On the Biopolitics of Suicide
This essay critically examines the biopoliticization of suicide, challenging its framing as a public health issue which obscures its cultural and philosophical significance. Drawing from Michel Foucault’s theories of biopower, this essay argues that suicide is externalized, massified, and medicalize...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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York University
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Canadian Journal for the Academic Mind |
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| Online Access: | https://cjam.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default/article/view/52 |
| _version_ | 1827394854476316672 |
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| author | Zachary Gan |
| author_facet | Zachary Gan |
| author_sort | Zachary Gan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay critically examines the biopoliticization of suicide, challenging its framing as a public health issue which obscures its cultural and philosophical significance. Drawing from Michel Foucault’s theories of biopower, this essay argues that suicide is externalized, massified, and medicalized under the discourse of public health, leading to its subjugation to biopower’s rhetoric. At the core of this narrative is a powerful presupposition that suicide is separable from the individual who commits the act. Drawing from Primo Levi’s The Drowned and the Saved and Judith Butler’s essay Violence, Politics, and Mourning, this essay conceives suicide as an intentional act of agency, occurring under particular conditions of emotional duress which are created by a historical relay of societal violence. This essay seeks to dismantle the prevailing narrative of suicide, free suicide from its biopolitical rhetoric, and argues that suicide ought to be understood as a radical act which bears witness against the violence of the biopolitical state. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T18:20:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-000481cad9d94f43826adf420152b560 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2817-5344 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T18:20:14Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | York University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Canadian Journal for the Academic Mind |
| spelling | doaj.art-000481cad9d94f43826adf420152b5602023-12-31T00:38:54ZengYork UniversityCanadian Journal for the Academic Mind2817-53442023-11-011110311410.25071/2817-5344/527On the Biopolitics of SuicideZachary Gan0https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5299-6757Department of Arts & Science, McMaster UniversityThis essay critically examines the biopoliticization of suicide, challenging its framing as a public health issue which obscures its cultural and philosophical significance. Drawing from Michel Foucault’s theories of biopower, this essay argues that suicide is externalized, massified, and medicalized under the discourse of public health, leading to its subjugation to biopower’s rhetoric. At the core of this narrative is a powerful presupposition that suicide is separable from the individual who commits the act. Drawing from Primo Levi’s The Drowned and the Saved and Judith Butler’s essay Violence, Politics, and Mourning, this essay conceives suicide as an intentional act of agency, occurring under particular conditions of emotional duress which are created by a historical relay of societal violence. This essay seeks to dismantle the prevailing narrative of suicide, free suicide from its biopolitical rhetoric, and argues that suicide ought to be understood as a radical act which bears witness against the violence of the biopolitical state.https://cjam.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default/article/view/52suicidebiopoliticsbiopowerpublic health |
| spellingShingle | Zachary Gan On the Biopolitics of Suicide Canadian Journal for the Academic Mind suicide biopolitics biopower public health |
| title | On the Biopolitics of Suicide |
| title_full | On the Biopolitics of Suicide |
| title_fullStr | On the Biopolitics of Suicide |
| title_full_unstemmed | On the Biopolitics of Suicide |
| title_short | On the Biopolitics of Suicide |
| title_sort | on the biopolitics of suicide |
| topic | suicide biopolitics biopower public health |
| url | https://cjam.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default/article/view/52 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zacharygan onthebiopoliticsofsuicide |