R.; MARTÍNEZ PÉREZ, J. & HUERTAS, R. (2000). Los ilegales de la naturaleza. Medicina y degeneracionismo en la España de la Restauración (1876-1923). Madrid: CSIC.
CARSON, J. (2007). The measure of merit. Princeton University Press.
CRANE, T. & PATTERSON, S. (2000). History of the Mind-Body Problem. London: Routledge
CUNNINGHAM, A.; ANDREWS, B. (Eds.) (1997) Western Medicine as Contested Knowledge. Manchester, Manchester University Press.
DESCARTES, R. (1641/1996): Meditations on First Philosophy, transl. by J. Cottingham. Cambridge, chap. II and VI
ELIAS, N. (1987) El proceso de la civilización. Investigaciones sociogenéticas y psicogenéticas, México-Madrid-Buenos Aires, Fondo de Cultura Económica
FRIEDEN, T. & COLLINS, F. (2010). Intentional infection of vulnerable populations in 1946-1948, American Medical Association.
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