Docile bodies

Larry Boothe

Blog Post #7

Michael Foucault; Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

Part III: Discipline

Foucault begins Part 3 by focusing on the body and how it had been subjected to discipline and control rather than torture in the 18^th Century. During this time, the docility (or willingness to be taught) of the body became the central aim of methods seeking control. These methods, called disciplines, were aimed at domination through constant subjugation and fixation of individuals’ space and time. Disciplines imposed a relation of docility-utility on the operations of the body. Institutions such as schools, armies, and prisons acted as machines for controlling people. For example, a soldier’s day is divided into segments telling him what to do and when to do it. He is taught to hold his head high, stand upright, look forward, etc. By controlling space and time (both fundamental elements of human life), the way people think and act is deeply affected. These methods of coercion (disciplines) produce docile bodies. It seems that almost every institution we have today is a result of this “enlightened” way of thinking. Schools, businesses, and most organizations act as machines aimed at transforming people, in terms of utility (mostly economic). They aim to control the docility of the individual in hopes that this will increase production. The mechanism of these institutions makes the body “more obedient as it becomes more useful.” Ultimately, controlling the space and time of an individual is an extremely effective strategy for domination. By controlling the operations of the body (rather than the body itself, such is done with force) without forcing obedience to another person, the individual’s utility can increase.