Essay about Analysis of Discipline and Punish - 1609 Words

Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, although verbose, contains important dialogue concerning the concept of power in the penal systems of late 18th century France with public execution, and the gradual transformation of power in subsequent disciplinary systems up to modern times. Power is closely related to the concepts of violence or force, but they are not the same. Throughout this work, Foucault establishes the trend of using power as a sort of political technology over the human body. According to Foucault, power relations transcend every facet of society, and are not simply localized in those relations between citizens and the government. Power must be aligned closely with the concept of knowledge. Basically, there is no power†¦show more content†¦This was no accident, as the governing powers understood very well that retribution could best be accomplished by proving a meaningful connection between the body of the condemned and his or her punishment. Essenti ally, this makes the execution a political agenda. Executions served to make the person the center of the act. He was paraded through the streets with his crime attached to him physically in some cases, and more often than not required to stand at various places in public to have his sentence read aloud. Also, the public execution provided a place for confession. It seems theoretically sound to assume that when a person has nothing to lose, he or she will atone for the truth of the sentence placed upon him or her. The spectacle needed the affirmation of justice it attempted to encompass by giving the accused the chance to refute or acknowledge as truth the punishment he will endure for his crime. In addition, the spectacle placed the crime and the body together, and in many cases executions were held at the scene of the crime. Finally, executions served to establish proof of wrongdoing by means of slowness and suffering of the criminal. Punishment’s foremost intention is to p rove guilt, and this proof is much more intense when said punishment is public. Although public execution was not the most common form of punishment, philosophers and political reformers and France began to recognizeShow MoreRelatedFoucault s Discipline And Punishment1211 Words   |  5 Pagesinto the modern culture seen today. Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish examines how punishment was viewed and enacted prior to the â€Å"humane† awakening of the eighteenth century, while establishing the progression of change that shifted punishment from the body to the soul. Foucault was a student and professor of philosophy and psychology during the twentieth century, which influenced his writings and political activism. Discipline and Punish is a result of his active participation in prison reformRead MoreOne Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Relation to Foucaults Argument1602 Words   |  7 Pagesthe Cuckoo’s Nest†, is a film that relates to Foucault’s analysis of discipline and punishment. Foucault’s argument is that power wor ks in a disciplinary way in current society. The movie can relate to this because the institution that the movie took place in was ran using Foucault’s disciplinary technique. There are many scenes from the film that give an analysis of Foucault’s argument. Foucault believes that people have the power to punish the docile bodies that they produce. Foucault argues inRead MoreThe Effects Of Physical Punishment On Children928 Words   |  4 Pagespurpose of punishment, in the case of children, is intended to change their behavior. Adults generally think that they should do whatever it takes to get children to behave in an acceptable way. In order to get the children to behave thus, adults often punish them physically—that is, through causing pain. It is my opinion that physical punishment of children is an overreaction and can never be justified. FirstRead MoreWe Are Now Operating A School System1236 Words   |  5 Pagesimportant part of our lives that we have to make sure we perfect it. While millions of people from America have been successful with the great education America offers. However, it is still full of segregation, and improper discipline methods such as zero-tolerance policies that harshly punish students of color. Zero tolerance is a policy that gives punishments to violations of school rules, regardless of the situation or context of the behavior, no if’s or but’s. In most situations, punishment for violationsRead MoreThe Negative Consequences of Discipline1836 Words   |  7 Pageshave been developed, which aim to rehabilitate â€Å"offenders† rather than punish them. These alternatives offer a balance between discipline and the risk of overcriminalization, and include counseling, anger management sessions, victim-offender mediation, and peer judiciaries. One central question that is raised throughout this discussion is the objective of the discipline; whether disciplinary measures should be used to punish or embarrass students, or whether it needs to reinforce and teach themRead MoreSystem And Oppression Of The Panopticon1631 Words   |  7 Pagesreigned the lugubrious atmosphere of a prison or a mad-house’ where the clowns demonstrate a ‘willed and terrible of a prison of being’ (pt. III, CH. 4, P. 116), the text gives a chance to two of the most influential studies of Foucault such as Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975) and Madness and Civilisation: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1965). The shape of panopticon comes from the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s (1748-1832) design for a prison. Carter used the sameRead MoreThe Effects Of Social Media On Society1750 Words   |  7 PagesIn Discipline and Punish, Foucault adopts a genealogical approach to examine the effects of punishment on society. In this paper, we apply Foucauldian analysis to information technology, especially social media on the internet. We will see that social media has both a homogenizing and a polarizing effect — while it often polarizes across social groups, it homogenizes within groups. Social media allows there to be less interaction between people of different groups while allowing norms to be spreadRead MoreThe Digital Panopticon: Foucault and Internet Privacy Essay example1314 Words   |  6 PagesThe Digital Panopticon: Foucault and Internet Privacy In 1977, Michel Foucault wrote in Discipline and Punish about the disciplinary mechanisms of constant and invisible surveillance in part through an analysis of Jeremy Benthams panopticon. The panopticon was envisioned as a circular prison, in the centre of which resided a guard tower. Along the circumference, individuals resided in cells that were visible to the guard tower but invisible to each other. Importantly, this guard tower was backlitRead MoreZero Tolerance Policies in American Schools Essay874 Words   |  4 PagesIn all grades of education, from kindergarten to college, there is a form of discipline known as a zero tolerance policy. While the exact wording is different from school to school, basically a zero tolerance policy means that a student is immediately suspended, asked to attend an alternative school, or expelled if they are suspected or caught doing certain things. These policies are in place to hopefully deter students from doing drugs or being violent, but the ethics behind them are questionableRead MoreThe Modern Penal System s Creation And Continuity1123 Words   |  5 Pages In Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault is concerned with state systems of punishment, providing a historical analysis of the modern penal system’s creation and continuity. He initially addresses the notion that prison-based penal systems are progressive and more humane than ever before, directly juxtaposing the experiences those publicly gruesomely tortured and those privately incarcerated. However, he acknowledges this dichotomy only to immediately flip it on its head, arguing that public torture