Discipline And Punish Foucault's The Means Of

Societal norms, societal structure, and our environment always affect the behaviors of individuals. Norms and structures are constructed to organize a group of people and set out expectations as to how one should behave. However, if one acts against the expected behavior a punishment is guaranteed. Different parts of society have set out different disciplines. The discipline you receive at home may vary from the discipline at school, and the discipline that the government may impose on you will be ultimate control on an individual. According to Foucault the main purpose of discipline and punishment is to train and “normalize” behavior. Although Foucault describes the penal system of the eighteenth century in his article Discipline and Punish
Disciplinary process aims to create the individual, to mold one into fitting and following the norm. In order for this disciplinary power to be successful it has three components which need to be fulfilled: hierarchical observation, normalizing judgement, and examination. Hierarchical observation, observes the behaviors of the individuals in a given setting. This became a disciplinary mechanism, if all could be seen, the hierarchy could distinguish the flaws and therefore, mend the flawed individuals. Therefore, surveillance came about. Having cameras, and authority in every type of public setting allows the government to observe what laws are being broken, which individual is harmful to their disciplines and to their society. Normalizing judgement, was a way of correcting the behavior of the individuals who broke a discipline. In order to correct that behavior Foucault describes the penal system of the court, the court shall decide the appropriate punishment, whether it be to banish the person from society or to allow them to resolve their mistake. The final component of examination which consists of the first two components an individual is analyzed then the imposed punishment is examined to see if any changes have