Welcome to Module 3!

"Medical Explanations of Deviance & Social Control"

Welcome to your third unit of Deviance & Social Control!

[LINK to Midterm Examples ] [Discussion Board link]

In this unit you will…

  • Be exposed to 19th century ideologies about deviance, conformity, and social control

  • Critically consider the emergence medical social control in America, the medicalization of crime during the post-Enlighmentment rise of empiricism, and its connection to atavistic logics and 19th century eugenics

  • Engage this history by examining and reflecting on primary texts from Cesare Lombroso’s “Criminal Man,” Samuel Cartwright’s theorization of “Drapetomania,” and Paul Briquet’s "Hysteria”

  • Use their understanding of this history to critically examine the contemporary standards for criminal psychopathy diagnostics.

There are 15 points to be earned in this unit. You will be graded on…

  1. Journal Entry: Samuel Cartwright & Drapetomania 3 points

  2. Journal Entry: “The Psychopath Test” and Medicalization 4 points

  3. Discussion Posts: Controlling the Planet Metzl & Schizophrenia 6 points

  4. Journal Entry: Jon Ronson’s So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed & Reflections on Medicalization: 2 points

Watch

An introduction to 19th Century Social Control Ideologies

Watch

19th Century Logic

Read

Let’s look closely at one of those examples: Cartwright’s Drapetomania. If you’d like to explore Briquet’s “hysteria” or Lombroso’s “Criminal Man,” you are welcome to explore the wikipedia pages associated with those terms as well! They may give some interesting texture to the primary text you will look at from Cartwright.

Consider

Read, and take notes as you read the primary text. Pay attention to these guiding questions:

  • What was the dominant logic that defined “deviance” and “social control” in America during this time?

  • What provoked Cartwright to believe that this could be conceived of as an illness? And for what reasons would it have resonated with readers at that time?

  • What systems of power appear to have shaped these standards? What institutions appear to have enforced them?

Cartwright’s Drapetomania: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3106t.html

Reflect

Let’s consider the primary text in more detail. You will re-read the Cartwright passage three times, and submit a journal entry on Canvas in response to these three prompts:

  1. First Read — Comprehend: What is actually being described in the text?

  2. Second Read — Observe: What phrase or sentence jumps out at you?

  3. Third Read — Consider: Critically consider only that phrase or sentence in the context of the broader passage. What do you make of this section of the text? What does it tell you about this historical moment? What insight does it offer?

[Link to Submit Journal Exercise]

3 points. You will receive 1 point for fully addressing each of the three above prompts (comprehend, observe, and consider). You will lose 1 point for every element that is omitted from your submission. The journal entry should be casual, and requires no citations. Simply reflect on each of the three prompts above.

Read & Watch:

Let’s consider some more contemporary forms of medical social control. We’ll begin by reading a brief definition of “medicalization.”

[SHORT READING: “Medicalization” A Dictionary of Public Health (2 ed.) Miquel Porta and John M. Last]

Watch

Let’s consider the relationship between medicine and social control more closely.



[Read Peter Conrad, Medicalization and social control, Annual Review of Sociology Vol. 18 (1992), pp. 209-232 (24 pages)]

Watch

Psychopath Test: Jon Ronson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYemnKEKx0c

Journal

  • Consider the logics of 19th century American social control ideologies: Empiricism, knowability, atavism, medicalization. Where do you see these logics appear in the case of “The Psychopath Test”? Can you find 2, specific examples?

  • In your own words, how would you define medicalization? Can you provide an example from your own life where you’ve seen a behavior or a trait be medicalized or de-medicalized? Did medicine provide a complete or an incomplete explanation of that behavior? How so?

[Submit your Journal Responses Here]

4 points. You will receive 1 point for reflecting fully on each of the two examples from Survived and Punished, 1 point for a complete definition of utilitarian calculus, and one point for including a relevant example.

Read & Discuss

Once you’ve completed your journal submission, complete your next reading for this module.

  • “Controlling the Planet: A Brief History of Schizophrenia” by Jonathan Metzl

After you’ve completed and considered the reading, you’re ready to submit your first discussion question to the class discussion board. To receive full credit on this assignment, you must offer one discussion question (following the guidelines below), and two, text-based responses to the discussion questions of your peers.

6 points: You will receive 2 points for each of your three contributions (the discussion question, and your two responses to the questions posted by your peers). To receive both points for each element, your contribution must adhere to the best practices below. Partial credit will be given to attempts that do not follow the guidelines.

Read

The next few chapters of Jon Ronson’s book, “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed,” through the end of Chapter 12.

Activity

This activity invites you to position yourself in the political history we’ve been exploring.

Consider what you’ve read in Jon Ronson's book. Do you see the presence of medical technology, medical authority or medical ideology in his book?

  1. What are these examples? How did they shape the lives of the people in the book?

  2. In your own life, can you identify a time (large or small) when you’ve “medicalized” the different or deviant behavior of another person? Maybe even your own behavior? Describe this episode? What effects did this have?

[Link to Journal]

2 points: You will receive full credit for a journal entry that reflections casually on the activity and addresses the given prompts. Partial credit will be awarded for entries that address only part of the prompt.

You’ve now completed Module 3!

Make sure to complete all of the graded components of the module by June 10th in order to receive full credit

When you’re ready, you may begin Module 3.