Discipline and Punishment
Michel Foucault
Complete Text PDF english
pag 188
A whole problematic then develops: that of an architecture that is no longer built simply to be seen (as with the ostentation of palaces), or to observe the external space (cf. the geometry of fortresses),
but to permit an internal, articulated and detailed control - to render visible those who are inside it; in more general terms, an architecture that would operate to transform individuals: to act on
those it shelters, to provide a hold on their conduct, to carry the effects of power right to them, to make it possible to know them, to alter them. Stones can make people docile and knowable. The old
simple schema of confinement and enclosure - thick walls, a heavy gate that prevents entering or leaving - began to be replaced by the calculation of openings, of filled and empty spaces, passages and transparencies.
.......
pag 203
1. The examination transformed the economy of visibility into the exercise of power. Traditionally, power was what was seen, what was shown and what was manifested and, paradoxically, found the
principle of its force in the movement by which it deployed that force. Those on whom it was exercised could remain in the shade; they received light only from' that portion of power that was
conceded to them, or from the reflection of it that for a moment they carried. Disciplinary power, on the other hand, is exercised through its invisibility; at the same time it imposes on those whom it subjects a principle of compulsory visibility. In discipline, it is the subjects who have to be seen. Their visibility assures the hold of the power that is exercised over them. It is the fact of being constantly seen, of being able always to be seen, that maintains the disciplined individual in his subjection.
.......
pag 216
Bentham's Panopticon is the architectural figure of this composition. We know the principle on which it was based: at the periphery, an annular building; at the centre, a tower; this tower is pierced with
wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring; the peripheric building is divided into cells, each of which extends the whole width of the building; they have two windows, one on the inside,
corresponding to the windows of the tower; the other, on the outside, allows the light to cross the cell from one end to the other.
All that is needed, then, is to place a supervisor in a central tower and to shut up in each cell a madman, a patient, a condemned man, a worker or a schoolboy. By the effect of backlighting, one can
observe from the tower, standing out precisely against the light, the small captive shadows in the cells of the periphery. They are like so many cages, so many small theatres, in which each actor is
alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible- The panoptic mechanism arranges spatial unities that make it possible to see constantly and to recognize immediately. In short, it reverses the principle of the dungeon; or rather of its three functions - to enclose, to deprive of light and to hide - it preserves only the first and eliminates the other two. Full lighting and the eye of a supervisor capture better than darkness, which ultimately protected. Visibility is a trap. To begin with, this made it possible - as a negative effect - to avoid those compact, swarming, howling masses that were to be
found in places of confinement, those painted by Goya or described by Howard. Each individual, in his place, is securely confined to a cell from which he is seen from the front by the supervisor; but the
side walls prevent him from coming into contact with his companions. He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication. The arrangement of his room,
opposite the central tower, imposes on him an axial visibility; but the divisions of the ring, those separated cells, imply a lateral invisibility. And this invisibility is a guarantee of order. If the inmates
are convicts, there is no danger of a plot, an attempt at collective escape, the planning of new crimes for the future, bad reciprocal influences; if they are patients, there is no danger o contagion; if they are madmen there is no risk of their committing violence upon one another; if they are schoolchildren, there is no copying, no noise, no chatter, no waste of time; if they are workers,
there are no disorders, no theft, no coalitions, none of those distractions that slow down the rate of work, make it less perfect or cause accidents. The crowd, a compact mass, a locus of multiple
exchanges, individualities merging together, a collective effect, is abolished and replaced by a collection of separated individualities. From the point of view of the guardian, it is replaced by a multiplicity that can be numbered and supervised; from the point of view of the inmates, by a sequestered and observed solitude (Bentham, 60-64).
Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. So to arrange things that the surveillance
is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action; that the perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary; that this architectural apparatus should be a
machine for creating and sustaining a power relation independent of the person who exercises it; in short, that the inmates should be caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the
bearers. To achieve this, it is at once too much and too little that the prisoner should be constantly observed by an inspector: too little, for what matters is that he knows himself to be observed; too much, because he has no need in fact of being so. In view of this, Bentham laid down the principle that power should be visible and unverifiable. Visible: the inmate will constantly have before his eyes the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied upon.
Unverifiable: the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so. In order to make the presence or absence of the inspector
unverifiable, so that the prisoners, in their cells, cannot even see a shadow, Bentham envisaged not only Venetian blinds on the windows of the central observation hall, but, on the inside, partitions
that intersected the hall at right angles and, in order to pass from one quarter to the other, not doors but zig-zag openings; for the slightest noise, a gleam of light, a brightness in a half-opened door ould betray the presence of the guardian.2 The Panopticon is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad (couple): in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing; in the central
tower, one sees everything without ever being seen.
.......
pag 218
The Panopticon is a marvelous vision machine which, whatever use one may wish to put it to, produces homogeneous effects of power. A real subjection is born mechanically from a fictitious relation.
So it is not necessary to use force to constrain the convict to good behaviour, the madman to calm, the worker to work, the school boy to application, the patient to the observation of the regulations.
.......
pag 221
But the Panopticon must not beunderstood as a dream building: it is the diagram of a mechanism of
power reduced to its ideal form; its functioning, abstracted from any obstacle, resistance or friction, must be represented as a pure architectural and optical system: it is in fact a figure of political technology that may and must be detached from any specific use.
.......
pag 230
And, in order to be exercised, this power had to be given the instrument of permanent, exhaustive, omnipresent surveillance, capable of making all visible, as long as it could itself remain invisible.
.......
Vigilar y Castigar
Michel Foucault
Complete Text PDF spanish
Michel Foucault
Complete Text PDF english
pag 188
A whole problematic then develops: that of an architecture that is no longer built simply to be seen (as with the ostentation of palaces), or to observe the external space (cf. the geometry of fortresses),
but to permit an internal, articulated and detailed control - to render visible those who are inside it; in more general terms, an architecture that would operate to transform individuals: to act on
those it shelters, to provide a hold on their conduct, to carry the effects of power right to them, to make it possible to know them, to alter them. Stones can make people docile and knowable. The old
simple schema of confinement and enclosure - thick walls, a heavy gate that prevents entering or leaving - began to be replaced by the calculation of openings, of filled and empty spaces, passages and transparencies.
.......
pag 203
1. The examination transformed the economy of visibility into the exercise of power. Traditionally, power was what was seen, what was shown and what was manifested and, paradoxically, found the
principle of its force in the movement by which it deployed that force. Those on whom it was exercised could remain in the shade; they received light only from' that portion of power that was
conceded to them, or from the reflection of it that for a moment they carried. Disciplinary power, on the other hand, is exercised through its invisibility; at the same time it imposes on those whom it subjects a principle of compulsory visibility. In discipline, it is the subjects who have to be seen. Their visibility assures the hold of the power that is exercised over them. It is the fact of being constantly seen, of being able always to be seen, that maintains the disciplined individual in his subjection.
.......
pag 216
Bentham's Panopticon is the architectural figure of this composition. We know the principle on which it was based: at the periphery, an annular building; at the centre, a tower; this tower is pierced with
wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring; the peripheric building is divided into cells, each of which extends the whole width of the building; they have two windows, one on the inside,
corresponding to the windows of the tower; the other, on the outside, allows the light to cross the cell from one end to the other.
