Tag: Foucault

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2014 Abstracts Stage 3

Philosophy in the Boudoir. The taboo of sex: an evaluation of the significance of sexual discourse in society

Why has society repressed sexual discourse and what does this mean for an individual?

Foucault and Beauvoir explore the historical repression of sexuality and the classifications of the Enlightenment and scientific discourse. Individuals have not been able to express their sexuality publicly, as discourse of the erotic was under taboo.

How can we liberate society from the consequences of sexual repression?

Marquis de Sade asserted the importance of sexual liberation to combat all social repressions. His pornographic works, despite being violent and cruel, are fundamentally pivotal in the emancipation of sexuality from the private realm.

What was the result of the sexual revolution for sexual emancipation?

The 1960s sexual revolution is said to have begun with the publishing of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and had a major impact on sexual liberation, specifically for women, as prohibitions on discourse were protested.

What impact does the culture industry have on sexual liberty?

Adorno’s writings on mass consumerism in our capitalist society explore the limits of sexual liberty as in the public realm as they begin to cater only to the needs and desires of our consumer society

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2014 Abstracts Stage 2

The Hubris of Medicalization

A considered look into the social transition from ‘madness’ to ‘mental illness’ and the possible connotations of our choice to embrace such medicalization within the Western World, inspired by a reading of Susanna Kaysen’s memoir Girl, Interrupted.

Concepts: Foucault Madness and Civilisation, Szasz The Myth of Mental Illness, Potter The Authenticity Hoax, Davies Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good, Kaysen Girl, Interrupted.

Aspects considered: Within this project I intend to discuss and analyse the value of medicalization, and will thus discuss how it came to power and why we choose to maintain it. Through Foucault I will challenge the concept that we have always been ‘mentally ill’ rather than mad, wise or even Dionysian.

In discussing this topic further I will touch on the technological era’s impact on medicalization, and thus the glamorisation of ‘mental illness’ within YouTube and Facebook culture. I will also aim to discuss and challenge the pharmaceutical nature of ‘therapy’ which is so widely experienced and commonly accepted.

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2014 Abstracts Stage 2

The Priest and the King: an examination of the Iranian Revolution using the outlook of Foucault to analyse the causes, course of events and outcomes.

‘As an “Islamic” movement, it can set the entire region afire, overturn the most unstable regimes, and disturb the most solid. Islam – which is not simply a religion, but an entire way of life, and adherence to a history and a civilisation – has a good chance to become a giant powder keg, at the level of hundreds of millions of men.’ Foucault predicted that the revolution in Iran would not follow the model of other modern revolutions, writing that it was instead organised around a greatly different concept which he called ‘political spirituality’. He acknowledged the huge power of the new discourse of militant Islam for the world, not just Iran. Foucault indicated that the new Islamist movement pointed at a fundamental cultural, political and social break with the modern Western order, such a discourse would amend the ‘global strategic equilibrium’. – Foucault

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2013 Abstracts Stage 3

The Function and Utility of Disciplinary Power within the Primary Faith School

The aim of my project is to investigate the function and utility of disciplinary power within the primary faith school. In investigating this, the key differences between a faith and non faith school have been examined. The study of disciplinary power has been examined with reference to the work of Michel Foucault, who developed an in depth and striking analysis on how power functions within society. The reason I have chosen to use Michel Foucault, and in particular his piece of work, Discipline and Punish (1977), in my study is that his work on power is directly linked to the study of disciplinary power within educational institutions.

Key Points
 Is the main function of primary faith school education to educate, or is it primarily to pass on religious beliefs?
 Is a disciplinary society entirely functional?
 Do disciplinary institutions maximize utility?
 How do we maintain disciplinary power?
 Is Foucault’s theory applicable to primary faith schooling?
 Are we no longer a disciplinary society but a society of control?

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2013 Abstracts Stage 3

The Hegemony of the Housed. A Foucauldian Reading of Homelessness in Modern Britain

Foucault’s focus on discourse notes language as establishing structures within society that exercise power.

