Political Agency and the Medicalisation of Negative Emotions

Rezensionen / Stimmen

The passions unleashed by populism, Covid-related concerns and increased democratic disaffection all focus attention on the politics of emotions and the emotional drivers of political life. But very few scholars have been able to reveal why emotions matter with the skill and sophistication that Dan Degerman brings to the topic. Like all brilliant books Political Agency and the Medicalisation of Negative Emotions raises as many questions as it answers as it skillfully dissects a range of literatures, topics and themes. A quite remarkable book that deserves to be read within and beyond academe. -- Matthew Flinders, University of Sheffield This book brings much needed attention to the new age of medicalisation in which the emotional wellsprings of political action - anger, grief and fear - are treated as psychological disorders. It shines a critical light on 'medicalising attacks' that drive citizens onto the couch rather than the streets and shows why negative emotions are indispensable to political agency. -- Paul Muldoon, Monash University It is a commonplace to argue that politics has been disrupted by emotions such as anger, grief, depression and resentment over recent years, often with the implication that these are signs of 'irrationality' or even 'madness'. Dan Degerman offers an original and hopeful reframing of such issues, resisting the dominant urge to diagnose negative emotions, and instead charting new pathways between the political and the psychological. This book will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the affective dimensions of political life, as well as the politics of mental health. -- Will Davies, Goldsmiths, University of London