All that is needed, then, is to place a supervisor in a central tower and to shut up in each cell a madman, a patient, a condemned man, a worker or a schoolboy. By the effect of backlighting, one can
observe from the tower, standing out precisely against the light, the small captive shadows in the cells of the periphery. They are like so many cages, so many small theatres, in which each actor is
alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible- The panoptic mechanism arranges spatial unities that make it possible to see constantly and to recognize immediately. In short, it reverses the principle of the dungeon; or rather of its three functions - to enclose, to deprive of light and to hide - it preserves only the first and eliminates the other two. Full lighting and the eye of a supervisor capture better than darkness, which ultimately protected. Visibility is a trap. To begin with, this made it possible - as a negative effect - to avoid those compact, swarming, howling masses that were to be
found in places of confinement, those painted by Goya or described by Howard. Each individual, in his place, is securely confined to a cell from which he is seen from the front by the supervisor; but the
side walls prevent him from coming into contact with his companions. He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication. The arrangement of his room,
opposite the central tower, imposes on him an axial visibility; but the divisions of the ring, those separated cells, imply a lateral invisibility. And this invisibility is a guarantee of order. If the inmates
are convicts, there is no danger of a plot, an attempt at collective escape, the planning of new crimes for the future, bad reciprocal influences; if they are patients, there is no danger o contagion; if they are madmen there is no risk of their committing violence upon one another; if they are schoolchildren, there is no copying, no noise, no chatter, no waste of time; if they are workers,
there are no disorders, no theft, no coalitions, none of those distractions that slow down the rate of work, make it less perfect or cause accidents. The crowd, a compact mass, a locus of multiple
exchanges, individualities merging together, a collective effect, is abolished and replaced by a collection of separated individualities. From the point of view of the guardian, it is replaced by a multiplicity that can be numbered and supervised; from the point of view of the inmates, by a sequestered and observed solitude (Bentham, 60-64).
Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. So to arrange things that the surveillance
is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action; that the perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary; that this architectural apparatus should be a
machine for creating and sustaining a power relation independent of the person who exercises it; in short, that the inmates should be caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the
bearers. To achieve this, it is at once too much and too little that the prisoner should be constantly observed by an inspector: too little, for what matters is that he knows himself to be observed; too much, because he has no need in fact of being so. In view of this, Bentham laid down the principle that power should be visible and unverifiable. Visible: the inmate will constantly have before his eyes the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied upon.
Unverifiable: the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so. In order to make the presence or absence of the inspector
unverifiable, so that the prisoners, in their cells, cannot even see a shadow, Bentham envisaged not only Venetian blinds on the windows of the central observation hall, but, on the inside, partitions
that intersected the hall at right angles and, in order to pass from one quarter to the other, not doors but zig-zag openings; for the slightest noise, a gleam of light, a brightness in a half-opened door ould betray the presence of the guardian.2 The Panopticon is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad (couple): in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing; in the central
tower, one sees everything without ever being seen.
.......
pag 218
The Panopticon is a marvelous vision machine which, whatever use one may wish to put it to, produces homogeneous effects of power. A real subjection is born mechanically from a fictitious relation.
So it is not necessary to use force to constrain the convict to good behaviour, the madman to calm, the worker to work, the school boy to application, the patient to the observation of the regulations.
.......
pag 221
But the Panopticon must not beunderstood as a dream building: it is the diagram of a mechanism of
power reduced to its ideal form; its functioning, abstracted from any obstacle, resistance or friction, must be represented as a pure architectural and optical system: it is in fact a figure of political technology that may and must be detached from any specific use.
.......
pag 230
And, in order to be exercised, this power had to be given the instrument of permanent, exhaustive, omnipresent surveillance, capable of making all visible, as long as it could itself remain invisible.
.......
Vigilar y Castigar
Michel Foucault
Complete Text PDF spanish
Pág.
121
El
Panóptico de Bentham es la figura arquitectónica de esta
composición. Conocido es su principio:
en
la periferia, una construcción en forma de anillo; en el centro, una
torre, ésta, con anchas
ventanas
que se abren en la cara interior del anillo. La construcción
periférica está dividida en
celdas,
cada una de las cuales atraviesa toda la anchura de la construcción.
