Inventing Our Selves: Psychology, Power, and Personhood

Nikolas Rose has got to be one of today's top sociologists. This book which compiles some of his work up to the mid 1990s is testament to the novelty and thoroughness of his research and is definitely an enjoyable read for anyone interested in Foucauldian thought and scholarship. Cutting across conventional histories and representations of the field of psychology and its relationship to power and the social, Rose argues the contemporary significance of psychology lies in its relationship to the question of government in modern society. This book is a fabulous complement to his other books, Powers of Freedom and Governing the Soul, and his array of articles.

For those who are interested in Foucault's concept of "governmentality," and for those who are uncomfortable with liberal humanism's triumphal celebration of "freedom," please check out this book. If there is one question Rose wants to answer in this book, it seems to me to be the following: how can social control take place in our contemporary world, where we are thought of as autonomous subjects? Rose suggests that "freedom" has not, in fact, triumphed over "coercion" and "discipline" in our contemporary age - rather, he argues that discourses on freedom and individual autonomy set up the conditions in which bodies can be territorialized and controlled in new ways. He argues toward this conclusion not through an analysis of state disciplinary practices or "pastoral power" (as Foucault did), but rather through an analysis of the "psy" disciplines, which include psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, etc. Rose writes in a clear and straightforward manner - his text is relatively free of the type of jargon and self-indulgent prose one typically finds in "critical theory" texts. I found the book very accessible, and read it quickly. My research intersects with exactly these types of questions and problems, so I absolutely loved this book. In fact, upon completion I immediately ordered another of his texts.

Nikolas Rose writes a powerful and thought provoking work that radically alters how the work of the "mental health" professional can be understood, detailing its critical relevance for each of us.