Will-to-Knowledge

It was the way their work was perceived, more than the work itself, that seemed to have an impact on how the practitioners who took part in the study experienced the use of coercion. This chapter is a psychosocial investigation of how what is going on discursively on the macro level informed experience and practice on the micro level, between patient and practitioner of coercion, but also within the latter. This entails relating will-to-power to will-to-knowledge and taking a closer look at how perceptions of insanity and autonomy have changed in Western societies. Initially, I consider the historical relation between madness and society, and how it may inform the professional’s self-understanding and practice. It is argued that psychiatry is a domain of knowledge, with its own set of experts—however, rationality is not the only game in town. Hence, in the latter part of this chapter, leaning on moral philosophical, psychoanalytic, and existential perspectives, it is argued that the capacity to both think and feel informs the moral deliberations of mental health care professionals, and that the practice of coercion is both a rational and emotional endeavor, and thus informed by the known “un-thought”—moods and existential feelings.