Tienen dos ventanas,
una
que da al interior, correspondiente a las ventanas de la torre, y la
otra, que da al exterior,
permite
que la luz atraviese la celda de una parte a otra. Basta entonces
situar un vigilante en la
torre
central y encerrar en cada celda a un loco, un enfermo, un condenado,
un obrero o un escolar.
Por
el efecto de la contraluz, se pueden percibir desde la torre,
recortándose perfectamente sobre la
luz,
las pequeñas siluetas cautivas en las celdas de la peri-feria.
Tantos pequeños teatros como
celdas,
en los que cada actor está solo, perfectamente individualizado y
constantemente visible. El
dispositivo
panóptico dispone unas unidades espaciales que permiten ver sin
cesar y reconocer al
punto.
En suma, se invierte (204)
el principio del
calabozo; o más bien de sus tres funciones —
encerrar,
privar de luz y ocultar—; no se conserva más que la primera y se
suprimen las otras dos.
La
plena luz y la mirada de un vigilante captan mejor que la sombra, que
en último término
protegía.
La visibilidad es una trampa.
Lo
cual permite en primer lugar —como efecto negativo— evitar esas
masas, compactas,
hormigueantes,
tumultuosas, que se encontraban en los lugares de encierro, las que
pintaba Goya
o
describía Howard. Cada cual, en su lugar, está bien encerrado en
una celda en la que es visto de
frente
por el vigilante; pero los muros laterales le impiden entrar en
contacto con sus compañeros.
Es
visto, pero él no ve; objeto de una información, jamás sujeto en
una comunicación. La
disposición
de su aposento, frente a la torre central, le impone una visibilidad
axial; pero las
divisiones
del anillo, las celdas bien separadas implican una invisibilidad
lateral. Y ésta es garantía
del
orden. Si los detenidos son unos condenados, no hay peligro de que
exista complot, tentativa
de
evasión colectiva, proyectos de nuevos delitos para el futuro, malas
influencias recíprocas; si
son
enfermos, no hay peligro de contagio; si locos, no hay riesgo de
violencias recíprocas; si niños,
ausencia
de copia subrepticia, ausencia de ruido, ausencia de charla, ausencia
de disipación. Si son
obreros,
ausencia de riñas, de robos, de contubernios, de esas distracciones
que retrasan el trabajo,
lo
hacen menos perfecto o provocan los accidentes. La multitud, masa
compacta, lugar de
intercambios
múltiples, individualidades que se funden, efecto colectivo, se
anula en beneficio de
una
colección de individualidades separadas. Desde el punto de vista del
guardián está
remplazada
por una multiplicidad enumerable y controlada; desde el punto de
vista de los
detenidos,
por una soledad secuestrada y observada.308
De
ahí el efecto mayor del Panóptico: inducir en el detenido un estado
consciente y permanente de
visibilidad
que garantiza el funcionamiento automático del poder. Hacer que la
vigilancia sea
permanente
en sus efectos, incluso si es discontinua en su acción. Que la
perfección del poder
tienda
a volver inútil la actualidad de su ejercicio; que este aparato
arquitectónico sea una máquina
de
crear y de sostener una relación de poder independiente de aquel que
lo ejerce; en suma, que los
detenidos
se hallen insertos en una situación de poder de la que ellos mismos
son los portadores.
308
2
J. Bentham,
Panopticon, Works, ed. Bowring, t. iv, pp. 60-64. Cf. lám. 17.
Para
esto, es a la vez demasiado y demasiado poco que el preso esté sin
cesar observado por un
vigilante:
demasiado poco, (205)
porque lo esencial
es que se sepa vigilado; demasiado, porque no
tiene
necesidad de serlo efectivamente. Para ello Bentham ha sentado el
principio de que el poder
debía
ser visible e inverificable. Visible: el detenido tendrá sin cesar
ante los ojos la elevada silueta
de
la torre central de donde es espiado. Inverificable: el detenido no
debe saber jamás si en aquel
momento
se le mira; pero debe estar seguro de que siempre puede ser mirado.
