The "Concerned Self" – Mental Disorder Prevention in the FRG and GDR, 1949-2000

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Viola Balz
• Subject Area: History of Science ; General Education and History of Education ; Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 419057548

The sub-project is devoted to the prevention efforts in the field of mental health in both German states from the point of their founding until ten years after reunification. At the centre of the analysis the "concerned self" is situated as a dispositiv of mental disorder prevention. This will be examined with regards to the three central components of state welfare, (social) educational welfare and psychological self-care. Thus the project introduces two argumentative building blocks into the FOR: 1. changes in preventive practices and knowledge techniques by psychologists and social workers. 2. The contradictory forms of subjectivation of a "concerned self" through more individual responsibility and simultaneous disempowerment using precautions in the wake of state given discourses on prevention.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 3031: NORMAL#VERRÜCKT Zeitgeschichte einer erodierenden Differenz