Amazing piece. So much richness and complexity here, this kind of work feels sacred and too awesome for substack! I look forward to reading a hard copy collection of these kinds of writings of yours one day.
I resonate with the idea that psychiatric pathologisation of people who truly seek to disrupt power is how power is maintained. “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a proudly sick society” said a fellow Indian, Krishnamurti (whose work I used to be enamoured of but now probably more reject! That is another story).
You add further nuance to this idea - that deviation within an acceptable realm of discourse or action (aligning to power) is tolerated; deviation beyond the “acceptable” realm is seen as dangerous, crazy, hostile. And what do we do to people we deem potential threats? We dehumanise them, imprison them, assassinate them, disappear them. Like Greta. I understand the Dept of Homeland Security has broadened its definition of “domestic terrorist” to be so broad that it could encompass anyone who “undermines trust in public institutions”…which would include practically anyone fighting against genocide, ecocide, iatrogenocide, etc.
Indeed, as you also write in the comments here, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” but they can perhaps reveal the hypocrisy of the master’s house? I see you use Freudian analysis and invert attachment theory to poke fun at racial capitalism brilliantly…which initially I wasn’t sure about but I’ve grown to like. What better way to point out the nonsense of “liberal democracy” than to take its ideals and its ideology at face value and apply its own analysis to the establishment’s own actions?
The big problem with western science is that much of the time, it can’t even apply its own ideals (rationality, objectivity, scientific method, controlled experiments) to its most cherished beliefs, because ultimately it’s about corporate profits and power not science. Peter Goetszhe details this in “Deadly Medicine and Organized Crime.” Rebecca Strong details this in her article “Putting Big Bad Pharma Back on Trial”.
And feminist psychiatrist Jess Taylor notes this in her piece on the non-existence of any objective biological markers to define neurodivergence or psychiatric “diseases” for that matter, that all masquerade as objective truths backed by clinical evidence:
There is a long and well-established history of dismissing indigenous peoples as crazy and deluded rather than considering the systemic factors that are creating their frustration and anger. So I was delighted to discover the field of indigenous psychologies! And your substack, for the same reason.
From the little I know of my own culture (and there’s a lot to know!!!), Indian psychology doesn’t see the individual as an isolated self encased in flesh but the universe-as-self and self-as-universe. In Ayurveda, “Purusha-loka” is a concept of the self as deeply ontological, relational, radically ex-centric, and em-bodied in time, space, context. Indian psychology is also philosophical and spiritual and doesn’t claim its legitimacy based on materialism or physicalism alone, unlike western psychology and medicine. The latter has moreover been a tool of ongoing colonial violence and subjugation as noted in “Colonising the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in 19th Century India” by David Arnold. And the reason I talk about psychology and medicine simultaneously is because there isn’t a huge distinction between physical and mental disease in Ayurveda (“mind/body” duality).
Truly, the master's tools won't dismantle the master's house, Lorde, but sometimes, the only way through is in. May we be the bane of their existence, that we may truly negate the workings of white supremacy from within, and one day meet again those without.
The ‘Turned Gaze’ Is brilliant- a way to use the rituals and practices of Empire against it. Still, can the masters tools….
I am trying to read the Birth of the Clinic by M Foucault which I saw in the footnotes and recognised the reference in the text (the English translation is hard to read) to notice the mechanics of the ‘system’ of health I work in, and it does get called ‘the system’ for short, by people who work in it or interact with it. If you have more words to say about Health, or the Birth of the Clinic, it would be a helpful can-opener for a difficult text. The history books are full of the primary evidence for Public Health as an engine of empire in Aus- from babies being born on balconies to the racist names for segregated wards and the intersection with social work and state control—family and kinship dissolution. But it’s still a job to see it in my job today, especially with all the ‘efforts’ to be better, and name it. It’s not hard to find episodes of racism in healthcare but it is hard to get behind the screen and see the engine that isn’t/is perpetuating its ‘system’.