Power/Knowledge reinforces social control and normalization of people – including the exclusion of those outside desired social norms – these are constructs of language and culture

Post-structuralist ideas reminiscent of the panopticon of Jeremy Bentham – in which all people/employees are observed at all times by those in control. This leads to the hegemony of the normalized people (in this context – the housed)

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2013 Abstracts Stage 3

Education in England. Is Turning Back the Way Ahead?

Michael Gove’s reforms
A Foucauldian Analysis

“We’re on the side of teachers, we’re determined to restore order and we’re not going to be deflected from laying down lines which the badly behaved must not cross.” (Gove 2010)

“Enough is enough. This motion’s intention is to send the strongest message possible to this government that many of their education policies are failing our children, their parents and the very fabric of our school communities.”
(Tim Gallagher proposing vote of no confidence at National Association of Head Teachers Conference 2013)

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2013 Abstracts Stage 3

Animal Farm: Does the Subtle and Binary Nature of Philosophy Fail where Literature Succeeds?

IS ANIMAL FARM A COMMENT ON SOVIET RUSSIA? A COMMENT ON THE PITFALLS OF MARXIST THEORY? A COMMENT ON HUMAN NATURE WITH REGARDS TO POWER? OR IS THIS A LIMITING VIEW OF TRUTH? CAN LITERATURE SHOW US GREATER TRUTH?

HEIDEGGER:
THE POWER OF POETRY FOR A HIGHER TRUTH, A TRANSCENDANCE OF OUR SITUATION TO REVEAL THE BEING-OF-BEINGS

FOUCAULT:
SURELY THERE IS NOT SUCH A THING AS RESISTANCE OR TRUTH? EVERYTHING IS PART OF THE SYSTEM OF POWER, EVEN IDENTITY, SO CAN ORWELL BE ANYTHING MORE THAN AN IDENTITY CREATED BY POWER’S MECHANISM?

VATTIMO:
ONCE WE ACCEPT THAT WE ARE HISTORICALLY CONTINGENT AND THERE IS NO ‘TRUTH’ WE CAN WORK WITHIN THE SYSTEM OF UNDERSTANDING TO TRANSCEND OUR GIVEN VALUES THROUGH OSCILLATORY NIHILISTIC HERMENEUTICS: CRITICAL THOUGHT: IS THIS WHAT ORWELL ACHIEVES?

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind” (Orwell, 1984)

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2012 Abstracts Stage 3

Feminism: What Can We Learn from the Feminism of the Past about the Strategies and Values We Should Apply Today?

This project explores the three waves of feminism leading up to the present day.

It breaks the feminist debate into three sections; political, biological and social and explores each wave in this way.

Some of the thinkers I’ve used are;
Michel Foucault, Betty Friedan, Germaine Greer, Mary Wollstonecraft.

What can we learn from the feminism of the past about what strategies and values we should apply today?

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2012 Abstracts Stage 3

The Method behind the Madness. Does Society Inhibit the Recovery from Psychosis?

At first glance, the answer to the above question may seem straight forward. Some may argue that the recovery rate of psychosis has surged within the last century. The development of new drug treatments and behavioural therapies has meant that symptoms are now easier to live with than ever before. In addition, the ability to integrate sufferers back into the community is said to be at an all time high; many are able to live, what our civilisation would call, a ‘normal’ life.

Here lies the problem. In our modern era, the recovery of those dealing with psychosis seems to be too easily structured around normality, therefore ignoring the basic structure of what it actually means to be ‘mad’. Secondarily, with this realisation also comes confusion about the definition itself – what exactly is madness?

In order to strengthen the debate I have chosen to use Darian Leader’s (2011) text What is Madness? Leader is able to provide knowledgeable focus on many topics of primary interest. For example, he uses comparative analysis to insist that old techniques regarding recuperation are often overlooked. Michael Foucault’s text Madness and Civilisation adjoins philosophical depth to the discussion. Foucault suggests that our view of madness is controlled by our culture and constructed by society. The treatment of those who have gone mad depends primarily upon how civilisation perceives them.

