The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century

by Nikolas Rose

For centuries, medicine aimed to treat abnormalities. But today normality itself is open to medical modification. Equipped with a new molecular understanding of bodies and minds, and new techniques for manipulating basic life processes at the level of molecules, cells, and genes, medicine now seeks to manage human vital processes. The Politics of Life Itself offers a much-needed examination of recent developments in the life sciences and biomedicine that have led to the widespread politicization of medicine, human life, and biotechnology.


Avoiding the hype of popular science and the pessimism of most social science, Nikolas Rose analyzes contemporary molecular biopolitics, examining developments in genomics, neuroscience, pharmacology, and psychopharmacology and the ways they have affected racial politics, crime control, and psychiatry. Rose analyzes the transformation of biomedicine from the practice of healing to the government of life; the new emphasis on treating disease susceptibilities rather than disease; the shift in our understanding of the patient; the emergence of new forms of medical activism; the rise of biocapital; and the mutations in biopower. He concludes that these developments have profound consequences for who we think we are, and who we want to be.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, History, Politics, Medicine, Sociology

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Nikolas S. Rose

Reviews

[Zawn V · Rating 1 out of 5]

When you're getting paid to write a book, it's really not acceptable to offer such amateurish, terrible writing to your readers. This book is in dire, desperate need of an editor. The challenge, of course, is that as with most bad writing by social scientists, if well-edited, this book would be 1/10 its current length. With the removal of buzzwords, the book would be reduced to obvious truisms like, "Medicine has changed" and "genetics can't explain everything." So I guess if you have nothing new to contribute to the debate, it's better to write 100-word sentences packed with empty academic jargon.

[Ronaldo Lima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livro absolutamente assustador pois documenta toda a molecularização da vida e projeta todas as implicações políticas que um controle total sobre a vida pode causar. É a cientifização da ética, a subjetividade controlada, a criminalidade documentada. Uma distopia mais do que real, presente no nosso dia a dia.

Apesar da leitura densa e truncada o livro não deixa de demonstrar a sua potência no que tem a dizer.

[غبار · Rating 2 out of 5]

so disappointed by this book's lack of concision/proper editing – i loved rose's shorter, snappier reading (of the same title), but this was a hot mess with all the chapters overlapping & points repeating

[MS Glennon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rose, a neo-foucaultian, is (but not as a consequence of that theoretical position) an over-rated social theorist with seductive but upon closer examination problematic celebratory interpretations of "advanced liberal democracies"

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating ideas, but this book badly needed an editor. And for Nikolas Rose to be a better writer. The kind of scholarly text that you want someone else to write a gloss on so that you don't have to return to the original.

[Richard McColl · Rating 4 out of 5]

An evolution on philosophical thought essential to read to further the understanding of Michel Foucault. Chapters 1 and 2 are particularly recommended for people wishing to explore a descriptive source about governamentalism, biomedecine and subjectivity.

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basically aped my thesis from this book.