.. But they seem to have observed that this newly-won power over space and time, this subjugation of the forces of nature, which is the fulfillment of a longing that goes back thousands of years, has not increased the amount of pleasurable satisfaction which they may expect from life and has not made them feel happier." This insight then, marked the point in which he asserted that in order for civilization to further improve self-control in society must be enforced, for temperance was needed in a society that aspired too much without contemplating its consequences on people's changing standards of happiness, contentment, and morality. Foucault expressed a similar assertion concerning self-control, although he differed from Freud in that he proposed that while self-control was needed in society, he also argued that too much...

He best described his position through his analysis of the prison system, which he considered as more of a detriment than benefit to the society. This was because, according to Foucault, "What was then being formed was a policy of coercions that act upon the body, a calculated manipulation of its elements, its gestures, its behavior. The human body was entering a machinery of power that explores it, breaks it down and rearranges it. A 'political anatomy', which was also a 'mechanics of power', was being born ... " Both Freud and Foucault's arguments illustrated the fact that extreme control over the individual or lack of it will hamper the individual's and society's development towards further progress, respectively.