Foucauldian Model Of Panopticism

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The Foucauldian model of Panopticism explains the transitional process of society from a body of sovereign rule to that of a disciplined and subservient construct. Initially, Foucault’s model presents a genuine method for managing an outbreak of disease in the seventeen & eighteen hundreds. In the centuries that followed, we find that the methods imposed for combating this plague were transposed and had evolved to contain and coerce society’s actions. We as participants of the human condition have found ourselves in a society of economized power by means of registration and a constant surveillance that reigns over us consciously, yet unknowingly when, and continually. Foucault proposes that there are two main routes to panoptiscism of which society constructs and implements its disciplinary methods for its members. The first model, being the disciplinary blockade, is the simplest form of the two. In this model, an individual is ostracized by means of imprisonment. From this, communication to others has been severed and as a result their sense of time has become askew. Foucault describes the …show more content…

The Foucauldian model of Panopticism derives its name from this building designed by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. In essence, the Panopticon is a circular prison with a watchtower in the very center of it. All prison cells face inward towards the watchtower, which has a 360-degree view of all cells and the prisoners that reside in them. The design presents a psychological effect in the prisoners of feeling as though they are being watched, even if that is not the case. Because of this, a prisoner, in theory, will be completely submissive and obedient at all times with the uncertainty of knowing when surveillance has been placed upon them. Foucault describes, “the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.”

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