You're on point there about the impossibility of dismantling the master's house with the master's tools. But maybe we don't need to wield the tools against the house. As a non-French speaker, Foucault, in its full implications, is also difficult for me. Perhaps Ann Laura Stoler's Race and the Education of Desire would be a good pairing, helping with connecting medicalization, social control and state power in colonial and the supposed postcolonial contexts. I have only recently returned to Australia and do not have experience with the system here, except from memory as a child and what I learned from studying from afar. I'd be interested to hear more of your point of view and analysis, too.
Most of my capacity to comment on the entity of Healthcare comes from conversations and interactions rather than study or reading.
When my friend who is knowledgeable in Gathang-speaking culture tells me, over a coffee, aren’t you glad your office is being moved off the main hospital grounds! The energy there is (gestures- bad) short discussion follows about the bad collective memories of injustices played out on the grounds of our local hospital. All kinds of effort is made to ‘cleanse’ the space but the feeling of that block of land retains its memories. Another conversation, my knowledgeable friend warns me not to mention volunteering in front of Aunty (name withheld) at meetings (we are starting a venture- well not really me but I’m along for the meetings) because Black fellas don’t work for free (in reference to the long history of wage theft that has helped to ingrain generational poverty)
It’s slip-ups like these that are easy to make, and only an interaction of the utmost trust will result in a generous correction being offered- in other words an Aunt will tell you off and give you a correction if the relationship deserves it- otherwise a defensive silence pervades and can be felt in unanswered phone calls, staff members feeling frustrated that ‘they just don’t engage’
In health we do ‘gaze’ a hell of a lot. I prefer swimming: when entering a patients house (my work is in the community) I enter their microbial, familial, spiritual and physical territory. It’s of utmost importance to look for cues to the protocols in the environment every visit but never more so than with visits to people who feel, instinctively, a sense of invasion with the presence of a nurse. To manage this (or create more agency/options) it’s been wise to have a person present who can hold cultural space fluently- knowing the protocols and where the jokes can be made. This has helped to reduce a kind of allergic response to healthcare (which is me 🙁) entering the home for people with recent and current experiences of oppression.
I’m grateful to have been able to see even this much, and avoid the pitfall response “ but I treat everyone the same”
Nobody ever does that, and it gaslights people’s experiences.
My struggling-reading of Foucault is helping in some way to further develop this necessary examination of the System to the respite of the Person and find how many ways I may be duped into its service. But the epic take-down that was your last post on Attachment Theory was a whopper!!
I love your concept of swimming rather than gazing—extraction vs. adaptation, immersion. It captures something fundamental about presence and power. Healthcare is so full of built-in ways to make refusal look like failure—through ‘non-compliance,’ ‘difficult patients,’ even ‘patient-centered’ care that still expects deference in the end. Maybe what we need isn’t just another reform, another apology. Maybe the real work starts where the power cracks.
Thank you for writing such an insightful and useful piece. I'm not deeply versed in your vernacular, but I've been on this human-healing-learning-growing journey long enough to know to pay attention when something resonates so deeply. I've been immersing myself in a lot of philosophical and political writing here on substack, and reading your work has helped me fill in a lot of gaps in my understanding of the world we're in right now. Navigating the Who What Where When Why and How of this moment is like holding my breath while swimming upstream. Your words are a landing where I can catch my breath and dive back in faster, stronger, clearer than before. Grateful.
thank you!!! For sure, I can't stop mostly bc its my compulsive way of coping :*) I'm so appreciative of your work, there are many facets to what we must do, but perpetually dismantling the epistemological violence of empire is definitely a critical part of it
Amazing piece. So much richness and complexity here, this kind of work feels sacred and too awesome for substack! I look forward to reading a hard copy collection of these kinds of writings of yours one day.