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2012 Abstracts Stage 3

“We’re All Born Mad. Some Remain So.”- Interpreting the Psychiatric Standards of Mental Disorder

“ About a fifth of the population of the United states are seen as suffering from a mental disorder each year and about half from at least one disorder at some point in their lives.” (Horwitz, 2002,3)

•What is the reality of what psychiatrists define as mental disorder, inside and outside the standards of the psychiatric context, in relation to convention and nature?

“The question of truth will never be posed between madness and me for the very simple reason that I, psychiatry, am already a science.”(Foucault, 2006,134)

•there are genetic and biochemical grounds for supposing that both schizophrenia and depressive disorders have a physical basis. (Gelder, Mayou, Cowen, 2001,88)

“What does man actually know about himself? Does nature not conceal most things from him – even concerning his own body?”(Nietzsche, Ansell-Pearson, Large, 2006,115)

•“A postmodern scientist does not discover ‘truth’, he simply tells stories – though he has a duty to verify them within the terms of the relevant language game.” (Rojek, Turner, Lyotard, 1998,68)

“A schizophrenic out for a walk is a better model than a neurotic lying on the analyst’s couch.” (Deleuze, Guattari, 2004,2)

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2011 Abstracts Stage 3

[Facebook] Promoting Authenticity or Inauthenticity. What do you Think?

Heidegger: Facebook promotes authenticity by offering people the chance to assume responsibility over their identity and realise that they are in a ‘self-making-situation’.

Sartre: Facebook promotes authenticity by revealing that there is in fact a lack of identity when presenting a self due to the fact that one always has the freedom to choose to move beyond their current situation

Lyotard: Facebook promotes inauthenticity because individuals are no longer concerned with developing a sense of personal identity that is a true representation of them but only with developing an identity that will perform well within their social network in order to increase their social capital

Foucault: Facebook promotes inauthenticity because people are not concerned with developing an identity that is a true representation of them but only with conforming to a certain ideal of how a person ought to be in order to be accepted and not excluded by their social network

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2011 Abstracts Stage 2

Madness: Social Construct or State of Affairs

Madness is instantly an attractive subject to investigate because of the alien nature of ‘mad’ behaviour to the ‘sane’ majority. In investigating something so mysterious the line of enquiry I am following is not political or ethical, as I am not intending to investigate the ethical considerations when it comes to confinement or treatment of the mentally ill. Although ethics surrounding the treatment of the mentally ill would no doubt be fascinating, it has been talked about throughout history and well documented. It is easy to question what is right and wrong in the treatment of the mentally ill however what I think is more important and interesting is the nature of madness, what it is and where it comes from. Although it has been long discussed there has been no definite conclusions as to what defines madness, whether it be nature, nurture or something else. It is therefore my task to investigate madness in this manner as it interests me most, and it will, in my opinion, offer a more worthwhile conclusion.

As I previously stated I am going to discuss madness in reference to Michel Foucault and Sigmund Freud. Foucault’s Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason will be my main focus but I will also use his work The Order of Things: An Archaeology of The Human Sciences and The Archaeology of Knowledge. In discussing Freud I will primarily reference The Ego and the Id and Civilization and Its Discontents. Throughout Madness and Civilization Foucault describes what society perceived to be ‘mad’ at certain points in history and how the ‘mad’ have been treated. He works from the Middle Ages up to the his present day (Madness and Civilization was published in 1961.) Foucault sees psychoanalysis to be the most modern method of treatment and the new medical approach that deals with attempting to find a cure for madness. Psychoanalysis is a Freudian method of psychological treatment and Foucault deals with Freud’s teachings to a certain extent. In analysing Foucault I will discuss what he claims modern society’s perception of the essence of madness to be. I will contrast these claims with those of Freud. Freud’s claims are of a scientific nature whereas Foucault’s point to a changing social discourse and therefore changing opinions of madness. I will argue that Freud’s argument is currently relevant and grounded in relatively logical thought that makes sense in our current method of thinking in the western world. Foucault’s arguments undermine the whole nature of the way the human sciences operate and that because of certain assumptions made upon apparent scientific truths, social discourse is affected. Considering this I will argue that Freud’s argument is the most useful as far as a timely and useful definition is concerned but Foucault’s argument attempts to invalidate human sciences and brings Freud’s ideas into question but does not supply a useful definition of madness and is largely a bitter critique of psychiatry.

