Comparing Foucault's 'Discipline And Punish'

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In Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish” he discusses the establishment of disciplinary society and how it relates to power. According to Foucalt power through the techniques of discipline and servalance exist everywhere in society. This is most evident where one exhibits their ablility to discipline or punish another individual. Foucault also believed that power restricts and alters someone’s will. Essentially there are everpresent constraints on how we as humans think and act. These abstract constraints subconciously impact even our new ways of thinking. Throughout the text Foucault later refers to power as it is related to punishment. He states “in the late eighteenth century one is confronted by three ways of organizing the power to punish.” The three methods varied in the ways of how the human body would be affected whether it be through physical or …show more content…

This form of punishment occured when there was a ceremonial of sovereignty basically using ritual remarks of vengence to the body of the condemened in an attempt to instill terror amongst the spectators. The other two forms would excercise a right to punish that belongs to society as opposed to just the king or those in power according to the monarchial law. The reformers seeked a way to excute punishments which would generate signs of approval amongst the citizens who witnessed the punishment. This varied significantly from the old monarchial approach who just wanted to create terror. Lastly punishment was viewed as a technique for the coercion of individuals operated by methods of training the body not by signs but by the traces it left in the individual in the forms of one’s habits and overall behavior. These three ways that were presented to organize the power of punishment all shifted who would essentially possess the ability to dictate punishment and was in a sense preparing society for our present day penal