Genetic counselling as care of the self

Abstract

Genetic counselling has frequently been described as a disciplinary practice, with the goal of ‘risk reduction’. In this article another dimension to genetic counselling is considered through the Foucauldian theorization on the care of the self. Drawing on narrative analysis, I examine how one informant undergoing genetic counselling interprets the technique of imagining alternative futures learned through counselling, and transforms it into an ethical practice of self-care. The findings suggest that what may begin as a medical issue with implications for one’s health, becomes a meditation over one’s disposition towards life, in a way that is consonant with one’s desires and values.