Panopticism: In His Book, Discipline and Punish,

¶ … Panopticism:

In his book, Discipline and Punish, French philosopher, Michel Foucault, develops and introduces a social theory known as panopticism. In his development of this theory, the author begins with an explanation of the measures needed against the plague in the 17th Century. The plague, which is met by order stands as a figure against which the concept of discipline is created. The existence of a complete set of procedures and institutions for evaluating and overseeing abnormal beings results in the emergence of disciplinary techniques created by the fear of the plague. Consequently, the contemporary mechanisms for managing abnormal people derive from these disciplinary techniques.

The author then discusses Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, which is a building with a tower at the center that makes it possible to see the incarceration of a schoolboy or prisoner. This visibility is a trap since all individuals can be seen though they cannot communicate with other prisoners or warders and the crowd is eradicated. Therefore, a sense of permanent visibility that ensures the operation of power is stimulated by the panopticon. Jeremy Bentham states that power should be evident though unverifiable making prisoners to see the tower though they don't know where they are being observed.

Consequently, there is an emergence of the likelihood that the panopticon is rooted on the royal menagerie at Versailles. In addition to permitting the work of a naturalist, the panopticon is also a laboratory of power where experiments are performed on staff and prisoners. Notably, both the panopticon and the plague-stricken town are symbols of the disciplinary programme. In the first instance, which is an exceptional situation, power is organized against an astonishing evil. On the contrary, the second case is a general model of human functioning, which describes power relations in daily life.

Rather than being a dream building, the panopticon is a diagram of power that is minimized to its ideal form. This is largely because it perfects the functioning of power by enhancing the number of people who can be controlled and lessening the number of people required to operate it. While it gives power over the mind of individuals through architecture, there is no danger of tyranny because it can be inspected from outside.

One of the most notable features of the panopticon is that it was designed to spread in the entire society and makes power more effective and economic. Through spreading the power in the whole society, the panopticon focuses on developing the society, enhancing public morality, and spreading education rather than saving society. Moreover, the panopticon is a symbol of the subordination of bodies that enhances the effectiveness of power whereas dispensing with the need for a prince.

Bentham develops the concept that disciplines could be supplied in the whole society by providing a formula of societal functioning that is infiltrated by disciplinary techniques. These disciplinary techniques involves two images i.e. The discipline blockade and discipline mechanism. While the discipline blockade is an outstanding enclosed space on the society, the discipline mechanism is a functional technique that enables power to function more effectively.