Panopticism Notes

The Panopticon is an allegory for how society orders us. It was Michel Foucault's metaphor.

The rise of the lunatic asylum and the definition of sanity. The idea of madness and mad men was integrated and accepted in society until it evolved and changed, leading to society's moral attitude to change.

The Houses of Correction were institutions designed to discipline anyone seen as useless or idle. It was believed working would improve their moral fibre, as well as keep Britain financially healthy. The Houses of Correction were just a form of harsh conditioning in an effort to normalize people.

These Houses weren't effective, so asylums were introduced.
This was where the mentally unstable or "mad" were treated as if minors, being treated when they had behaved well and punished when not abiding by rules or misbehaving.

The introduction of asylums meant that psychiatry and the judgement of whether people were normal or sane became popular.

The Pillory were public forms of punishment and humiliation. These were used as a warning against breaking laws in society, as a means of controlling people's behavior to form a uniform state.

(Guy Fawkes hung drawn and quartered.)

The sovereign had the power to order gruesome punishments to sustain social order. This was used also as a display of power and authority.

The Panopticon was "the perfect institute" - designed by Jeremy Bentham (Foucault's metaphor).

The design of the Panopticon meant that all prisoners are constantly on display, seen by the otherwise unseen central guard. These prisoners would live believing they were being watched at all times, meaning they'd conform to better behavior - often when the central guards post was unmanned.

This meant the Panopticon could effectively be run without any guards.

The prisoners were therefore willing to submit to an invisible power.

The Panopticon was the complete opposite of the asylum - it was the all-seeing eye and it's aim was to make people more productive.

The Panopticon was a model of how society organises its knowledge, its power, its surveillance of bodies and it's training of bodies.

Panopticism is present in many places, most obviously:

Open plan offices.
Bars (the controllability of a space)
CCTV (the all seeing eye)
TV (big brother, the news e.t.c)

The altering of behavior because you are conscious of being observed and surveyed. This idea is embedded in you from the start of your life. Conforming to authority starts from school.

'Docile bodies' - obedient, self correcting and regulating people. Law abiding citizens and institutionalised members of the public who have been moulded in to the system's image.

The cult of health and the gym - government bombards the public with instructions and guidelines (5 a day). The notion of fitter = happier.

Government promote good health because they want a healthy workforce, which draws on the theory behind the raising of the retirement age.

Power is a form of relationship between individuals and groups.

We allow ourselves to be controlled and moulded because we abide. The panoptic system causes docile bodies and near-docile bodies to self regulate, monitoring and re-correcting our own behavior. Conscious decision making under the influential eye of authority.

It is possible to work against panoptic settings (1984).

There is ultimately an illusion of independence.

Further reading:

Madness in Civilisation

Discipline and Punish

The History of Sexuality

1984