| This dissertation examines the ways in which therapeutic interventions are deployed in a range of global governance projects. This is illustrated through three distinct sites in international relations wherein the psy disciplines (psychiatry, psychology, and their sub-disciplines) are called upon in the pursuit of global security and order. In each site, a 'diagnostic competition' over the psychological state of a targeted population is traced in order to assess the effects of the problematization of their psyches.;First, this dissertation examines how suspected terrorists detained at Guantanamo have been pathologized through the US military's invention of a new diagnosis: 'manipulative self-injurious behaviour.' This has occurred alongside the efforts of humanitarian organizations to represent the detainees as psychologically impaired. Representations of the detainees as suicidal have formed part of what makes their excision from the global body politic possible. Secondly, this dissertation traces contestations over how best to diagnose and treat the trauma of post-conflict populations. It is argued that with the merging of the psychosocial and mental health models of psychological aid, entire post-conflict populations have become subject to the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or surveillance for 'severe' mental disorders in ways that limit agency and self-determination, and render complex political issues a matter of mere technique. Third, this dissertation investigates new programs in the Canadian military designed to improve the social and medical treatment of 'Operational Stress Injuries' amongst soldiers. The aim of such programs is to render soldiers fit for duty, in the service of global order and security imperatives.;It is argued that therapeutic interventions are sometimes coercive, but at other times can be benevolent, depending on the subject population, and their position as purported security threats (Guantanamo detainees), victims (post-conflict populations), or providers (Canadian soldiers). In this sense, the psy disciplines articulate and are articulated through sovereign, disciplinary, and bio-power in the global governance of disorder(s). These multiple deployments of therapeutic interventions constitute instances of 'rendering technical' that are animated by the will to security, order, and closure. The costs of this include the limitation of politics, agency, difference, and possibilities for living with vulnerability. |
