Michel Foucault Research Paper

Michel Foucault (1926-84) was born in Poitiers, France. He received his early education in local state schools and a Catholic school where he obtained his baccalauréat. He took his licence de philosophie in 1948, in 1950 he took his licence de psychologie and two years later he obtained a diploma in psychopathology. He then works in French departments in universities across Europe. He earned his doctorate and his reputation as a scholar with his text on madness when he was at the University of Hamburg. In 1964, he became a Professor at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. Finally in 1970 he moved to the Collége de France where he deliberately constructed a designation, ‘Professor of the History of System of Thought’, to differentiate his work

His work started by referring to the existence of lazar houses for leprosarium patients across Europe during the Middle Ages. Lepers were confined in special institution, excluded from the community by virtue of their condition. But later when lepers were gone in the 17th and 18th centuries, the poor, criminals and those with “deranged minds” were compelled to occupy the vacancy left by the lepers (Foucault, 1988).

During the age of Renaissance, one way of exclusion which existed then was the Ship of Fools whose passengers were considered madman. This custom was most frequent in Germany in the first half of the 15th century (Smart, 2002).

About a century after the existence of these mad ships, “Hospital of Madmen” or “Madhouse” began to emerge. These “Hospitals” shows that confinement has succeeded embarkation. The hôpitaux généraux which were opened across France were not medical establishments, rather they were a cross between a workhouse and a prison, part of a system of administrative supervision instituted to establish social order (Smart, 2002). These confinement houses’ inhabitant comprises of the poor, unemployed, the sick, criminals and the

Firstly about mania and melancholia. The idea of melancholia was fixed in the 16th century. Foucault emphasized various humeral and spiritual aspects in explaining the melancholia. The analysis of mania were similar in principle with melancholia, both of it were believed to be due to a movement of animal spirit. In the 18th century, the perspectives of animal spirit change to the perspective of nerve fibers. The second type of madness that Foucault discussed in this topic was hysteria and hypochondria. The classical physicians identified the problem as the dispersed itself. The disordered movement of hysteria and hypochondria were the result from the movement of animal spirits. On the threshold of the 19th century, the view of hysteria and hypochondria remained as mental