Andrew Lakoff argues that a new 'pharmaceutical' way of thinking about and acting upon mental disorder is coming to reshape not only the field of psychiatry, but also our very notions of self. Drawing from a comprehensive ethnography of psychiatric practice in Argentina (a country which boasts the m[...]

In recent years, new disease threats--such as SARS, avian flu, mad cow disease, and drug-resistant strains of malaria and tuberculosis--have garnered media attention and galvanized political response. Proposals for new approaches to "securing health" against these threats have come not only from pub[...]