Subjugation and disqualification: Critiquing the discourses of psychopathological behaviour used in education

Abstract This article proposes that Foucault's notion of subjugated disqualified knowledge can be drawn on to provide a methodological tool for analysing psychopathological discourses of behaviour in education. In so doing, the paper presents a study of Ben, a young man diagnosed with ‘conduct disorder’. As a mental disorder, conduct disorder functions as an influential knowledge that can subjugate and disqualify a young person. Through the discussion of Ben's experiences, the paper shows how subjugated disqualified knowledges can indicate the existence of dominating knowledges and argues that the perspectives of young people such as Ben can be of strategic value for analysing the use of psychopathological discourses of behaviour in education.