Presentation of Sandra Caponi's book: "Política, psicofármacos y vida cotidiana"

The book "Política, psicofármacos y vida cotidiana", by the researcher Sandra Caponi, was presented by Ángel Martínez-Hernáez, Elisa Alegre and Martín Correa-Urquiza at the Arxiu d'Etnografia de Catalunya on November 29.

The text is composed of three main thematic blocks: biopolitics of indifference, gender and psychiatry, and childhood and medicalization. This last section, according to the author herself, served as a starting point and motivation for the creation of the volume. The role of antipsychotics and their incorporation into daily life cut across the three thematic areas.

Ángel Martínez-Hernáez, director of the MARC, pointed out that it is a necessary and coherent book that allows us to open new horizons, rethink what we know and that comes to light at a time of transformation and paradigmatic change.

The aspects related to women and their conception from psychiatry were addressed by Elisa Alegre, PhD in Anthropology. In this sense, she referred to the discrepancies revealed by the text on the association of certain diseases with the health and sexual age of women. She also addressed the contradictory discourses referring to the construction of what a woman should be, from authors who describe them as confident and cheerful to those who compare them to beasts.

For his part, Martín Correa-Urquiza stated that this text helps to dismantle the scaffolding of the diagnosis of psychiatric conditions based on certain symptoms, as well as the consequences of medicalization in the lives of people diagnosed with a mental health condition.

The presenters insisted on the awareness of illness that is required of those diagnosed, which connects with the ways in which the individual and his subjectivity are constructed from the diagnosis and adherence to treatment.

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