Applying Foucault’s theoretical concept of discipline, the present article uses the term undisciplined patients to describe those who resist medical authority, defy conventional medical interpretations concerning health risks and adopt non-normative health behaviours. There is considerable scholarly literature available on non-normative health behaviours, such as out-of-hospital birth, refusal to vaccinate or homoeopathy. While differentiating each such issue from the others has its merits, we argue that these health behaviours have much in common and ought to be perceived as a social phenomenon characteristic of Western neoliberal societies, in which health consumers are expected to assume responsibility for their own health behaviours and to avoid health risks. The objective of the research on which this article is based was to explore the common attitudes underlying the health behaviours of undisciplined patients, or, using Foucault’s terminology, determining which technologies of the self they implemented. We conducted in-depth interviews with 10 Jewish Israeli undisciplined patients during 2016. We identified four different practices that undisciplined patients implement: critical awareness of the medical hegemony; willingness to challenge by asking questions, collecting information and involvement in a continuous process of inquiry; using intuition in making health-related decisions and possessing a powerful internal locus of control; and willingness to control their fear and anxiety. Their health behaviours varied widely, including non-normative and normative practises alike, rendering it impossible to address them as one coherent discipline. Situating the social phenomenon of undisciplined patients is of importance to researchers who study risk, as well as to health policy experts. It will also benefit those who study specific non-normative health attitudes and behaviours.

运用福柯的学科理论概念，本文使用术语“无纪律的患者”描述那些抗拒医疗权威，无视有关健康风险的常规医学解释并采取非规范性健康行为的人。关于非规范性健康行为，例如医院外出生，拒绝接种疫苗或同性恋病，有大量的学术文献。尽管将每个此类问题与其他问题区分开来都有其优点，但我们认为，这些健康行为有很多共通之处，应被视为西方新自由主义社会所特有的一种社会现象，在该现象中，健康消费者应对自己的健康承担责任行为并避免健康风险。本文所基于的研究目的是探讨无纪律患者健康行为的基本态度，或者使用福柯的术语，确定他们实施的自我技术。我们在2016年期间对10名以色列以色列无纪律患者进行了深入采访。我们确定了无纪律患者实施的四种不同做法：对医疗霸权的批判意识；愿意通过提问，收集信息并参与不断的询问过程来挑战；利用直觉来做出与健康相关的决策，并拥有强大的内部控制源；并愿意控制他们的恐惧和焦虑。它们的健康行为差异很大，包括非规范性和规范性行为，因此不可能将它们作为一门统一的学科来解决。对于那些研究风险的研究人员以及卫生政策专家而言，将无纪律的患者的社会现象定位是至关重要的。