Research Paper On Foucault

He differentiates between madness as a clinical condition and a mystical madness. He further supports his argument with Elie Wiesel distinctions of the two. Clinical madman isolates himself from the world while mystical madman brings the Messiah in him (112). Patterson further discusses the notion of madness before the creation of human and

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” has received wide praise for its accurate depiction of madness and the symptoms attributed to mental breakdowns (Shumaker 1985).   While these symptoms may seem obvious from today’s psychological perspective, Gilman was writing at the close of the 19th century when the discipline of psychology was still emerging out of a rudimentary psychiatric approach to treating the mentally ill. Though doctors have attempted to write about the treatment of insanity since ancient Greece, the history of madness has most often been characterized by a series of popular images, images that may have stunted the

“ Earth is the insane asylum of the universe” Albert Einstein What comes to mind when you hear “insane asylum?” Do such terms as lunatic, scary, haunted or even the crazy house come to mind? More than likely this is the terminology that most of us would use to describe our perception of insane asylums. However, those in history that had a heart’s desired to treat the mentally ill compassionately and humanely had a different viewpoint. Insane asylums were known for their horrendous treatment of the mentally ill, but the ultimate purpose in the reformation of insane asylums in the nineteenth century was to improve the treatment for the mentally ill by providing a humane and caring environment for

Many people like Thomas Aquinas had a huge risk of losing their practice for thinking mental illness came from insanity and other psychological theories other than demonic association (Thompson 9-10). The idea of witchcraft continued until the 1700’s. The word lunatic became the new term for describing those who were mentally ill. Thousands of people were sent to asylums and treated like wild animals by intimidation, physical abuse, bloodletting, straightjackets, and many other punishments that were similar to the treatments generally reserved for criminal practices (Thompson 11). There were still no specific identifications for the different mental issues in people.

An individual can psyche himself or herself on believing that a prescribed drug given from pharmaceutical doctors are making them feel better. Madness in today’s world can be covered up by those medications, unless everyone is brainwashed in believing that it can. In present society, medicine given to people to “treat” them for certain mental illnesses is normal to see. In the nineteenth century, people who suffered from mental madness had to deal with the insanity, such as depression or hearing voices, without any help. They had to go through the pain, while everyone else watched them, and those who had no problems judged them. In the past, a person was looked down on if someone else noticed problems with that individual. This created many people to try and hide their madness, so others would think they were normal. Those who believed they were safe from this psychological illness had not received any detrimental problem in their life to unleash it. Erik Larson’s novel, The Devil in the White City, foreshadows the characteristic of madness in many of the characters. Larson reveals in his novel that it does not matter what type of individual you are because everyone has some sort of madness inside of her or him, waiting to be revealed.

“When the Elizabethan era started… the most prevalent type of insanity was situational rather than biological ("Historical").Things like the death of family or loved ones was a big source of the madness.” ("Elizabethan Times”)

The author of the essay “Panopticism”, Michel Foucault gives his opinion on power and discipline in Panopticism. He describes Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon”, a tower in the centre of a room which has vision to every cell, generalized for prisoners. In simple words, it functioned in maintaining discipline throughout the jail. It’s most distinctive feature was that; prisoners could be seen without ever seeing. Prisoners would never really know when they are watched and when not. They are always under the impression that someone is keeping an eye on them continuously and if anything goes wrong, or they make mistake, they would be punished severely. Since, a prisoner would never know when he/she is watched, they have to be at their best. In a

     The Panopticon, a prison described by Foucault, “is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing” (321, Foucault). This literally means that in the formation of the panopticon those who are being seen can not see one another and the one who sees everything can never be seen. That is the most important tool of the panopticon. Foucault makes this assumption about today’s society by saying that we are always being watched whether we know it or not. One always keeps an eye over their shoulder as a

Michel Foucault’s work within philosophy has made important impacts when it comes to understanding how power affects a capitalist state. Believed that history of a country should how the past created a better future for society but in most cases through history, that was not the case. One of the examples that Foucault uses is how the mentally ill were treated in the Renaissance compared to the 18th century. During the Renaissance period, the mental ill people were allowed to seen within society and were seen as useful and gave wisdom into their society rather than in the 18th century. People with mental illness were put away and see as a burden to society and seen as needed to being cured by sinister people. Another example that Foucault discuss

Foucault examines madness in the 18th and 19th century in his study. He shows the kinds of craziness if understood like that, the term craziness as Foucault defines it, isn’t a bad term or to be ashamed of, it all started with leprosy, which is an infectious disease that was in the renaissance era, and with the results of this disease, the government had to lock the sick people in order to keep sovereignty in the kingdom because this disease destroyed a lot of habitant areas in Europe, and from this idea locking up social outcasts and dangerous people started. These places were called lazar houses, mostly it had the medical staff that took care of sick people, and from this idea the asylum had flourished.

Despite the dehumanizing effect of Panopticon as an disciplinary mechanism based on constant observation and examination with every movement supervised and all events recorded. The Panopticon system as one of the most effective and economic models of exercising power and control over an constantly increasing population, soon became a formula, wide spread throughout our society. Along with the growing ethnology and capitalist economy, various methods of Panopticon through mass surveillance soon earned it’s place in numerous regimes, becoming one of the most infinitely expandable Panopticon of the contemporary society.

When we look at ourselves in a mirror, do we see a criminal or a saint? Are we condemned the moment we are born? In life we sometimes commit acts that are considered unacceptable by society, and most of the time we are punished for those crimes. Yet, what happens when we are not caught, who gets to punish us or are we even punished at all? In the book “The History of Sexuality”, Foucault talks about how confession has become most common technique in finding truth in Western society. Whether it be a confession to a higher authority or to ourselves, it serves to liberate us from our self imposed burdens. Foucault’s ideas on confession and the truths we learn from them, are important

This paper will extend the main works of Michel Foucault “The History of Sexuality”. Which; is an area in his work that has interest me. Foucalt had many interest such as the well being of society, health, economic but, his work on sexuality was in my opinion, extensive and underestimated during his time. This paper will try to demonstrate how Foucault's studies helped develop concepts in order to understand individual experiences of sexuality in different historical periods from pre-modern times into the new millennium. Foucault research and interests in sexuality from different historical periods has, in fact; contribute to our own understanding of sexuality throughout history into our modern times.

In “Panopticism”, Foucalt describes the architecture of a Panopticon, and how it makes it so unique and efficient. A person in the middle is watching at all times, yet the people can never know if they are being watched or not. Also, the prisoners cannot communicate with one another, which prevents the threat

The Panopticon is a building which has an annual part in the periphery and a tower in the centre. Next to omitting little details its most important feature is the ability to see into every cells without being visible. “The panoptic mechanism arranges spatial unities that make it possible to see constantly and to recognize immediately.” (Calhoun et al., 2007: 209) The consciousness of being watched make people put on their best behaviour, their best way of acting thus the inmates do not commit any further crimes as it usually occurs that could happen without being watched.