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2010 Abstracts Stage 3

An Analysis of Nietzsche’s Notions of Culture, Self-Formation and Exploring Whether Such Notions, When Compared with Foucault’s Philosophy, Are Relevant in Contemporary Society

– Nietzsche’s notions of culture

– Nietzsche’s formation of the self

– Foucault’s aesthetics of existence

– Foucault’s advancement and caring for the “self”

– Ethical advancement and transition

This project will determine whether the ideas of both Nietzsche and Foucault can be translated in to today’s contemporary 21st Century world. The lightning pace of technological and cultural advancement present in today’s society can be viewed as an ethical minefield, and therefore I question whether the two philosopher’s concepts of culture and ethical transition can help 21st Century society in any way shape or form.

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2010 Abstracts Stage 2

From the Ship of Fools to Anti-Psychotic Medicine

I believe that society, and therefore madness, are based on the main system of thought of every era and that through this we can study why changes in the treatment of madness occur.

Heavily influential in this work are Michel Foucault and Friedrich Nietzsche.

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2010 Abstracts Stage 2

Men Have Pumpkins for Heads … or Are Made of Glass. Autism: How Does It Fit into Our Society?

Objective/ territory: To analyse how autism fits into our society and deconstruct our self- constructed ‘social norms.’ People have wrong conceptions based in historical comprehension.

Sources: Michael Foucault (Madness and Civilisation), Jacques Derrida (Writing and Difference), Descartes (The First Meditations).

Project outline: I aim to provide an understanding that autism does not necessarily fit into either category of reason or non- reason. Through analysing the philosophers named above, I will investigate the truth or validity behind our self-constructed ‘social norms’, and whether or not we hold a true account of what is considered to be reason and non-reason. Questions will be addressed such as where do we draw the line of separation between reason and non- reason? Is there such a thing as reason and non-reason? Where has our idea of normality been derived from? And who has the right to decide what is normal?

Through a method of deconstruction, I aim to scrap the system and prove that society should be constructed in such a way that rejects any notion of social hierarchies.

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2010 Abstracts Stage 3

Manic Depression: an Illness Rooted in its Dark Past

An examination of the modern treatment and diagnosis of bipolar disorder in the light of Michel Foucault

Territory: Bipolar Disorder – This project looks at how the term bipolar has been constituted and how it came about, as well as identifying the stigma still attached to diagnosis.

Michel Foucault: – Foucault talks of madness and looks back over history to see how the mad were treated and viewed by society and doctors. The constitution of the term “madness‟ is historically negative so that today it is often viewed in conjunction with manic depression.

“What is called “mental illness‟ is simply alienated madness…”

Aims: To research the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder, historically linking it to Foucault’s thought.
Case study: America’s Medicated Kids – Louis Theroux, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Stephen Fry BBC Documentary.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

A Foucauldian Investigation into Conceptions and Opinions of Tattooing held by the British General Society in the Present Day

My Stage three project is a Foucauldian investigation into tattooing in England  in the present day. I have based my research around Foucault’s theories of  power, history and governmentality. 

I have also investigated psychological and social theories that relate to the Foucauldian ideas of power and governmentality. 

From working through my investigation, I decided that I should make history the greatest aspect of my analysis, and that allowed me an insight into collective notions in what I termed the “general society” and this  has made up the main body of my work. 

I have also investigated how the view of the tattooed community has changed, as well as investigating where negative opinions held by the societies at each point in history originated from. 