I resonate with the idea that psychiatric pathologisation of people who truly seek to disrupt power is how power is maintained. “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a proudly sick society” said a fellow Indian, Krishnamurti (whose work I used to be enamoured of but now probably more reject! That is another story).
You add further nuance to this idea - that deviation within an acceptable realm of discourse or action (aligning to power) is tolerated; deviation beyond the “acceptable” realm is seen as dangerous, crazy, hostile. And what do we do to people we deem potential threats? We dehumanise them, imprison them, assassinate them, disappear them. Like Greta. I understand the Dept of Homeland Security has broadened its definition of “domestic terrorist” to be so broad that it could encompass anyone who “undermines trust in public institutions”…which would include practically anyone fighting against genocide, ecocide, iatrogenocide, etc.
Indeed, as you also write in the comments here, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” but they can perhaps reveal the hypocrisy of the master’s house? I see you use Freudian analysis and invert attachment theory to poke fun at racial capitalism brilliantly…which initially I wasn’t sure about but I’ve grown to like. What better way to point out the nonsense of “liberal democracy” than to take its ideals and its ideology at face value and apply its own analysis to the establishment’s own actions?
The big problem with western science is that much of the time, it can’t even apply its own ideals (rationality, objectivity, scientific method, controlled experiments) to its most cherished beliefs, because ultimately it’s about corporate profits and power not science. Peter Goetszhe details this in “Deadly Medicine and Organized Crime.” Rebecca Strong details this in her article “Putting Big Bad Pharma Back on Trial”.
And feminist psychiatrist Jess Taylor notes this in her piece on the non-existence of any objective biological markers to define neurodivergence or psychiatric “diseases” for that matter, that all masquerade as objective truths backed by clinical evidence:
https://whatwouldjesssay.substack.com/p/what-do-i-think-of-neurodiversity?triedRedirect=true
https://whatwouldjesssay.substack.com/p/lets-apply-sagans-razor-to-psychiatry/
https://whatwouldjesssay.substack.com/p/4-ways-mental-health-is-misused-in/
There is a long and well-established history of dismissing indigenous peoples as crazy and deluded rather than considering the systemic factors that are creating their frustration and anger. So I was delighted to discover the field of indigenous psychologies! And your substack, for the same reason.
From the little I know of my own culture (and there’s a lot to know!!!), Indian psychology doesn’t see the individual as an isolated self encased in flesh but the universe-as-self and self-as-universe. In Ayurveda, “Purusha-loka” is a concept of the self as deeply ontological, relational, radically ex-centric, and em-bodied in time, space, context. Indian psychology is also philosophical and spiritual and doesn’t claim its legitimacy based on materialism or physicalism alone, unlike western psychology and medicine. The latter has moreover been a tool of ongoing colonial violence and subjugation as noted in “Colonising the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in 19th Century India” by David Arnold. And the reason I talk about psychology and medicine simultaneously is because there isn’t a huge distinction between physical and mental disease in Ayurveda (“mind/body” duality).
Truly, the master's tools won't dismantle the master's house, Lorde, but sometimes, the only way through is in. May we be the bane of their existence, that we may truly negate the workings of white supremacy from within, and one day meet again those without.
The ‘Turned Gaze’ Is brilliant- a way to use the rituals and practices of Empire against it. Still, can the masters tools….
I am trying to read the Birth of the Clinic by M Foucault which I saw in the footnotes and recognised the reference in the text (the English translation is hard to read) to notice the mechanics of the ‘system’ of health I work in, and it does get called ‘the system’ for short, by people who work in it or interact with it. If you have more words to say about Health, or the Birth of the Clinic, it would be a helpful can-opener for a difficult text. The history books are full of the primary evidence for Public Health as an engine of empire in Aus- from babies being born on balconies to the racist names for segregated wards and the intersection with social work and state control—family and kinship dissolution. But it’s still a job to see it in my job today, especially with all the ‘efforts’ to be better, and name it. It’s not hard to find episodes of racism in healthcare but it is hard to get behind the screen and see the engine that isn’t/is perpetuating its ‘system’.
