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Charisma and the clinic

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Abstract

Here we argue that ‘charisma’, a concept widely taken up within geography and the environmental humanities, is of utility to the social studies of medicine. Charisma, we suggest, draws attention to the affective dimensions of medical work, the ways in which these affective relations are structured, and the manner in which they are intimately tied to particular material-discursive contexts. The paper differentiates this notion of charisma from Weber’s analyses of the ‘charismatic leader’ before detailing three forms of charisma – ecological (which relates to the affordances an entity has), corporeal (related to bodily interaction) and aesthetic (pertaining to an entity’s initial visual and emotional impact). Drawing on interview data, we then show how this framework can be used to understand the manner in which psychologists and neuroscientists have come to see and act on autism. We conclude the article by suggesting that examining charisma within healthcare settings furthers the concept, in particular by drawing attention to the discursive features of ecologies and the ‘non-innocence’ of charisma.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the peer reviewers for their extensive engagement with this piece. The advice of Paul Martin, Antonia Hamilton, and Alison Pilnick throughout the project has been invaluable. This research arises, in part, from a PhD thesis funded through the Economic and Social Research Council's Open Competition (ES/I01196X/1). Subsequent support was provided via a Mildred Blaxter Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness and an Institutional Strategic Support Fund Fellowship from the University of Leeds and The Wellcome Trust.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Gregory Hollin

  2. Department of Media, Communication and Culture, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK

    Eva Giraud

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  1. Gregory Hollin
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  2. Eva Giraud
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Correspondence to Gregory Hollin.

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Hollin, G., Giraud, E. Charisma and the clinic. Soc Theory Health 15, 223–240 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41285-016-0023-0

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