L’épigénétique environnementale et le risque suicidaire : Reconsidérer la notion de contexte dans un style de raisonnement émergent

• Main Authors: Stephanie Lloyd, Eugene Raikhel
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Association Anthropologie Médicale Appliquée au Développement et à la Santé 2014-12-01
• Series: Anthropologie & Santé
• Subjects: neuroscience; genetics; suicide; genomics; style of reasoning; risk
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/anthropologiesante/1568

The rapidly growing and contested area of biological research known as “environmental epigenetics” studies the potential effects of environmental conditions on gene expression through a set of molecular mechanisms. Hailed by some social scientists as a paradigmatic overturning of received wisdoms about evolution, heredity, and as a sign of an emergent domain of biosocial research, environmental epigenetics has also been met with scepticism by those who see environment and social contexts – as well as potential interventions – being reduced to the scale of molecular mechanisms. In this paper, we explore these issues in light of our ethnographic work in as part of a multidisciplinary group of researchers studying suicidal behaviour. We argue that while a distinct “style of reasoning” emerging from this work does indeed molecularize a range of environmental factors and locate them in the brain, this reflects a "pragmatic reductionism" on the part of the scientists themselves rather than a commitment to a narrow view of suicide. As such, more complex understandings of suicide risk – integrating ever more interdisciplinary researchers – remain possible limited not by interest but by technique, raw materials, and novel research practices.