Panopticism: In His Book, Discipline and Punish, Essay

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Panopticism:

In his book, Discipline and Punish, French philosopher, Michel Foucault, develops and introduces a social theory known as panopticism. In his development of this theory, the author begins with an explanation of the measures needed against the plague in the 17th Century. The plague, which is met by order stands as a figure against which the concept of discipline is created. The existence of a complete set of procedures and institutions for evaluating and overseeing abnormal beings results in the emergence of disciplinary techniques created by the fear of the plague. Consequently, the contemporary mechanisms for managing abnormal people derive from these disciplinary techniques.

The author then discusses Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, which is a building with a tower at the center that makes it possible to see the incarceration of a schoolboy or prisoner. This visibility is a trap since all individuals can be seen though they cannot communicate with other prisoners or warders and the crowd is eradicated.

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Therefore, a sense of permanent visibility that ensures the operation of power is stimulated by the panopticon. Jeremy Bentham states that power should be evident though unverifiable making prisoners to see the tower though they don't know where they are being observed.

Consequently, there is an emergence of the likelihood that the panopticon is rooted on the royal menagerie at Versailles. In addition to permitting the work of a naturalist, the panopticon is also a laboratory of power where experiments are performed on staff and prisoners. Notably, both the panopticon and the plague-stricken town are symbols of the disciplinary programme. In the first instance, which is an exceptional situation, power is organized against an astonishing evil. On the contrary, the second case is a general model of human functioning, which describes power relations in daily life.

Rather than being a dream building, the panopticon….....

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