Article Title
Keywords
Biopower
Document Type
Research Paper
Abstract
1975 marked the release of Michel Foucault’s ''Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison" which his preceding lectures would later term 'biopolitics. Both "Discipline and Punish” and "The Birth of Biopolitics” represent some of the most important, impactful, and informative theories on the way in which surveillance functions; consequently, how its power works to materially produce the conditions for oppression.
In "Discipline and Punish,” Foucault utilizes genealogical analysis to trace the historical strands that come together in forming of disciplinary society; what Foucault articulates typifies the power formation and deployment of the contemporary sovereign. Foucault expands on this theory through the development of 'biopolitics'. He defines this as the sovereign’s use of power through politics. This is done in order to manipulate and control the lives of the sovereign’s subjects. Thus, biopolitics provides the regulatory framework for which the execution of power (that Foucault describes in "Discipline and Punish”) not only arises, but also the reason for which it exists in the first place. Biopolitics works not only as a description of the apparatuses of power that the sovereign utilizes, but also the reason for which those apparatuses are used.
Genre/Form
articles
Recommended Citation
Coles, Chris
(2018)
"Against the Psychoanalytic Unconscious: Deleuze, Guattari, and Desire as a Heuristic for Self-Regulating Biopolitics,"
Occam's Razor: Vol. 8, Article 2.
Available at:
https://cedar.wwu.edu/orwwu/vol8/iss1/2
Subjects - Topical (LCSH)
Biopolitics; Psychoanalysis
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Subjects - Names (LCNAF)
Deleuze, Giles, 1925-1995--Criticism and interpretation; Guattari, Félix, 1930-1992--Criticism and interpretation
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Type
Text
