Panopticon

In his essay “Panopticism,” Michel Foucault introduces the Panopticon structure as proof of modern society tending toward efficient disciplinary mechanisms. Starting with his example of the strict, intensely organized measures that are taken in a typical 17th-century plague-stricken town, Foucault describes how the town employed constant surveillance techniques, centralized a hierarchy of authorities to survey households, partitioned individual structures to impose certain behavior, and record current

observer, the fear will always be present.      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

or use other techniques to always keep an eye on their workers. If people are doing nothing wrong, there is no reason to have a problem with being watched. For this reason, it is not surprising that employers set their work station similar to a Panopticon, an institutional building that is step up with someone in the middle watching everyone, but the workers don’t know if they are being

“Panopticism” is similar in that one of the purposes of a panopticon is to remove lawbreakers from society, but different in that it is a less deadly approach. Michel Foucault looks at the design of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon and talks about how it can be utilized to suite almost any purpose. “The Panopticon is a marvelous machine which, whatever use one may wish to put it to, produces homogeneous effects of power.” (Foucault 202). A Panopticon is a circular building with a tower that goes from the

Panopticism, a social theory based on Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon and developed by Michel Foucault describes a disciplinary mechanism used in various aspects of society. Foucault’s Discipline and Punish discusses the development of discipline in Western society, looks in particularly at Bentham’s Panopticon and how it is a working example of how the theory is employed effectively. Foucault explains, in Discipline and Punish that ‘this book is intended as a correlative history of the modern soul and

purpose: a political tool. The previous sentences break down the previously configured definition of the Panopticon and with this final piece, Foucault finishes redefining the term. Understanding that limiting the definition of the Panopticon would eliminate its functionality, Foucault chooses to interpret it loosely without assigning a set meaning to it. Thus, allowing the concept of the Panopticon to be used in other subject areas and not just as a tool for prisons. John Berger also addresses a similar

Additionally, Foucault suggests that the Panopticon can be controlled by anyone, because the power does not lie in lies in not knowing who is in control, but how authority is able to psychologically control people, which is not illuminated in Kesey’s novel, since Nurse Ratched makes all of the decisions in the ward herself. Foucault states that “it doesn’t matter who exercises power. Any individual, taken almost at random, can operate this machine” (321), meaning that one who operates this machine

how Foucault believes disciplinary power was unlocked from military technique into all aspects of society and consequently started working on everyone. Discipline is able to do this through the panopticon. Traditionally thinking of the panopticon, most people would instantly assume a prison, as panopticon buildings are built for observing and seeing inward. They are the perfect disciplinary mechanism from their set up. For example, the prison disassembles the crowd as the prisoners cannot see each

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In Panopticism by Michel Foucault, the idea of societal discipline is demonstrated through specific guidelines which were inspired by an architectural structure designed by Jeremy Bentham.  Bentham’s creation of the Panopticon was a structure that provided the people with maximum supervision with few supervisors. The actual physical structure was a circular building with a tall tower in the center which provided the guard the ability to see any cell at any given point in time, but also the inmates