Wait Up! Attachment and Sovereign Power

Duschinsky, R.; Greco, Monica and Solomon, J.. 2014. Wait Up! Attachment and Sovereign Power. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 28(3), pp. 223-242. ISSN 0891-4486 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

Sociologists and feminist scholars have, over many decades, characterised attachment as a social construction that functions to support political and gender conservatism. We accept that attachment theory has seen use to these ends and consider recent deployments of attachment theory as justification for a minimal State within conservative political discourse in the UK since 2009. However, we contest that attachment is reducible to its discursive construction. We consider Judith Butler’s depiction of the infant attached to an abusive caregiver as a foundation and parallel to the position of the adult citizen subjected to punitive cultural norms and political institutions. We develop and qualify Butler’s account, drawing on the insights offered by the work of Lauren Berlant. We also return to Foucault’s Psychiatric Power lectures, in which familial relations are situated as an island of sovereign power within the sea of modern disciplinary institutions. These reflections help advance analysis of three important issues: the social and political implications of attachment research; the relationship between disciplinary and sovereign power in the affective dynamic of subjection; and the political and ethical status of professional activity within the psy disciplines.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-014-9192-9

Keywords:

Attachment theory. Sovereignty. Politics. Lauren Berlant . Childhood

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Sociology

Dates:

DateEvent
9 December 2014Published

Item ID:

17483

Date Deposited:

04 Apr 2016 15:48

Last Modified:

29 Apr 2020 16:16

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/17483

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