Module: Freedom & Health

Module Specifications.

Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025

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Date posted: September 2024

Module Title	Freedom & Health
Module Code	NS234 (ITS) / HEA1007 (Banner)
Faculty	Science & Health	School	Nursing, PsyT & Comm Health
Module Co-ordinator	Keith Rochfort
Module Teachers	Mark Philbin
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5
Pre-requisite	Not Available
Co-requisite	Not Available
Compatibles	Not Available
Incompatibles	Not Available

Coursework Only

Description

In this module, we explore various meanings of freedom and their relevance to matters of health.

Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss the varied meanings of freedom and the rhetorical significance of their uses.
2. Explore the stoic insistence on 'freedom of assent' and how this relates to matters of personal relationships and mental health.
3. Consider the politics of anger in political life with particular reference to health and racial oppression.
4. Discuss John Stuart Mill's account of liberty of opinion and how this relates to matters of health communication.
5. Explore the relevance and limits of the 'harm principle' and the capabilities approach in relation to vaccination, intravenous drug use and coercive psychiatric injections.
6. Evaluate libertarian ideas of a minimal state by reference to crime and public health.
7. Consider neoliberal ideas of consumer freedom and markets as they relate to bodily modification.
8. Discuss Pettit's republican conception of non-domination and how this relates to work and health.
9. Explain the work of Thaler and Sunstein with particular reference to 'libertarian paternalism', 'nudge theory' and 'choice architecture'.
10. Explore ideas to do with governmentality, self-surveillance and disciplined subjectivities as they relate to health.
11. Consider ideas of freedom as a burden, responsibility for the meaning of one's life and the ideological uses of responsibilisation as they relate to health.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full-time hours per semester
Lecture	24	Examining arguments to do with freedom and health.
Fieldwork	18	Directed reading and Loop activities
Fieldwork	10	A video recorded small group discussion
Independent Study	40	Reading for the module.
Assignment Completion	33	Preparation of an essay.
Total Workload: 125

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Freedom, health and wellbeing: an introduction
Introduction to the module; the varied meanings of freedom; rhetoric and freedom; the need for critical readings of freedom; the relations of freedom to health.

"What a wicked way to treat the girl who loves you!": Intimate relationships, mental health and stoic detachment
Stoicism and the passions, freedom of assent, the perils of attachments, stoicism and mental health

Anger, politics and freedom
The stoic critique of anger; the possibility of righteous anger; anger and health; Nussbaum and transitional anger; the place of anger in struggles against racial injustice.

"Fake medical news" and liberty of opinion
John Stuart Mill on liberty of opinion and truth; what to do about "fake medical news"?

The uses of the syringe: Bodily autonomy, capabilities and freedom
Vaccine uptake and hesitancy; debates on mandated vaccination; Mill's harm principle; coercion and injections- the case of psychiatry; freedom as capabilities and implications for vaccination

Crime, safety and the role of the state
Libertarians and the minimal state; the state as guarantor of protection against crime; crime and public health; vulnerability, crime and threat; rape and sexual harassment; preventing knife crime and the role of the state.

Markets and health
Markets and freedom- the neoliberal account; markets as providers for consumer wants; marketisation and the body as a project; the cultural creation of bodily wants; the limits of markets and the public good.

Non-domination and health: A republican perspective
Republicanism and non-domination; the state as guarantor of non-domination and basic liberties; status and health; workplaces as sites of domination; occupational health and domination.

"Putting the fruit at eye level.": Choice architecture, nudges and health
Thaler and Sunstein, libertarian paternalism and choice architecture; "nudges" and health.

Considering the "smart watch": Governmentality, self surveillance and unfreedom
Foucault, disciplinary power and panopticism; subjectivity, self surveillance and social control; "free subjects" and subjection.

"Condemned to be free"?: Existentialism, responsibility and responsibilisation
Sartre on "being before essence"; Frankl and responsibility for the meaning of one's own life; fear of freedom; critique of responsibilisation; ideology and responsibility.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	100%	Examination Weight	0%

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Course Work Breakdown
Essay	A consideration of the claim that freedom is a burden and how this relates to health.	60%	Sem 2 End
Completion of online activity	Small group discussion and video submission on the stoic idea of "freedom of assent"	30%	Week 24
Participation	Attendance and participation	10%	Every Week

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories: Resit category 1: A resit is available for both* components of the module. Resit category 2: No resit is available for a 100% continuous assessment module. Resit category 3: No resit is available for the continuous assessment component where there is a continuous assessment and examination element.
* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a Continuous Assessment/Examination split; where the module is 100% continuous assessment, there will also be a resit of the assessment
This module is category 1

Indicative Reading List

Epictetus: 2020, The Discourses of Epictetus and the Enchiridion (Deluxe Library Binding), Engage Classics, 1774760061
Michel Foucault: 1988, Technologies of the Self, Univ of Massachusetts Press, 0870235931
Viktor Emil Frankl: 2004, Man's Search for Meaning, Random House, 9781844132393
Erich Fromm: 1991, The Fear of Freedom, Psychology Press, 9780415065788
Mill, J.M.: 2017, On Liberty, Amazon Classics Edition, 978154232737
Robert Nozick: 1974, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, New York : Basic Books, 9780465002702
Martha C. Nussbaum: 2009, The Therapy of Desire, Princeton University Press, 9780691141312
Martha C. Nussbaum: 2013, Political Emotions, Harvard University Press, 9780674728288
Steven Lukes: 1986, Power, NYU Press, 9780814750315
Deborah Lupton: 2016, The Quantified Self, Polity, 978150950060
Martha C. Nussbaum: 2016, Anger and Forgiveness, Oxford University Press, 9780199335879
Nussbaum, M.: 2011, Creating Capabilities: The human development approach, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
Susie Orbach: 2010, Bodies, Profile, 9781847651839
Philip Pettit: 2014, Just Freedom: A Moral Compass for a Complex World, W. W. Norton & Company, 9780393063974
Jean-Paul Sartre: 2006, Existentialism and Humanism, 2nd, Methuen Publishing, 9780413776396
Seneca: 2012, Anger, mercy, revenge, University of Chicago Press, 978022674842
Richard H. Thaler,Cass R. Sunstein: 2008, Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness, Yale University Press, 9780141040011
Irvin D. Yalom: 1980, Existential Psychotherapy, Basic Books, 9780465021475

Other Resources

None