著有《疯癫与文明》《性史》《规训与惩罚》《临床医学的诞生》《知识考古学》《词与物》等。
1984年6月25日，福柯因艾滋病在巴黎萨勒贝蒂尔医院病逝，终年58岁。
Michel Foucault
15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, social theorist, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic.
Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between **power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions, such as prison, lunatic and sexual issues **. Though often cited as a post-structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels.
His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in
1. communication studies
2. anthropology
3. psychology,
4. sociology,
5. criminology
6. cultural studies
7. literary theory
8. feminism
9. Marxism
10. critical theory
Foucault is a scholar who is difficult to classify. Sociologists say Foucault is in their field, but Foucault fans will call him a philosopher.
However, Foucault is not like any philosopher. Foucault is not interested in philosophical issues. Foucault is fascinated to study lunatic asylums, homosexuality, prisons, and clinical medicine. No philosopher would be interested in these weird topics.
Foucault drew on a lot of historical materials when researching. His works can be called historical works from a certain perspective. The title he chose when he accepted a chair at the French Academy was "Professor of History of Thought Systems", but his research, however, aroused the anger of historians, who believed that Foucault's books were full of misinterpretations of historical data.
He is a top-notch master in the academic arena. Foucault is a scholar who doubts everything. Only he dared to ask:
- Why put people in psychiatric hospitals?
- How do you know that other people are crazy and you are not?
- In terms of human sexual behaviour and sexual orientation, what is orthodox and abnormal?
The book is derived from Foucault's doctoral thesis, which asks a question that normal people don't seem to ask: what is normal and what is crazy? It is generally believed that today's mental patients are treated more humanely than in the past. After all, we have relevant hospitals and professionally trained doctors and spend a lot of money to provide medical services for crazy people.
But Foucault believes that it is these so-called more advanced means that create greater oppression on madmen. Before the Middle Ages, there was no place to lock them up. Crazy people are sometimes respected, and the government does not restrict their personal freedom and let them wander the streets. Although crazy people are different, ordinary people do not think that they are a threat. It is a very common thing to meet crazy people in life.
People may even think that madness represents some kind of wisdom and provides some inspiration because they seem to be an attempt to break through the boundaries of reason. Madness will be romanticized by the literati. Sometimes it shows arrogance, sometimes it represents emotional despair, and sometimes it indicates the punishment of justice. People's attitude towards madness is friendly, and they even find it pleasant and interesting to communicate with crazy people.
Leprosy appeared in the Middle Ages, and at that time, the best way to deal with leprosy was to isolate them, so leprosy hospitals were set up in all parts of Europe. This quarantine system was so successful that by the end of the Middle Ages, leprosy had disappeared from the Western world. But this practice has also had a far-reaching impact, crazy people can no longer wander the streets but must be locked up and quarantined.
Foucault regarded the establishment of the Paris General Hospital in 1656 as an iconic event. The function of the Paris General Hospital is not for treatment, but for captivity, it has become a means of "law and order". Crazy people are no longer allowed to live with so-called normal people. they are taken away from their families, locked up in a place called a lunatic asylum, and treated by a group of doctors called authority.
It is worth noting that it was not only lunatics who were imprisoned at that time, but also homeless people, idlers, and lawbreakers. This shows that people are beginning to regard lunatics as a challenge to rationality and social order, as a potential social instability factor.
If you think about it, this is actually a kind of nonsense. How can a madman cause great harm to social order? How much harm can homeless people bring to society?
"The Adventures of Paris and London", by George Orwell
He mixed with the poor at the bottom of society in Paris and London, worked as a dishwasher, and went to social relief stations to receive bread. Orwell said that the tramp is the most docile and depressed person you can imagine.
So why do we lock up lunatics and homeless people? This is because people's concepts have changed and rationality has the upper hand. The so-called rationality is actually just the rationality of the citizens and the rationality of the masses. In other words, if most people think what is acceptable, then this is rationality, and everything that cannot find a place in the normal social order must be isolated. In other words, you can only define what is madness only by defining what is rational, and rationality is constantly changing.
In the 17th century, people believed that everyone must work. Work is not only to make people support themselves but also the power of the atonement. People who don't work are all regarded as heretics.
By the end of the 18th century, people’s attitudes towards madness had changed again. There are only lunatics left in the lunatic asylum. Tramps are gradually regarded as a social phenomenon and must be treated separately from lunatics. When only lunatics were left, people began to rescue these "poor" patients. How to save it? It is to let lunatics know that they are abnormal, sick, or even guilty, and use coercive methods to make lunatics adapt to communication etiquette and various norms, and learn to obey the authority of a rational society.
