Discipline, Power, and Their Manifestations

Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison present a novel and overarching view of the exercise of coercive disciplinary power and its effect on individuals and manifestations within societies. In my opinion, especially interesting within this reading is Foucault's argument concerning individuals' souls. Foucault identifies the non-corporal effects of power on human beings as a "soul" and a socially malleable human feature. Individuals being punished as well as those who are presided over by disciplinary and order imposing power structures are "unlike Christian theology..not...born in sin and subject to punishment but...born out of methods of punishment, supervision, and restraint" (29). Foucault recognizes and argues that the ramifications of power and the exercise of disciplinary coercion upon human populaces become manifest in those individuals. In reading this characterization of power, I am reminded of our discussion in last week's readings on the historio-anthropological value of seemingly fantastic stories and beliefs. Through colonial power and discipline structures foreign racial values both infiltrated and were reacted against within the superstitions and beliefs of the larger society. This resulted in the construction of a belief which valued human body parts, especially those of certain racial attributes, for luck. In turn a reactionary belief and understanding of monkeys as the servants of malevolent forces seeking to steal body parts resulted in a single, seemingly fantastic event of the killing of a monkey for carrying a plastic bag. Foucault's characterization of the relationship between individuals and the overarching power and coercion schemes invites us to be able to research and understand the source of such social practices and behaviors. By identifying the many dimensions that power interacts on humans down to the individual level, Foucault shows us another point of view for understand human behavior. Also, reading Foucault's conception of the social power practices which affect human behavior is reminiscent of Max Weber's characterization of the Protestant Ethic. I do not think that Foucault represents a fundamental disagreement with Weber's assessment of the rise of capitalism. Although Foucault identifies disciplinarian practices such as time and space regimentation which could have directly informed the rise of capitalistic production, his argument about the abstract effects of power still ring true. Weber's assessment of a Protestant ethic could arguably be a representation of a religious power structure rather than strictly a faithful belief. I do not see a direct conflict between then two points of view but I welcome any comments.