Foucault gave us the term transdiscursive, which describes how, for example, Foucault is not simply an author of a book, but the author of a theory, tradition or discipline.
We can at least say that he was the instigator of a method of historical inquiry which has had major effects on the study of subjectivity, power, knowledge, discourse, history, sexuality, madness, the penal system and much else. Hence the term, "Focaldian".
Foucault's Project
Foucault sought to account for the way in which human beings have 'historically' become the subject and object of political, scientific, economic, philosophical, legal and social discourses and practices.
But Foucault does not take the idea of subjectivity in philosophical isolation. It becomes linked with- and even produced by knowledge and power through-dividing practices where, for example, psychiatry divides the mad from the sane.
Scientific classification: where science classifies the individual as the subject of life (biology), labour(economics) and language(linguistics).
Subjectification: the way the individual turns himself into a subject of health, sexuality, conduct, etc.
Hegel was one of the many by whom he was inspired-
Hegel thought that what is real is rational, and that the truth is "the whole"-one great, complex system which he called the Absolute. He believed that 'Mind' or 'Spirit' was the ultimate reality. Mind has an ever-expanding consciousness of itself, and philosophy allows us to develop self-awareness of the whole and free ourselves from the 'unreason' and contradiction of partial knowledge.
"Reason is the Sovereign of the World...the history of the world, therefore, presents us with a rational process." (Hegel)
Foucault was not rejecting 'reason' as such, but he did refuse to see it as a 'way out' or inevitable outcome of history. His engagement with philosophy is not to provide a system for the conditions in which knowledge or truth is possible or reliable(as Kant did), but to examine what reason's historical effects are, where its limits lie, and what price it exacts.
Madness and Civilization(1964)
Madness and Civilization was not a view of the history of madness from a psychiatrist's standpoint.
"This would assume that madness was a constant, negative objective fact-in other words, an account of madness from the point of view of "scientific" reason."
Later Foucault said his object was "knowledge invested in the complex system of institutions". Authorities, their practices and opinions would be studied to show madness not as a scientific or theoretical discourse, but as a regular daily practice.
"We must try to return in history to that "zero point" in the course of madness when it was suddenly separated from reason-both in the 'confinement' of the insane and in the conceptual 'isolation' of madness from reason, as 'unreason'.
The Classical Era:
Foucault refers to the "classical era" of the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe to show that madness is an object of perception within a "social space" which is structured in different ways throughout history. Madness is an object of perception produced by social practices, rather than simply an object of thought or sensibility which could be analyzed.
There are four historical phases and distinct perceptions of madness. Let's look at these:
1. Medieval Madness and Death
2. Renaissance Folly
3. The Classical Age of Confinement
4. 1900 and Freud the Divine
#1. Medieval Madness and Death
In this medieval period-the middle ages-man's dispute with madness was a drama in which all the secrets of the world were at stake. The experience of madness was clouded by images of the Fall, God's will, the Beast, the end of time and the world.
2.Renaissance Folly
Madness comes to the fore in the late 15th century.
Man's life is no longer mad on account of the inevitability of death, but because death lies at the heart of life itself.
3.The Classical Age of Confinement
The classical age( roughly 1650-1800) reduced to silence the madness that the Renaissance had given imaginary freedom. It was contained and bound to reason, to morals and rights. Confinement was the practice then.
Old, empty Leper houses were used for a new purpose-to confine. The age of reason banged up the insane as well as the poor.
Bourgeois Morals: In fact, the confinement had more to do with economic problems of unemployment, idleness and begging. A new ethic of work and new ideas of moral obligation were now linked to civil law. Work was redemption. Idleness was rebellion. Beggars were often shot by archers at the city gates.
Treated like animals:The confinement wasn't inspired by a desire to punish or correct-simply to discipline and sever.So d insane had a beast-like existence behind bars,chained to walls n gnawed by rats.
Reform,Asylums n capture of minds
4. 1900 and Freud the Divine
Personalities like Freud silenced condemnation of madness.He abolished 'regimes of silence' that reformers had employed. He made the mad talk.
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