The ill-health assemblage: Beyond the body-with-organs

Abstract

The ill-health assemblage comprises the networks of biological, psychological and sociocultural relations that surround bodies during ill-health. The paper argues for health sociology to reject an organic body-with-organs as its unit of analysis of health and illness, and replace it with an approach to embodiment deriving from Deleuze and Guattari’s ontology. I set out the three key terms: the body-without-organs (BwO), assemblages, and territorialisation. These concepts will be applied to health and illness, to develop an understanding of an ill-health assemblage. I contrast this with the biomedicalised body-with-organs, and explore the shaping of the ill-health assemblage in a case study.

Keywords:

• assemblage
• biomedicine
• body-without-organs
• Deleuze and Guattari
• ill-health