Discipline, Punish & Panopticism – By Michel Foucault

Quotation of Disciplinary Mechanism: “All the mechanisms of power which, even today, are disposed around the abnormal individual, to brand him and to alter him, are composed of those two forms from which they distantly derive.” (Page 3, Paragraph 1, Sentence 2)

Page 1 - 4 summary: 

During the seventeenth century, the measures taken when the plague arrived in the town were extremely drastic for both good and bad reasons. Although it was for the benefit of the community, it seems a though the town was simultaneously formed into a makeshift prison with constant watches in place 24 hours a day by the syndic, for those who would leave their homes, and if that decision is made, said person would be condemned to death. The tactics used were very profound and almost inhumane in a sense. These families would be forcibly locked into their homes for quarantine, with the keys to their home in the hands of the intendant of the quarter. These keys are usually kept until the end of their quarantine and the family will have to make its own provisions during the time. Occasionally, rations are delivered consistently to those in the town, which consisted of plenty of food and water. During this time, common checks are made at the homes of the sick, which at the time, many are usually concealed during the head count to hide the sick or the dead. Five or six days after the initial quarantine, purification of the homes is begun by the syndic to advance the disposal of the plague.

The enclosed neighborhoods are observed at every point, with all movements supervised. With this plague ravaging the towns, it is met by order, with the study and knowledge seeking of how the plague comes to thrive within the community, being transmitted through bodies that are gathering, and the evil which is increased when fear and death begin to overcome the city. The way to get a grasp of this infection ravaging the city, is to exercise power over man, controlling their relations of separating their dangerous habits that might further spread this plague. A discipline society brings forth a pure community. Not the banishment of the leppers and plague victims.

Bentham’s panopticon is the architectural figure, an annular building, at the Centre, a tower which is pierced with wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring. The peripheric building is divided into cells, each of which extends the whole width of the building. It has two windows, one on the inside, corresponding to the windows of the tower, the other on the outside, which allows the light to cross the cell from one end to the other. With this layout of the structure, a supervisor is places in the center, being able to observe the general inmates locked up within, all in his general line of sight. With the well thought out design of the structure, it is formidably impossible for any disruption, plot, or scheme to come about, with the consistent observation being held throughout the day. The major effect of the Panopticon, to induce the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assumes the automatic functioning of power. This complex architectural machine is meant to create and sustain power relation independent of the person who is managing the structure.

The presence of the absence of the inspector unverifiable, so that the prisoners, in their cells, cannot even see a shadow, Bentham formed a visual picture of blinds on windows of the central observation hall to betray the presence of the guardian. The panopticon is a machine for dissociating the see and being seen elements. It is a master of mental elements, playing what seems to be visual tricks on the mind of the prisoners. It is said any individual can operate this machine in the absence of the director. The more observers there are, the greater risk for inmates being surprised. It is a marvelous machine, which gives back what gets put into with power. The dissociation of what is often misconstrued visually. The explanation of this fortress like element is describes in what almost seems like a literary maze, built up of zig zag openings and angled halls. It explains the concept of dropping the complexity of what is known as most high-tech heaviness of fortress like architecture for prisons. Instead, it can be replaced with economic geometry of a “house of certainty

Page 5 – 8 Summary:

The panopticon, although its very Avant Garde forms of operation, it also does assist the inmates who are occupying its wards. It draws up differenced among patients, to observe the symptoms of each individual. Sort of a work of a naturalist. Aside from the good, they also perform experiments on the prisoners. Experiments that alter behaviors which allows the workers to monitor and select those who they want to continue these experiments, which that can inevitably begin to train and teach them techniques. Amongst the prison, laziness and stubbornness occurs amongst workers, and it is noted by observing the efficiency of which tasks are performed in and around the premises. The central tower, the director spies on all of its employees that he has under his orders. With this ultimate power, he will be able to judge them continuously and alter their behavior by imposing upon them, methods which he thinks are best. Anyone who is judged to be incompetent, will be the first victims of the epidemic. The panopticon will always be identified as a dream building.

The panoptic mechanism is a point of exchange between the mechanism of power and a function, it is the form of function of the power relations. The arrangements of the machine are such that it is enclosed in nature and it does not preclude a permanent presence from the outside. Those who easily come in and about into the tower, can easily understand the true nature of the structure and how surveillance is run from within.

Panoticism is the general principle of a new political anatomy whose object and end are not the relations of sovereignty but the relations of discipline. Its main construct, to have complete order and discipline within its reach of control, establishing a new hierarchy in the way its aspects are run. This discipline essentially was expected to be networked. They wanted to carry on this form of life, discipline, and overall control to the surrounding plague-stricken towns, to enforce order, and dominance to the unregulated areas surrounding it. But the mere spread of this network slowly began to cover less ground.

At the beginning of the evolution, what was primary was education. It was a means to fortify and develop the human body, to prepare the children for the future for labor work. As time progresses with education, discipline function increasingly as techniques for making useful individuals. Hence their emergence from a marginal position on the confines of society and detachment from the forms of exclusion. With this type of control being established, the same goes for surveilling family’s, parents, and their children. They are continuously monitored for all inconsistencies and wrongdoing. If any is suspected, it is further investigated.

