#12143. Foucault and the birth of psychopolitics: Towards a genealogy of crisis governance

July 2026publication date
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Journal’s subject area:
Political Science and International Relations;
Sociology and Political Science;
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Abstract:
The article reconstructs Michel Foucault’s analysis of the application of the notion of crisis in 19th-century psychiatry. This analysis complements Reinhart Koselleck’s history that viewed crisis as originally a medical, judicial, or theological concept transferred to the political domain in the 18th century. In contrast, Foucault highlights how the psychiatric application of the concept of crisis was itself political, conditioned by the disciplinary power of the psychiatrist. Unlike the ancient medical concept of crisis that emphasized the doctor’s judgment in observing the event of truth in the course of the disease, the psychiatric crisis is explicitly forced by the doctor in order to elicit the desired symptoms in the patient and convert them into medical diagnosis. The article argues that this notion of crisis resonates with the tendencies observed in contemporary crisis governance in Western societies. While these tendencies are often addressed in terms of ‘psychopolitics’ that presumably succeeds Foucault’s ‘biopolitics’, we suggest that Foucault’s own work on psychiatric power offers a valuable genealogical perspective on the contemporary governance of crises.
Keywords:
Biopolitics; crisis; Foucault; governance; Koselleck; psychiatry

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