Foucault's Theory Of Panopticism

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To start with, the word Panopticism is not a word than can be defined but is a social theory explaining the functionality of our society and community, developed and recognized by the famous philosopher and author Michel Foucault. This theory explains and looks into how our society reacts to control, discipline, surveillance and power. The theory Panopticism is based and derived from Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a design of an institutional building that has a main tower in the middle for constant supervision and observance of the patients or the prisoners of the institution. So fundamentally this system, this architecture allows just a little power to be in charge of the many in the institution and train them to behave and be disciplined.…show more content…
Mason states that “The Panopticon was a metaphor that allowed Foucault to explore the relationship between 1.) Systems of social control and people in a disciplinary situation and, 2.) the power-knowledge concept.” (moyak.com). So Foucault explains how power is internalized in our world and our society, the theory of Panopticism using the model of the Panopticon, where he gives the idea that a rise of power is a natural process. The reason why is that is there are the natural leaders who shall rise to take control and born to lead those who were born to follow a systematic structure, the docile and submissive bodies and I think that the theory of Panopticism explains this opinion of mine…show more content…
If the citizens have had accounted an event of people or an individual being suspicious such as having bright colored things or not seen taking the Prosium at the time that everyone and takes it, they will report it to the appropriate authority even though they know that there is a terrible punishment waiting. Thus, the theory that the eyes of the people functioning similar to the watch tower in the middle of the Panopticon was mentioned and explained by Foucault in Discipline and Punish as well and he explained that, in today’s world where the citizens demand maximized safety, which is done through the power and the force of laws and the police is mainly possible with help of the observant eyes of the citizens. Accordingly, Foucault states that “in order to be exercised, this power had to be given the instrument of permanent, exhaustive, omnipresent surveillance, capable of making all visible, as longs as it could itself remain invisible. It had to be a faceless gaze that transformed the whole social body into a field of perception: thousands of eyes posted everywhere…” (214). This demonstrates how the subconscious functioning of power, which enables self control and good behavior, takes place naturally in our society, which is through this faceless gaze, the thought of being observed and this is the main point of the Panopticism. Therefore, we are aware of this

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