Power among the Powerless: A Theoretical Approach to Understanding How (Legal) Power Appears among Persons Placed under Guardianship

When a person is diagnosed with an intellectual or psychosocial disability, they may in some cases have their capacity to act restricted by court proceedings and a guardian appointed to act in their place in certain cases. In this way, the state can intrude into an individual’s private life and control his/her daily life. In the following paper, I use a Foucauldian approach to power theory to examine how the institution of guardianship is reconstituted in everyday life, whether power appears at all in interview narratives and, if so, with what content.