Foucault: Discipline, Surveillance, and Biopolitics
Syllabus for Self-Study
Want to dive deeper into Foucault's disciplinary power, surveillance, and biopolitics through structured self-study? Subscribe now to access the full 4-week syllabus, built around these four guiding questions: Why hidden prisons? How does surveillance internalize power? What role do psychiatry and norms play in control? Is modern life just low-grade imprisonment?
I would be excited to read and engage with your writing that emerges from your self-study, essays or reflections. The first five pieces I receive (~1,750 words) I will read and engage with, after that it will be based on my availability.
Objective
Explore Foucault's shift from public punishment to invisible surveillance, connecting prisons, psychiatry, and biopolitics to today's tech-driven surveillance.
Reading List
- Discipline and Punish by Foucault, MichelPrimary text — "Generalized Punishment" to "The Body of the Condemned" (pp. 3-31) and "Panopticism" (pp. 195-228)
- An American Obsession by Terry, JenniferIntro + Ch. 1 (pp. 1-50)
- The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1 by Foucault, MichelPart 1-2 (pp. 1-49)
- Are Prisons Obsolete? by Davis, Angela Y.Introduction + Ch. 1-2 (pp. 9-40, PDF freely available)
- State of Exception by Agamben, GiorgioIntro (pp. 1-31)
Weekly Schedule
Week 1: Why Shift from Public Torture to Hidden Prisons?
- Intro Video: Foucault's Discipline and Punish Explained (10 min) or Foucault's Panopticon Explained Simply (9 min)
- Core Reading: Foucault, Discipline and Punish, "Generalized Punishment" to "The Body of the Condemned" (pp. 3-31)
- Key Answer: Public torture risked sympathy and revolt, exposing sovereign fragility. Prisons privatize punishment, making the exercise of power more economical.
- Prompt: Note one "unintended consequence" of establishing prisons for privatizing punishment: For example, public punishment enlists shame and the fear of being ostracized. What happens to our shame when punishment is done in hidden spaces? Just an example, you will have your own questions that come up for you.
Week 2: How Does Surveillance Internalize Power?
- Intro Video: Panopticism: Foucault and Surveillance by Philosophy Tube (25 min)
- Core Reading: Foucault, Discipline and Punish, "Panopticism" (pp. 195-228)
- Key Answer: The invisible gaze prompts inmates (and citizens) to police themselves, turning external power into internalized norms—no violence needed.
- Prompt: Track your "surveilled" behaviors (e.g., social media); compare to essay's psychiatry example: just as Foucault shows hysterics and "sexual inverts" were pathologized to enforce gender/sexual norms via internal guilt, modern tech now "diagnoses" nonconformity (through shadow bans, account bans with little to no explanation, the need for users to change the language they use, such as saying "unalived" instead of killed or murdered, etc.) to self-police behaviors without overt force.
Week 3: What Role Do Psychiatry and Norms Play in Control?
- Intro Video: Foucault on Madness and Psychiatry by Academy of Ideas (15 min)
- Core Reading: Terry, An American Obsession, Intro + Ch. 1 (pp. 1-50)
- Core Reading: Foucault, History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, Part 1-2 (pp. 1-49)
- Key Answer: Psychiatry shifts authority inward, pathologizing nonconformity (e.g., "inverts," hysterics) to enforce norms via DSM/law, creating "outsides" for the state.
- Prompt: List 3 modern "diagnoses" that function as forms of control.
Week 4: Is Modern Life Just Low-Grade Imprisonment?
- Intro Video: What is Biopolitics? | Michel Foucault by Theory & Philosophy (12 min)
- Core Reading: Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?, Introduction + Ch. 1-2 (pp. 9-40, PDF freely available)
- Core Reading: Agamben, State of Exception, Intro (pp. 1-31)
- Key Answer: Citizens differ from inmates by degree—tech enables total, frictionless conformity; resistance demands interrogating internalized ideologies like misogyny.
- Prompts: What are your "suspicious" motives? How are you made complicit in the "imprisonment" of others? Where in your life do you feel most free?
Discussion Questions
- Why hidden prisons?
- How does surveillance internalize power?
- What role do psychiatry and norms play in control?
- Is modern life just low-grade imprisonment?