Michel Foucault: biography and contributions of this French thinker

Historian, psychologist, philosopher and social theorist. Michel Foucault was one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, whose ideas generated a great impact and exerted a great influence on the entire French cultural environment of the time.

He was recognized worldwide for his ideas on social institutions, especially prisons, the health system and psychiatry, as well as for his studies on human sexuality. Ideas that, along with his own biography and work, we will review throughout this article.

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Brief biography of Michel Foucault

Born on October 15, 1926 in the town of Poitiers, France and under the name of Paul-Michel Foucault, this prestigious French thinker grew up in a formal environment in which studies and knowledge were considered essential, since Foucault's father was a renowned surgeon French.

After an academic record full of ups and downs, Foucault managed to enter the famous École Normande Supérieure, recognized for being one of the cradles of the best specialists and humanities thinkers in France.

His stay at the École Normande was one of his most difficult stages. After suffering depression and several suicide attempts, Foucault was in the hands of a psychiatrist for a long time. During this period he acquired a great passion for psychology, which led him to graduate in both psychology and philosophy.

Upon finishing his university studies, Foucault he got a teaching position at the École Normande. However, his stay in this position was brief, taking after him a position as professor of psychology at the University of Lille, also in France.

After several more trades, Foucault returned to France with the intention of completing his doctorate, during which he accepted a position in the philosophy department of the Clermont-Ferrand University.

Throughout this period of his life, Foucault became a prolific writer, being most of his texts focused on psychology, psychiatry and mental health. While his later publications focused on issues related to politics, social issues and sexuality.

Overcoming structuralism and recent years

During the years in which he became interested in the structuralist current, Foucault was considered part of the current, being at the same height as some other great thinkers such as Jacques Lacan or Claude Lévi-Strauss. Despite this, Foucault he completely rejected the idea of ​​being regarded as a defender of structuralism.

In 1968 the famous May student riots broke out, events that deeply marked Foucault and after which he obtained a position as head of the department of philosophy of the newly created experimental university Paris VIII. From here began his years of strong political activism.

Finally, this philosopher he was elected as part of the prestigious academic body of the College de France, increasing his participation in political life and traveling around the world to give classes and lectures, including his famous lectures and interviews in the United States and Iran.

During the last years of his life, Foucault was criticized for having continually changed his ideas and opinion as throughout his life, which he defended as a natural phenomenon due to the experience and acquisition of knowledge.

Finally, Foucault died in 1984 of AIDSNot without first destroying a large part of his manuscripts and strictly prohibiting the publication of all those who could have “survived.

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Power according to Foucault

Despite the fact that in his early days, Foucault focused mainly on psychological issues and those related to mental health, as well as on the institutions that control it, the most important and recognized contributions of it are in the field of social sciences and politics.

Because he lived during a time of great change and social upheaval, Foucault was very interested in the present to which he belonged. Making exceptional reflections on the systems and power relations of the time.

First of all it is necessary to specify that when speaking of power, Foucault does not limit itself only to governmental or institutional power, if not that it encompasses the power relations that occur in all areas of society, also known as social power.

This social power is made up of a great web of small spheres of power, located below the great powers such as the government or the church. According to Foucault, these sub-spheres of power are at different levels and rely on each other to manifest themselves in subtle and cunning ways.

However, according to the thinker himself, the main obstacle to carrying out a revolution is the maintenance of power relations as they were at the time, calling to examine and analyze these power relations of a social nature.

In one of his publications known as The Microphysics of Power (1980), Foucault reviews these power relations through two different domain dynamics:

• Contract: it materializes in the power of an oppressive and legal type. Based on the legitimacy of this.
• Domination: it is established in terms of repression and submission.

Foucault insists that the conflict is not only found in governmental power, but also in all the substructures with power relations within that sustain it.

Following this idea, Foucault insists that the analysis of power relations should not start from government powerInstead, it is necessary to start with the smallest power sub-spheres that feed it and make it possible to maintain it.

Finally, Foucault determines that the main role of thinkers is within society, accompanying it in the fight against the forms of power that exist within it.

Main works of this philosopher

As previously mentioned, Foucault distinguished himself as a prolific writer. Below we review some of the most relevant works of him.

1. History of madness in classical times (1961)

Foucault's first relevant work, in it he analyzes and reviews the treatment given to the concept of madness throughout history, emphasizing the evolution of the treatment given to the patient.

2. Words and Things (1966)

In this work by Foucault, the thinker reflects on how all historical periods are distinguished by presenting a series of fundamental truth conditions that establish what is acceptable, and how these conditions evolve and change over time.

3. The Archeology of Knowledge (1969)

Another of the most relevant works of the French thinker in which he performs an examination or analysis of the functionality and power of sentences as basic units of discourse.

4. Watch and Punish (1975)

Throughout this work, the analysis and reflection of the operation of penitentiary institutions is carried out, with the intention to understand the evolution that over the years undergoes the ways in which convicts.

5. History of sexuality (1976, 1984)

This work by Foucault is materialized in three different volumes in which the use of sexuality as a regime of power, as well as the use of sexual pleasures throughout the story.

When Foucault died in 1984, he was writing the fourth volume of these reflections, which focused on sexuality and Christianity.