Understanding ‘caring’ through biopolitics: the case of nurses under the Nazi regime

Abstract

These days, discussions of what might be the 'essence' or the 'core' of nursing and nursing practice sooner or later end in a discussion about the concept of care. Most of the 'newer' nursing theories use this concept as a theoretical core concept. Even though these theoretical approaches use the concept of care with very different philosophical foundations and theoretical consistency, they concur in defining care as the essence of nursing and thereby glorify goodness as the decisive characteristic of nursing. These theoretical approaches neglect the fact that nursing is above all a profession with a societal task and is characterized by an asymmetrical power relation between nurses and their patients. Based on the results of a research project that analysed the role nurses played in the killing of psychiatric patients in Germany during the Nazi regime, I demonstrate that an approach based on the concept of care is not able to explain how nurses were able to commit crimes of such atrocity. These crimes were bound to an emotional investment that sustained the production of 'life unworthy of living'. In the case of nurses under the Nazi regime, certainly a kind of sadism was at issue that can only be explained if we recognize that the social bond is characterized by a certain tension; 'goodness' that caring theories assign to the social bond always coexists with the capacity for destruction. Using the Foucauldian theoretical framework of biopower and biopolitics enables one to analyse violence and power as integral parts of nurses' practice. Seen from this perspective, the killing of patients was part of a biopolitical programme and not a relapse into barbarism. The concept of care obscures the political agenda of nursing and does not provide a critical and political framework to analysing nursing practice.

Contested discourses and culture sensitivity: Norwegian nursing students' experience of clinical placement in Nicaragua

“…Any further elaboration and discussion about the revised culture concept fall outside the scope of this paper. In a recent publication, Thomas Foth presents an extension of this criticism and argues that the concept of care in most “newer” nursing theories obscures the political agenda of nursing and fails to provide a critical framework to analyse nursing practice (Foth, ). Using a Foucauldian theoretical framework, Foth claim, “These theoretical approaches neglect the fact that nursing is above all a profession with a societal task and is characterized by an asymmetrical power relation between nurses and their patients” (Foth, , p. 284).…”

Rethinking the social role of nursing through the work of Donzelot and Foucault

“…This position makes them a powerful group in the health care system because they are in direct contact with individuals, communities, groups, and populations and are able to teach, support, advise, and coach individuals through competent interventions. The notion of "government at a distance" is of particular relevance for nursing (Foth, 2013). Through significant numbers of skills and techniques nurses are able to gather information, produce and disseminate knowledge, and participate in therapeutic encounters (Holmes & Gastaldo, 2002).…”

“…As a result, nurses' scientific knowledge and expertise consolidate and crystallize their influence with regard to the state's health objectives. In fact, health policies that demand more science and expertise have facilitated the expansion of scientific nursing and the role nurses play with the population (Foth, 2013). Nurses are therefore part of these social institutions that are at the core of governmentality.…”

Chapter Five: The Limits of a Theory of Recognition: Toward a Nursing Ethics of Vulnerability

“…In losing an "other," a"you," one discovers that "'I' have gone missing as well" (Butler,2009b,p.22). Understood in this way, grief provides asense of political community (see also Foth, 2009;Foth, 2013c). Living in this world means sharing it with others and if anotherd ies, something that Imyself need to live is lost.…”

“…Ican "care"for someone to the pointthat she loses all independence. And in extreme cases, as Foth demonstrated for nurses under the Nazi regime in Germany, or for nurses workingw ith differentk inds of shock treatments in Canada, nurses can be emotionally engagedwith their patients but still kill them (Foth, 2012(Foth, , 2013a(Foth, , 2013b(Foth, ,2013c). If we consider involvementasneither good nor bad in itself but neutral with respecttonormative claims, we then must acknowledge thateven violence can be considered akind of involvement, and that extreme aggressionis an equally primordial, social, and human mode of engagementwith others.…”