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AXES FOR 2007-2011:

• Axis 1: Marking Out Well-being, Health, and Pathology: Therapeutic and Extra-therapeutic reflections.

Much like the first programme’s axis “The Therapeutic Relationship and the Circulation of Knowledge on Medications,” this axis focuses on analysing the clinical reasons (etiological and therapeutic) underpinning the recourse to medications and the role of stakeholders (industry, doctors, patients, regulatory agencies) in the establishment of boundaries between health and disease and the creation of new nosographic entities.

This first theme refers to the complexity of medical devices and of scientific and clinical lines of thought, from which spring the boundaries between normalcy and pathology, and through which the recourse to medications comes into play. Through a renewed reflection on the concept of medicalization, this axis explores the standards and the scientific dynamics surrounding medications, and their complex application to the clinical sphere.

• Axis 2: Medications and New Social Realities.

This axis represents the continuation and the deepening of the “Psychotropic Medications and Society” axis from the 2003-2007 programme, and takes the lessons learned from that period into consideration. Studying the issue of the use of psychotropic medications in three types of clientele—teenagers, adults and seniors—has allowed us to identify the transverse dynamics at play.

What normative and symbolic processes cause individuals to define themselves from a perspective of physical suffering, or to be categorized as having a personality or behavioural disorder? How do these processes pave the way to the use of psychotropic medications becoming quite commonplace? What model of “normal social functioning” underpins the process of pathologizing certain behaviours associated with mental disorders which are considered psychological or psychiatric “deficiencies”? And, how does the comparative analysis of different social realities (within developed and developing societies) bring perspective to the social reasoning that underlies the strong prevalence of mental disorders and their management with medications?

The projects within this axis aim to provide a better understanding of the social logic of clinical interventions and the social significance of commonly used psychiatric nosographic categories, all with the goal of better distinguishing the mental, relational and social dimensions, which are too often bundled under the grab-bag label of “psychosocial” or “mental health.”

• Axis 3: Medications Versus Multiculturalism and Globalization.

As an extension of the “Therapeutic Pluralism” axis in our first programme, we re-examine the recurring theme of the “Pharmaceutical Invasion” (unilateral standardization of usage, destruction of “other” and/or local therapeutic cultures , etc.) in light of a nuanced analysis of the tensions between the existence of hybridized cultural health practices and regulatory standards, which bring uniformity and govern the access and recourse to medications within the context of globalization. Through the perspective of a comparison between Canada and European and South American countries, this axis also aims to understand how the structural, cultural and political differences influence the application of new pharmaceutical biotechnologies, with the objective of contributing to the debate on the socio-ethical and political consequences of introducing new technologies (pharmacogenomics, stem cells, etc.) in Canada.

See our RESEARCH PROJECTS.

See Archives - 2003-2007 Axes.