Page 9 – 12 Summary:

The centralized police had long been regarded by the contemporaries as a direct expression of absolutism. It operates all the wheels that together reproduce order and harmony. But, although the police as an institution were certainly organized in the form of a state apparatus, it was certainly linked to the political sovereignty. The type of power that it exercises is the mechanism it operates. It states that the police are more interested in “those things of every moment”. We live in the world that is heavily supervised and where the police have almost total control. It is said that the police supervision was entirely in the hands of the kin and it did not function in a single direction. It had to correspond by manipulation the machinery of justice to the immediate wishes of the kind. The organization of the police apparatus in the eighteenth century sanctioned a generalization of the disciplines that became co extensive with the state itself. The police were completely in the hands of those in power, and served them at diligently, without question regardless of their social status in the society.

Discipline may be identified neither with an institution nor with an apparatus. It is a type of power, a set of techniques which targets other powers. On the panoptic principle, he said that there was much more there than architectural ingenuity. It was an event in the history of the human mind. In appearance, it is the solution of a technical problem. The formation of the disciplinary society relates to several broad historical processes, economic and scientific, on which it forms into our part in society.

Social power was the maximum intensity and to extend them as far as possible. It is the economic growth of power with the output of the apparatuses. The triple objective of the disciplines corresponds to a well-known historical conjuncture. The other aspect of the conjuncture was the growth in the apparatus of the production which was becoming more and more extended and complex. It was also becoming more costly and its profitability increased.

The disciplinary pyramid constituted the small cell of power within the separation, coordination and supervision of tasks which was imposed and made efficient. The growth of a capitalist economy gave rise to the specific modality of disciplinary power whose general formulas, techniques if submitting forces could be operated in the most diverse political regimes. The panoptic modality of power is not under the immediate dependence or a direct extension of the great jurdico-political structures of a society.

Page 12 – 14 Summary:

Legal punishments in prison, with all its corrective technology at its disposal, is to be rethought to the point where the power to punish, turns into a disciplinary power to observe. At this point, the universal punishments of the law are applied selectively to certain individuals. The law is inverted and passes outside itself. The extension of the disciplinary methods is inscribed in a broad historical process, during the time in which life begins to advance itself in many forms and aspects such as technology, industries, finance, etc. The eighteenth century invented the techniques of discipline and the examination, rather as the middle ages invented the judicial investigation.

Questions:

What are the parallels between our current pandemic and the plague described? 

There are similar parallels between todays modern age pandemic and the plague described in the seventeenth century. Many of those being the influences of those who are in high places of power, significantly influencing the further advancement of this pandemic. The similarities touching home in many cases, those being what seems to be the political struggle of mask wearing within the society. Although, there are in many cases, drastic measures taken within the seventeenth that would have significantly helped the advancement of the pandemic today, such as stricter quarantine rules and regulations, a consistent watch by a higher power on the streets, and stricter punishment for those who would break these rules in place. But of course, rules like this can only exist in the seventeenth century, and not a modern-day America.

What does “subjection” mean?

Subjection is when a person, group, or government forces another person — or group of people — to submit or be controlled. A dictator's power lies in his subjection of the people over whom he rules.

What is the “panopticon”?

Bentham’s panopticon is the architectural figure, an annular building, at the Centre, a tower which is pierced with wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring. The peripheric building is divided into cells, each of which extends the whole width of the building. It has two windows, one on the inside, corresponding to the windows of the tower, the other on the outside, which allows the light to cross the cell from one end to the other. With this layout of the structure, a supervisor is places in the center, being able to observe the general inmates locked up within, all in his general line of sight. With the well thought out design of the structure, it is formidably impossible for any disruption, plot, or scheme to come about, with the consistent observation being held throughout the day. The major effect of the Panopticon, to induce the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assumes the automatic functioning of power. This complex architectural machine is meant to create and sustain power relation independent of the person who is managing the structure. A prison without escape.

How is visibility a “trap”?

Visibility is a trap because the Panoptic mechanism is very well thought out. It is described to reverse the principles of a dungeon and its three functions which are meant to enclose, to deprive light and to hide. The panoptic preserves the first and eliminates the other two. As mentioned, “full lighting and the eye of a supervisor capture better than darkness, which is ultimately protected”. What you can see is what you cannot see. The sense of being consistently watched in utter darkness, knowing that you are trapped, unwilfully.

How does the panopticon work to “induce in the inmate a state of consciousness and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power”?

The architectural structure of this prison is designed to limit one’s capability of freedom. With the constant surveillance and dungeon like structure, it disables ones assuring function of power and permanent visibility. This structure is meant to create and sustain power, in relation to those whom it keeps prisoner.

How did the panopticon become “a laboratory of power polyvalent (having or using a lot of different forms or features) in its functions?

The panopticon is known for conducting various questionable experiments on its inmates. Experiments that alter behaviors which allows the workers to monitor and select those who they want to continue these experiments, which that can inevitably begin to train and teach them techniques. It serves to reform prisoners but also treat patients to instruct schoolchildren, to confine the insane, to supervise workers, to put beggars and idlers to work.

What does a panopticon structure mean to the development of a feeling of freedom in an architectural work? 

Panopticon structure is a machine for dissociating the see or being seen; One is always seen without ever being noticed. It is the epitome of feeling trapped and imprisoned. It revokes the freedom of man, while enclosing the physical nature using architecture itself as the major tool.

Keywords:

Panopticon – The panopticon is a type of institutional building and a system of control designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century.

Leper – a person suffering from leprosy or a person who is avoided or rejected by others for moral or social reasons.

Envisaged – contemplate or conceive of as a possibility or a desirable future event.

Dyad – something that consists of two elements or parts.

Apparatus – the technical equipment or machinery needed for a particular activity or purpose or a complex structure within an organization or system.

Polyvalent – having the property of counteracting several related poisons or affording immunity against different strains of a microorganism.