Explain why Foucault studied the Panopticon and how it plays into his larger body of work on punishment.
What will be an ideal response?
Pivotal in Foucault’s investigation of surveillance and discipline is his analysis of the architectural form of an ideal prison called the Panopticon. The blueprint for the Panopticon was designed by the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) in the 1790s and was intended to be the model for a perfectly rational and efficient prison. It was impossible for inmates to see the guard in the central tower, making it difficult to discern at any given moment whether or not they were being observed or whether or not a guard was even present in the tower. Thus, in the Panopticon it was simply the threat of surveillance that provided the basis for the self-sanctioning of behavior, where inmates would develop a psychology of self-discipline motivated by the fear of being under constant observation. Foucault argues that the architecture of the Panopticon is a metaphor for the general emergence of a new type of penal system that he calls the disciplinary society.
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