Illness as a Work of Thought

This text is a practical application of Foucault's archaeological and genealogical methods to the study of illness and modernity. It unravels the complex relationships that exist between the various types of discourses which have been engaged in the vast field of "psychosomatic" research since the early decades of the 20th century. From medicine and psychiatry to psychology and the social sciences, Monica Greco explores what the history of these different disciplines contributes to what we understand by the term "psychosomatic". She analyses how the study of psychosomatic illness can transform the way we think of illness, subjectivity and the ethics and politics of health, thus revealing the complex phenomenon of psychosomatics in all its ethical and political ramifications.