The discipline of the madman: power, madness and discipline in Michel Foucault's work

Abstract

This paper studies some of the fundamental concepts of Michel Foucault's work and the interconnections between them. Specifically, it attempts to establish the relationship between power, discipline and madness. To this end, it introduces the notion of power as a relation, placing it within the framework of disciplining. This will explain how these issues materialize in a specific archetype: the madman.

Madness is one of the philosopher's main interests, and, taking it as a paradigmatic territory, the functioning of discipline in this area will be studied. Through a genealogy of the figure of the madman and the analysis of the different processes used to discipline him, it will be possible to study the connections in the author's work and understand how power and discipline act on the individual typified as «mad». Analyzing these issues is of fundamental importance for studying how the processes of disciplining have varied over time and leads to questioning the way they develop in the present.