Foucault’s Docile Bodies
A summary of Docile Bodies from Foucault’s Discipline and Punish
Introduction to Foucault
French philosopher and historian, Paul-Michel Foucault (1926–1984) is known for his active involvement in structuralist and post-structuralist movements. He made significant contributions to philosophy, psychology and political sciences. He was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, and his contemporaries Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze. His notable works include Discipline and Punish (1975), The History of Sexuality (1976) and Madness and Civilization (1961).
About Discipline and Punish
Foucault intended for Discipline and Punish to be a history of the modern penal system. His central aim was twofold: to analyze punishment in the social context, and to analyze how power dynamic affects punishment.
Context of Docile Bodies
In the 18th century, reforms came about in enactment of punishment. As per these, bodies became entities on which the dominant ways doing actions were imposed. For it to be disciplined, it was required that the body respond to and accept the forces that work upon it.
A docile body is — “something that can be made; out of a formless clay, an inapt body [from which] the machine required can be constructed”
Training is important for docile bodies, and there are a number of institutions that provide it — like military, schools and prisons. This results into the formation of “mechanics of power” and a “political anatomy”.
Understanding the concept of Docile Bodies
“A body is docile that may be subjected, used, transformed and improved” — Foucault
The Ideal Soldier
Foucault starts off by describing the attributes of the ideal 17th century soldier. These attributes pertained (solely) to their body and action. The classical age perception of the body was as that of a target of power. The docile body was associated with being subjected, used, transformed and improved.
Change in Perception in 18th Century
Docility represented a new scale of control in the 18th century as importance came to be given to the economy of the body. The technique of control entails continuous, ongoing compulsion that is used in compliance with a protocol that divides time and space. These techniques are the disciplines, i.e., they are the methods through which the operations of the body are controlled.
Even though some or the other forms of disciplines have been present in every era, in the 17th and 18th century, they became the mainstream tactic for domination. There was a birth of political anatomy and mechanics of power.
The Four Characteristics
Foucault proposed a quadrivium division for explaining how discipline induces the body with control:
The Art of Distributions
By optimizing distribution of the spaces inhabited by bodies, hinderance in workflow is avoided and efficient usage and management of space is encouraged.
Control of Activity
Controlling activity involves modulating time, gestures and bodies. The resultant is a new version of a body that is receptive to new varities of knowledge. This marks the transition of the body from being spiritual to mechanical.
Organization of Geneses
Bodies undergo specialized training to be transformed into productive and disciplined bodies, which is aided by the provision of windows for timely intervention.
Composition of Forces
This refers to the productive power of amalgamating forces like cooperation and the power of social labor. The constitution of a machine that is cooperative is imperative for discipline.
Takeaway
“A body is docile that may be subjected, used, transformed and improved” — Foucault
Through Docile Bodies, Foucault conveys how it is imperative for bodies to be receptive so that the logic of arrangement might act upon and improve them. Docility can only be achieved through acts of discipline. It should not be confused with force or violence, but be understood as the way of directing the operations of the body.
By analyzing the relation between institutions and the body, he points out that bodies are not necessarily passive in the process of being disciplined, and play an important role in conceptualizing disciplinary control.
