Affect, intensity, and moral assemblage in rehabilitation practice

This paper uses the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari to explore how disability is organized in the clinical setting, focusing on young men with muscular dystrophies. The authors of Capitalism and Schizophrenia present a robust philosophy of affect , used in three ways. First, they allow us to trace the interaction of bodies (natural, social, material or otherwise) in the clinical space. Second, Deleuze and Guattari provide a philosophy of intensity. We use this to explore the emotional intensities surrounding progressive disability in the clinical space. Finally, we argue that affective philosophy allows us to explore spaces of morality and obligation, among patients, parents, and practitioners, alike. Each facet is grounded in ethnographic data. The paper ends looking into disability studies’ critiques of medicalization and capitalism, in relation to critical rehabilitation science. Disability studies and critical rehabilitation science are steeped in affect. There is, however, much more work to do, in tandem.