Benoît Loiseau

Gloucester Road Books presents the writer, critic and academic, Benoît Loiseau. Benoît will be discussing his groundbreaking new book, The Death of the Clinic, with the author, Claire Carroll.

A mixture of history and memoir, The Death of the Clinic, is an examination of five experimental clinics which emerged in response to seismic changes and events. These include a post Second World War institute of psychiatry and medical philosophy in a French château; a feminist health centre born from the women’s liberation movement in Geneva; and a grassroots research initiative featuring clinical trials run by and for people with AIDS in 1980s–90s New York.

But at its core, the book also sets out to tell the stories of the individuals who dared to reimagine how humans might care for one another. It is also very personal. Loiseau recounts his own experiences with medical care and describes the influence of one key health worker, in particular: his mother. The book includes several moving 'epistles' written directly to her.

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‘Divergent and elaborate in the pursuit of its enthusiasms, balancing the personal and the intellectual, The Death of the Clinic is a book of hope and affirmation as well as of pain and grief.' - Gavin Francis, author of The Unfragile Mind

‘Intimate and erudite, breathtaking in its historical analysis and philosophical range, The Death of the Clinic illuminates bold experiments in non-hierarchical medicine, offering expansive possibilities for solidarity, self-determination and communal care.’ - Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of Terry Dactyl

‘Fifteen years ago, I called for The Death of the Clinic – a book that would ask what happens when the sick, the mad, the deviant, the unemployed and the undocumented take over the health system. Benoît Loiseau has written it: personal, rigorous, uncompromising.' - Paul B. Preciado, author of Dysphoria Mundi

'The Death of the Clinic is an inspiring, essential book.’ - Chris Kraus, author of The Four Spent the Day Together

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Benoît Loiseau is a Belgian-born, Franco-British writer, critic and scholar based in Brooklyn and Paris. A founding editor of queer anthology The BitterSweet Review, he has written for ArtReview, frieze, The Guardian, The New York Times and The White Review. He read philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure (PSL) and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in French and Comparative Literature at New York University and Paris 8 University.

Claire Carroll is a writer, editor and academic researcher whose writing has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and published in journals and anthologies including The Stinging Fly, The London Magazine, Prototype and Best of British Short Stories. Her debut collection of short stories, The Unreliable Nature Writer, was released in 2024 with Scratch Books. Her latest publication, TREATMENT, a book-length poem co-authored with Andrew Hykel Mears, was released in September 2026 with Dialect Press. She is currently editor of short fiction for Ambient Receiver Journal.

Benoît Loiseau Photo credit: Gioncarlo Valentine