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

本论文的研究项目有助于理解在新的生物医学主体性产生过程中，世界科学与地方历史形式的相互作用方式。它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患者的DNA样本。该网络是与一家大型制药公司合资绘制精神分裂症易感基因图谱的一部分，精神分裂症是一种病因和病理生理学未知的疾病。这个项目的目标是记录新形式的人格分类出现的过程。三个问题构成了这项研究的框架：当代遗传精神病学如何与先前试图用遗传术语解释行为的尝试联系起来？在寻找精神分裂症家族谱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合资企业得以继续发展？精神病学家、基因科学家、卫生官员和法律当局在布宜诺斯艾利斯进行了为期10个月的人种学研究，研究者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。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.