Dissertation Research: From Biotype to Genotype: Mapping Behavior in Buenos Aires

本论文研究项目有助于理解世界性科学与当地历史形式在产生新的生物医学主体性时相互作用的方式。它追溯了一家法国基因组公司建立的网络，用于收集、储存和分析阿根廷公立医院精神病患者的 DNA 样本。 该网络是与一家大型制药公司合资的一部分，旨在绘制精神分裂症的易感基因图谱，精神分裂症是一种病因学和病理生理学未知的疾病。 该项目的目标是记录新的人格分类形式出现的过程。 这项研究提出了三个问题：当代遗传精神病学与之前用遗传术语解释行为的尝试有何关系？ 在寻找精神分裂症家庭谱系的过程中会面临哪些挑战？ 哪些制度联系和技术创新能够推动企业的发展？ 在布宜诺斯艾利斯精神病学家、遗传科学家、卫生官员和法律当局进行的为期十个月的民族志研究中，调查人员将分析精神病学与跨国资本之间的这种联盟对当地的影响。 所采用的方法将是基于历史研究、访谈和参与者观察的解释性分析。

This dissertation research project contributes to understanding the ways in which cosmopolitan science interacts with local historical forms in the production of a new biomedical subjectivity. It traces the establishment of a network by a French genomics company for the collection, banking and analysis of DNA samples from mental patients in Argentine public hospitals. The network is part of a joint venture with a major pharmaceutical company to map the susceptibility genes for schizophrenia, a disorder of unknown etiology and pathophysiology. The goal of this project is to document the process whereby new forms of categorizing personhood emerge. Three questions frame the research: How does contemporary genetic psychiatry relate to prior attempts to explain behavior in hereditary terms? What challenges will be faced in the process of finding a pedigree of schizophrenic families? What institutional links and technological innovations enable the venture to be carried forward? During ten months of ethnographic research in Buenos Aires among psychiatrists, genetic scientists, health officials and legal authorities the investigator will analyze the local implications of this alliance between psychiatric science and multinational capital. The method to be employed will be an interpretive analysis based on historical research, interviews, and participant-observation.