the Panopticon IS Re: [ssf] some MORE thoughts by Michel Foucault

shimbo adam at diamat.org.uk
Mon Jan 31 02:38:33 GMT 2005


robin&amparo wrote:

> (Note that physical restraint includes mental coercion)

"... the major effect of the Panopticion [1]: to induce in the inmate 
[2] a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the 
automatic functioning of power. So to arrange things that the 
surveillance is permanent in its effects, even so it is discontinuous in 
its action; that the perfection of power should tend to render its 
actual exercise unnecessary; that this architectural apparatus should be 
a machine for creating and sustaining a power relation independent of 
the person who exercises it; in short [3], that the inmates should be 
caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers.

	To achieve this, it is at once too much and too little that the 
prisoner [2] should be constantly observed by an inspector; too little, 
for what matters is that he knows himself to be observed; too much, 
because he has no need in fact of being so. In view of this, Bentham [4] 
laid down the principle that power should be visible and unverifiable ..."

Extract from Foucault's *Discipline and Punish*

( Translator's Note : Any closer translation of the French title of this 
book, *Surveiller et punir* have proved unsatisfactory on various 
counts. To begin with Foucault uses the infinitive, which, as here, may 
have the effect of an 'impersonal imperative'. Such a nuance is denied 
us in English. More seriously the verb 'surveiller' has no adequate 
English equivalent. Our noun 'surveillance' has an altogether too 
restricted and technical use. Jeremy Bentham used the term 'inspect' - 
which Foucault translated as 'surveiller' - but the range of 
connotations does not correspond. 'Supervise' is perhaps the closest of 
all, but again the word has different associations. 'Observe' is rather 
too neutral, though Foucault is aware of the aggression involved in any 
one-sided observations. )

--

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon
[2] a madman, a patient, a condemned man, a worker or a school boy
[3] did Foucault ever write anything 'in short' ?
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham



More information about the ssf mailing list