Residual Categories in Medical Simulation: The Role of Affect in the Performance of Disease

Extending Susan Leigh Star’s conceptualization of residual categories, the author highlights the role of affect in the construction of standardized symptoms in medical simulation and in the performance of scientific evidence. The author analyzes two cases, public performances of hysteria in the 19th century and standardized patients in contemporary simulation laboratories, revealing potentialities in the construction of medically accurate and pedagogically achievable standards. Conceptualizing patient performers as a standardization technology representing medical knowledge of patient experience allows the author to reveal how the performers’ affective perspective becomes appropriated into the biomedical discourse to legitimate its categories and educate healthcare professionals.