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The French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault is among the most recognizable of twentieth-century intellectuals. He is most well known for his work on the history of mental illness as well as for his explorations into the birth of the modern prison system. Foucault (1984) is less well known for the development of the method by which he engaged in these various projects: namely, his historical ontology, a research method, both archeological and genealogical in nature, whereby he examined discrete instances of historical discourse on the topics of his interest with the intent of documenting when and where specific linguistic practices came into being and the manner in which they changed.
My assertion is that Foucault's historical ontological method provides a useful tool for examining concepts of historical relevance to psychoanalysis, of fering a framework for the rigorous examination of the historical contexts wherein key notions of psychoanalysis came into being, while also documenting the manner in which the meaning of these discursive practices changed. Engaging in such an endeavor provides a unique opportunity to gain new appreciations of the history of our field, as well as the meaning of our contemporary practice. By way of example, consider neurasthenia, a diagnosis of singular importance in the history of psychoanalysis.
My current project involves using Foucault's historical ontology as a method of exploring the historical discourse surrounding neurasthenia. In most histories of psychiatry (e.g., Kaplan and Sadock 1998), first use of the diagnosis of neurasthenia is attributed to the prominent New York psychiatrist George Miller Beard. Beard did indeed publish a great deal on the diagnosis (e.g., Beard 1881). However, there is indication that several months before Beard is reputed to have introduced the term, it had already been articulated by Edwin Van Deusen, a physician from Kalamazoo, Michigan (Bynum 2003).
How is it that neurasthenia emerged in thi