ABSTRACT
Social scientists have defined “American exceptionalism” as “the belief in the special and unique role the United States is meant to play in world history, its distinctiveness from the Old World, and its resistance to the laws of history.” This chapter uses this definition to examine the U.S. Government’s construction of trauma related to psychiatric knowledge and practice in national security settings during the Global War on Terror, developing the theory of medicolegal exceptionalism. By analyzing open-source medical and legal documents, the chapter traces medicolegal exceptionalism in the legal case of Mohammed al-Qahtani, a former detainee at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility: first, through definitions of torture; second, over competing interpretations of trauma; and finally, in the applicability of international humanitarian law to secure his release. The chapter concludes by considering the implications of studying constructions of psychiatric knowledge and practice through medicolegal exceptionalism.
