Conduct Disorder: the achievement of a diagnosis1

This paper explores the historical shapings behind the diagnosis of conduct disorders. We take as our point of purchase oppositional ways of knowing the subject of conduct disorder—as either pathologically motivated or as the victim of a repressive mandate to control disorderly conduct. We take our cue from Foucault's suggestion that the pursuit of singular motivations behind a phenomenon is not the most fruitful means of understanding its historical appearance. We explore the emergence of the individual with conduct disorder as an appearance contingent upon dispersed agencies of government—an artefact of dispersed technologies for channelling and directing a population.