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

本学位论文的研究项目有助于了解在一个新的生物医学主体的生产中，世界性的科学与当地的历史形式相互作用的方式。报告追溯了一家法国基因组公司建立的一个网络，用于收集、储存和分析阿根廷公立医院精神病人的DNA样本。 该网络是与一家大型制药公司合资企业的一部分，旨在绘制精神分裂症（一种病因和病理生理学未知的疾病）的易感基因。 这个项目的目标是记录新的人格分类形式出现的过程。 三个问题构成了这项研究的框架：当代遗传精神病学与先前试图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系的过程中会面临哪些挑战？ 什么样的制度联系和技术创新使企业得以发展？ 在布宜诺斯艾利斯进行的为期十个月的民族志研究中，精神病学家、遗传科学家、卫生官员和法律的权威人士将分析精神病科学与跨国资本之间的这种联盟在当地的影响。 所采用的方法将是基于历史研究，访谈和参与观察的解释性分析。

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.