Bentham, para
hacer
imposible de decidir si el vigilante está presente o ausente, para
que los presos, desde sus
celdas,
no puedan siquiera percibir una sombra o captar un reflejo, previo la
colocación, no sólo de
unas
persianas en las ventanas de la sala central de vigilancia, sino de
unos tabiques en el interior
que
la cortan en ángulo recto, y para pasar de un pabellón a otro, en
vez de puertas unos pasos en
zigzag;
porque el menor golpeo de un batiente, una luz entrevista, un
resplandor en una rendija
traicionarían
la presencia del guardián.309
El Panóptico es una
máquina de disociar la pareja verser
visto:
en el anillo periférico, se es totalmente visto, sin ver jamás; en
la torre central, se ve todo, sin
ser
jamás visto.310
Pág.
105
Desarróllase
entonces toda una problemática: la de una arquitectura que ya no
está hecha
simplemente
para ser vista (fausto de los palacios), o para vigilar el espacio
exterior (geometría de
las
fortalezas), sino para permitir un control interior, articulado y
detallado —para hacer visibles a
quienes
se encuentran dentro; más generalmente, la de una arquitectura que
habría de ser un
operador
para la trasformación de los individuos: obrar sobre aquellos a
quienes abriga, permitir
la
presa sobre su conducta, conducir hasta ellos los efectos del poder,
ofrecerlos a un conocimiento,
modificarlos.
Las piedras pueden volver dócil y cognoscible. El viejo esquema
simple del encierro
y
de la clausura —del muro grueso, de la puerta sólida que impiden
entrar o salir—, comienza a
ser
sustituido por el cálculo de las aberturas, de los plenos y de los
vacíos, de los pasos y de las
trasparencias.
Pág.
114
El
examen invierte la economía de la visibilidad en el ejercicio del
poder. Tradicionalmente el poder es
lo
que se ve, lo que se muestra, lo que se manifiesta, y, de manera
paradójica, encuentra el
principio
de su fuerza en el movimiento por el cual la despliega. Aquellos
sobre quienes se ejerce
pueden
mantenerse en la sombra; no reciben luz sino de esa parte de poder
que les está concedida,
o
del reflejo que recae en ellos un instante. En cuanto al poder
disciplinario, se ejerce haciéndose
invisible;
en cambio, impone a aquellos a quienes somete un principio de
visibilidad obligatorio.
En
la disciplina, son los sometidos los que tienen que ser vistos. Su
iluminación garantiza el
dominio
del poder que se ejerce sobre ellos. El hecho de ser visto sin cesar,
de poder ser visto
constantemente,
es lo que mantiene en su sometimiento al individuo disciplinario.
Pág.122
El
Panóptico es una máquina maravillosa que, a partir
de
los deseos más diferentes, fabrica efectos homogéneos de poder.
Una
sujeción real nace mecánicamente de una relación ficticia. De
suerte que no es necesario
recurrir
a medios de fuerza para obligar al condenado a la buena conducta, el
loco a la
tranquilidad,
el obrero al trabajo, el escolar a la aplicación, el enfermo a la
observación de las
prescripciones.
Pág.
124
Pero
el Panóptico no debe ser comprendido
como
un edificio onírico: es el diagrama de un mecanismo de poder
referido a su forma ideal; su
funcionamiento,
abstraído de todo obstáculo, resistencia (209)
o rozamiento,
puede muy bien ser
representado
como un puro sistema arquitectónico y óptico: es de hecho una
figura de tecnología
política
que se puede y que se debe desprender de todo uso específico.
Pág.
129
Y
para ejercerse, este poder debe apropiarse de instrumentos de una
vigilancia permanente,
exhaustiva,
omnipresente, capaz de hacerlo todo visible, pero a condición de
volverse ella misma
invisible.