The Endurance of Uncertainty: Antisociality and Ontological Anarchy in British Psychiatry, 1950–2010

Abstract

ArgumentResearch into the biological markers of pathology has long been a feature of British psychiatry. Such somatic indicators and associated features of mental disorder often intertwine with discourse on psychological and behavioral correlates and causes of mental ill-health. Disorders of sociality – particularly psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder – are important instances where the search for markers of pathology has a long history; research in this area has played an important role in shaping how mental health professionals understand the conditions. Here, I characterize the multiplicity of psychiatric praxis that has sought to define the mark of antisociality as a form of “ontological anarchy.” I regard this as an essential feature of the search for biological and other markers of an unstable referent, positing that uncertainties endure – in part – precisely because of attempts to build consensus regarding the ontology of antisociality through biomedical means. Such an account is suggestive of the co-production of biomarkers, mental disorder, and psychiatric institutions.

Epistemic Modesty, Ostentatiousness and the Uncertainties of Epigenetics: On the Knowledge Machinery of (Social) Science

“…8 Yet, in spite of professed uncertainties, and evident disagreement around the meanings and nature of epigenetic processes, scientists are hardly paralysed; indeed, my interviewees were selected precisely because of their energetic research activity. Accordingly, this study underscores a point made by Rheinberger (2010) and others (Lloyd and Raikel, 2014a;Pickersgill, 2014): specifically, conceptual lability and instability do not necessarily impede biomedical innovation, but can instead drive it forward. As various ambiguities endure and disagreements proliferate, a range of research trajectories are undertaken in response; hence, uncertainty is part of the knowledge machinery of scientific practice (cf.…”

“…Yet, both formalized and functional definitions are possible -and even if their variety contributes to both epistemological disunity within the scientific community and the individualized uncertainty that Respondent 3 underscores, this may itself be productive (cf. Rheinberger, 2010; see also Feyerabend, 2011;Pickersgill, 2014). The word 'heritable' is frequently deployed within these definitions.…”

Epistemic modesty, ostentatiousness and the uncertainties of epigenetics: on the knowledge machinery of (social) science

“…Yet, both formalized and functional definitions are possible – and even if their variety contributes to both epistemological disunity within the scientific community and the individualized uncertainty that Respondent 3 underscores, this may itself be productive (cf. Rheinberger, ; see also Feyerabend, ; Pickersgill, ).…”

Autistic Heterogeneity: Linking Uncertainties and Indeterminacies

“…An increasing body of social scientific literature has sought to understand the role of uncertainty in science, detailing the undertaking of ‘practical uncertainty work’ which allows research to remain ‘doable’ by disarming, displacing, and deflating uncertainty (Webster and Eriksson, 2008; Moreira et al ., 2009; Pickersgill, 2014; Gardner et al ., 2015). For example, Star highlights (1985, p. 406) four forms of uncertainty—taxonomic, diagnostic, political, and technical—encountered by nineteenth century neurologists and details numerous forms of work which allows research to continue in the face of these difficulties.…”