Abstract
This paper focuses on those who use psychiatric technologies (i. e., pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavior therapy) in order to adapt to social life. The spread of treatments based on psychopharmacology and clinical psychology has advanced in recent years, which has brought about a shift in psychiatric treatment from the application of the psychoanalytic or psychological approach to the modification of biological factors or visible behaviors. Nikolas Rose regards the permeation of this management technology as the governmentality in the “flattened out” self.,
I empirically explored the governmentality in this flattened out self through interviews with six people who had received some medical treatment in psychiatric medical institutions. These interviews offered two types of narratives: “personality-based narratives” and “situation-based narratives.” Personality-based narratives constitute the selves associated with one's life history or the relation with their parents in a psychological context, whereas situation-based narratives constitute the selves who intend to correct problematic thoughts or behaviors arising from their social life in a limited context.
These two types of narratives are affected by a division of the structure of psychiatric treatment. As a result of the partial permeation of the government through this flattened out self, the selves targeted for treatment are also divided. That is to say, on one hand, governmentality in psychiatry produce flattened out selves in order for selves to adapt to social environments, but on the other hand, the selves turn back to the psychological theme by referring to the domain called “deep psychic space,” and support the governmentality in functioning as a driving force, which produces potentially treatable subjects and evokes the necessity for treating their mental problems.