You're on point there about the impossibility of dismantling the master's house with the master's tools. But maybe we don't need to wield the tools against the house. As a non-French speaker, Foucault, in its full implications, is also difficult for me. Perhaps Ann Laura Stoler's Race and the Education of Desire would be a good pairing, helping with connecting medicalization, social control and state power in colonial and the supposed postcolonial contexts. I have only recently returned to Australia and do not have experience with the system here, except from memory as a child and what I learned from studying from afar. I'd be interested to hear more of your point of view and analysis, too.
Most of my capacity to comment on the entity of Healthcare comes from conversations and interactions rather than study or reading.
When my friend who is knowledgeable in Gathang-speaking culture tells me, over a coffee, aren’t you glad your office is being moved off the main hospital grounds! The energy there is (gestures- bad) short discussion follows about the bad collective memories of injustices played out on the grounds of our local hospital. All kinds of effort is made to ‘cleanse’ the space but the feeling of that block of land retains its memories. Another conversation, my knowledgeable friend warns me not to mention volunteering in front of Aunty (name withheld) at meetings (we are starting a venture- well not really me but I’m along for the meetings) because Black fellas don’t work for free (in reference to the long history of wage theft that has helped to ingrain generational poverty)
It’s slip-ups like these that are easy to make, and only an interaction of the utmost trust will result in a generous correction being offered- in other words an Aunt will tell you off and give you a correction if the relationship deserves it- otherwise a defensive silence pervades and can be felt in unanswered phone calls, staff members feeling frustrated that ‘they just don’t engage’
In health we do ‘gaze’ a hell of a lot. I prefer swimming: when entering a patients house (my work is in the community) I enter their microbial, familial, spiritual and physical territory. It’s of utmost importance to look for cues to the protocols in the environment every visit but never more so than with visits to people who feel, instinctively, a sense of invasion with the presence of a nurse. To manage this (or create more agency/options) it’s been wise to have a person present who can hold cultural space fluently- knowing the protocols and where the jokes can be made. This has helped to reduce a kind of allergic response to healthcare (which is me 🙁) entering the home for people with recent and current experiences of oppression.
I’m grateful to have been able to see even this much, and avoid the pitfall response “ but I treat everyone the same”
Nobody ever does that, and it gaslights people’s experiences.
My struggling-reading of Foucault is helping in some way to further develop this necessary examination of the System to the respite of the Person and find how many ways I may be duped into its service. But the epic take-down that was your last post on Attachment Theory was a whopper!!
I love your concept of swimming rather than gazing—extraction vs. adaptation, immersion. It captures something fundamental about presence and power. Healthcare is so full of built-in ways to make refusal look like failure—through ‘non-compliance,’ ‘difficult patients,’ even ‘patient-centered’ care that still expects deference in the end. Maybe what we need isn’t just another reform, another apology. Maybe the real work starts where the power cracks.
Thank you for writing such an insightful and useful piece. I'm not deeply versed in your vernacular, but I've been on this human-healing-learning-growing journey long enough to know to pay attention when something resonates so deeply. I've been immersing myself in a lot of philosophical and political writing here on substack, and reading your work has helped me fill in a lot of gaps in my understanding of the world we're in right now. Navigating the Who What Where When Why and How of this moment is like holding my breath while swimming upstream. Your words are a landing where I can catch my breath and dive back in faster, stronger, clearer than before. Grateful.
Holy shit bro. I am currently working on a book on imagining a post imperial medicine & bibliocide but... i think u did it already & its gorgeous
Don’t let that be an excuse to not continue with your book! I hope to have the privilege to read your ideas your discoveries.
thank you!!! For sure, I can't stop mostly bc its my compulsive way of coping :*) I'm so appreciative of your work, there are many facets to what we must do, but perpetually dismantling the epistemological violence of empire is definitely a critical part of it
this is excellent