Assemblages of Health

This, the first book to apply the methods and concepts of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze to public health research, assesses how Deleuze's process of 'transcendental empiricism can be deployed in overcoming selected obstacles to studying health and illness.

This book presents a review of Deleuze's key methods and concepts in the course of exploring how these methods may be applied in contemporary studies of health and illness. Taken from a Deleuzian perspective, health and wellbeing will be characterized as a discontinuous process of affective and relational transitions.

The book argues that health, conceived in terms of the quality of life, is advanced or facilitated in the provision of new affective sensitivities and new relational capacities. Following an assessment of Deleuze's key ideas, the book will offer a series of case studies designed to illustrate how Deleuze's ideas can be applied to select health problems. This analysis draws out the specific advantages of a Deleuzian approach to public health research, establishing grounds for more widespread engagement with Deleuze's ideas across the health and social sciences.

First systematic assessment of the significance of Deleuze's work for research in Health Sciences Provides an accessible introduction to Deleuze's key ideas and concepts Provides case studies illustrating the application of Deleuze's ideas Sets out new directions for health care policy and practice Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Introduction: Assemblages of Health.- Chapter 2. The Concrete Richness of the Sensible.- Chapter 3. Health, Ethology, Life.- Chapter 4. The Assemblage in Recovery (Mental Health).- Chapter 5. Assemblages of Drugs, Spaces and Bodies.- Chapter 6. The Ethics of an Assemblage of Health.- Chapter 7. Conclusion: A Line of Becoming Well.