Personality and Dangerousness: Genealogies of Antisocial Personality Disorder

by David McCallum

Overview

Tracing the history of the category of antisocial personality disorder, this study reveals its emergence is linked to particular kinds of governing, rather than simply to advances in the human sciences or a means of social control. David McCallum examines key legal and institutional developments in Australia, the U.K, and the U.S. as well as parallel developments within psychiatry and psychological medicine. Applying a social theoretical analysis to this material, he challenges our assumptions about the formation and control concepts of dangerousness and personality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521804028
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/06/2001
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.09(h) x 0.71(d)
Lexile:	1760L (what's this?)

About the Author

David McCallum is Associate Professor in Sociology at Victoria University in Melbourne. He is the author of The Social Productions of Merit (1990) and numerous chapters and articles on the history of human sciences and government.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Law, psychiatry and the problem of disorder; 2. Histories of psychiatry and the asylum; 3. The borderland patient; 4. Counting, eugenics, mental hygiene; 5. The space for personality; 6. Surfaces of emergence; 7. Personality and dangerousness.

Editorial Reviews

"...a valuable sociological history..." American Journal of Sociology

From the Publisher

The history of how antisocial personality disorder has been studied and understood is the subject of this narrative by McCallum (Victoria U., Australia). The volume chronicles how the disorder was perceived in 19th century mental institutions, attempts at its analysis through early studies of the brain, laws and institutions that followed from early studies, and research of the 1930s and 1950s that viewed the disorder as one stemming from a problem of relationships. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)