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In 1874 Dr. Nancy Newcomer was committed against her will by her son-in-law to theKalamazoo Asylum for the Insane in Michigan. Her behavior, allegedly, had been erratic andemotional. Although a physician herself, she was unable to convince the medical superintendent,E.H. VanDeusen, that she was not insane; indeed, her efforts to do so only strengthened hisassessment that she was. As a result, she remained in the asylum for many months until herdischarge. Three years later, in a case watched with great interest by powerful asylumsuperintendents across the United States, Newcomer successfully sued VanDeusen for falseimprisonment. Although the Michigan Supreme Court reversed the lower court decision aftertaking testimony from scores of family members, asylum staff and patients, the Newcomer casebrought into medical, legal and public discourse questions about the nature of insanity, thenegotiation of diagnostic labels, and the ways in which psychiatric practice and power were bothconstituted and resisted in state asylums. This paper uses a Foucauldian perspective to analyzethe contemporaneous discourse on the Newcomer v. VanDeusen case in the psychiatric and legalliterature as well as in the newspapers which enthusiastically reported on it. Three of Foucault’smost potent concepts will be used to further that analysis: “disciplinary power,” or the tacticalfunctioning of power; “confession,” or the ritual for the production of truth; and “subjectivation,”the construction of one’s own identity as subject to someone else’s control.74. HomelessnessThe Paradox of Military Training: Survival on the Streets among HomelessVeteransSusan L. Ray, Western University (slray@uwo.ca)Introduction: Little is known about homelessness among Canadian Forces (CF) and AlliedForces (AF) Veterans. The purpose of this secondary analysis of the first national study onhomelessness among Veterans of the CF and AF was undertaken to explore whether homelessveterans’ survival on the streets is helped or hindered by their military training.Methods: An interpretative phenomenological approach was used as the methodologicalframework for the study. Although all 54 transcripts from the primary study were selected, 15were chosen for secondary data analysis because these participants spoke extensively about theirlives on the streets. The transcriptions were analyzed to identify common themes until anunderstanding of homeless veterans’ survival on the streets was attained.Results: Military training as a double edged sword for homeless veterans is the overarchinganalytical interpretation that emerged from the analysis. Two subthemes: Military trainingprepares veterans for survival on the streets; and military training to defend oneself withaggression if necessary can make transitioning to civilian life difficult illustrate the paradox thatemerged.Conclusion: These differences of attitude and experience for homeless people with a servicesbackground contain messages for providers of services to homeless veterans. Health care serviceproviders need to recognize, validate and respond to the effects, positive and negative, of life in182