I have discovered through my investigation that negative attitudes towards tattooing stem from the orthodox Judeo-Christian belief that the Body is the property of God, and that to scar or tattoo it is a sin against God. Tattooed Jews are still not allowed the same burial rites as non‐tattooed Jews.  

This project represents a new understanding of tattooing as a genealogical  entity, as much has been written about the social, psychological and  anthropological impact of allowing tattooing in civilised society.  

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Witches – what the Concept Shows about the Apparent ‘Progression’ of Rationality

Object: Witches. Setting: 16th/17th century Europe, the height of the witch persecutions. Context: Rationality. How it is irrational to believe in witchcraft now, yet it was perfectly rational just a few hundred years ago. Aim: The aim of my project is to investigate the concept of the progressiveness of rationality; whether we can ever say that our rationality, and what is logical, is getting more sophisticated, and more correspondent to the truth. Whether we can say that our current denial of the physical reality of witchcraft is more superior to the 16th century affirmation of it. Method: In my project, I have first examined the ‘witch craze’ in detail, considering some significant points it highlights on the concept of progressive rationality. I have then examined philosophical opinions to support my findings. Philosophers: The main philosophers I have used are Kuhn and Foucault, who do not think a linear progression of rationality is possible. I have also looked at Lyotard and Kant, who do think progression occurs.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 2

Acceptable or Unacceptable? An Investigation into the Treatment of Mentally and Physically Disabled Individuals Detained in Institutions in Contemporary Society

The questions I will investigate are the following: • Is the way disabled individuals treated morally right? • Should the countries which allow such abusive treatment be allowed to join the European Union? • Why is torment rather than treatment continuing? • Do disabled people have human rights? The aim of this project is to investigate into the treatment of those with mental and physical disabilities, the way in which individuals are often from birth put into institutions and never endure a real life out of the walls of confinement. This project is a discussion into the inhuman and abusive treatment of many children, orphans in many cases and adults throughout the world’s institutions, and why this treatment occurs or if it there are plans to change it. Territory: Disability and Segregation. Object: The treatment of disabled people within institution in contemporary society. Concepts: Segregation and violation of human rights. Change: The treatment of mentally and physically disabled people changed over time from the ‘houses of confinement’ and the ‘birth of the asylum’. Thinkers: Michael Foucault- The history of madness, John Locke – Human rights and equality, Peter Singer – Equality and discrimination

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2007 Abstracts Stage 3

A Foucaultian Analysis of the Israeli-Arab Conflict: from early Zionism to Post-Colonialism

Objectives. It is my intention to demonstrate in my essay that colonialism still takes place across the world today, and that it finds its foundations entrenched firmly within the same prejudices which were used to justify the type of colonialism typical of 19th century Europe. For this purpose I will concentrate my investigation upon the most notorious and long-running of available examples; namely, the Israeli-Arab conflict and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the Palestinian people. As well as showing Israel to be a Western colony of the oldest and most classical type, Israel can be seen as a colony not just for its own sake, but as part of a wider Western “project” and belief system. Concepts. All of the above investigations will be conducted after an introduction to Foucault’s conceptions of Discourse and Power, which will themselves be applied to the investigation, as I believe they aptly provide an explanation for everything that has taken place regarding Palestine since the 19th century. I will also be depicting this narrative as part of a larger, even global Discourse. Sources. I will use Edward Said’s book Orientalism to explain how, in Foucaultian terms, a contrasting image of the East as opposed to the enlightened West was created over centuries until it has reached its current form which allows the West to justify the colonization of the Arab world, several books by Foucault, including Madness and Civilization and Discipline and Punish. This will be accompanied by a scrapbook containing translated Israeli newspaper articles which will be referenced in the main body of work in order to support my claims regarding the workings of Israeli media discourse in perpetuating the above beliefs. Articles will refer not only to political events reflecting the reality of Israeli society’s perception of itself and its Arab population; they will also be used to illustrate the way in which the media in Israel contributes to Israeli colonialism through its irresponsible (and at time perhaps deliberate) use of everyday words and concepts.