Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974-1975 (Michel Foucault Lectures at the Collège de France, 4)

From 1971 until his death in 1984, Foucault gave public lectures at the world-famous College de France. Attended by thousands, these were seminal events in the world of French letters. Picador is proud to be publishing the lectures in thirteen volumes. The lectures comprising __Abnormal__ begin by examining the role of psychiatry in modern criminal justice, and its method of categorizing individuals who "resemble their crime before they commit it." Building on the themes of societal self-defense in "Society Must Be Defended," Foucault shows how and why defining "abnormality" and "normality" were preorogatives of power in the nineteenth century. The College de France lectures add immeasurably to our appreciation of Foucault's work and offer a unique window into his thinking. "Abnormal is the second volume of this series. Based on lectures given in 1974-1975 -- the period when Foucault was working on Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison and the first volume of the History of Sexuality -- they reveal Foucault's ongoing investigation into the "network of power and knowledge" constituted by discipline, normalization, and biopolitics. He argues that the three figures of the human monster, the individual to be corrected, and the onanist were brought together under the domain of the abnormal at the beginning of the nineteenth century, linking deformity, delinquency, and sexual deviancy. Rather than being purely coercive and violent, however, power, Foucault argues, must also be conceived of as productive: a power that is linked to positive techniques of intervention, transformation, and fabrication. He also traces a shift here from judicial inquiry of actions and relationships to an "examination" of the body and its desires. "The body and its pleasures, rather than the required form for legitimate union become, as it were, the code of the carnal." As Davidson emphasizes in his introduction to this volume, Abnormal "adds yet another layer to the virtually inexhaustible fields of study that Foucault's work has bequeathed to us." Indeed, every course at the College de France contributes immeasurably to our understanding and appreciation of the most important works of one of our greatest contemporary thinkers. These lectures also stand on their own as incomparable performances of intellectual daring, imagination, and insight. Book jacket."--Jacket El curso sobre *Los anormales*, dictado en el Collége de France entre enero y marzo de 1975, prolonga los análisis que Michel Foucault consagró desde 1970 a la cuestión del saber y el poder: poder disciplinario, poder de normalización, biopoder. A partir de múltiples fuentes teológicas, jurídicas y médicas, Foucault enfoca el problema de esos individuos peligrosos a quienes, en el siglo XIX, se denomino "anormales". Define sus tres figuras principales: los monstruos, que hacen referencia a las leyes de la naturaleza y las normas de la sociedad; los incorregibles, de quienes se encargan los nuevos dispositivos de domesticación del cuerpo; y los onanístas, que alimentan, desde el siglo xvin, una campaña orientada al disciplinamiento de la familia moderna. Los análisis de Foucault toman como punto de partida las pericias médico legales que aún se practicaban en la década de 1950. Esboza a continuación una arqueología del instinto y del deseo, a partir de las técnicas de la revelación en la confesión y en la dirección de conciencia. De ese modo, Foucault plantea las premisas históricas y teóricas de trabajos que retomará, modificará y reelaborará en su enseñanza en el Collége de France y las obras ulteriores. Este curso representa, por lo tanto, un elemento esencial para seguir las investigaciones de Foucault en su formación, sus prolongaciones y sus desarrollos. "Among the Towering Intellectual Figures of the Last Half Century, perhaps the most versatile is Michel Foucault, who wrote classic texts on sexuality, madness, prison, and medicine. From 1971 until his death in 1984, Foucault gave public lectures at the world-famous College de France. Attended by thousands, these were seminal events in the world of French letters, and his ideas there expressed remain benchmarks of contemporary critical inquiry. The lectures comprising Abnormal begin by examining the role of psychiatry in modern criminal justice, and its method of categorizing individuals who "resemble their crime before they commit it." Building on the themes of societal self-defense developed in "Society Must Be Defended," the first volume of this series, Foucault shows how and why defining "abnormality" and "normality" were prerogatives of power in the nineteenth century, linking deformity, delinquency, and sexual deviancy. The College de France lectures add immeasurably to our appreciation of Foucault's work and offer a unique window into his thinking. Book jacket."--Jacket "From 1971 Until His Death in 1984, Michel Foucault taught at the College de France, one of the most unique and renowned institutions of learning in the world. It enrolls no students and confers no degrees. Professors are required to deliver lectures to the general public on topics from their ongoing research. Foucault's lectures at the College were extraordinary events. To the audiences that attended them -- frequently numbering in the thousands -- they were seminal events, profoundly influencing an entire generation of scholars, students, and writers. These lectures, painstakingly reconstructed from tape recordings and from Foucault's own notes, are now being made available in English for the first time. Under the guidance of series editor Arnold I. Davidson, Holtzbrinck will publish all thirteen volumes of the lectures in North America."
From 1971 until his death in 1984, Foucault gave public lectures at the world-famous College de France. Attended by thousands, these were seminal events in the world of French letters. Picador is proud to be publishing the lectures in thirteen volumes.
The lectures comprising Abnormal begin by examining the role of psychiatry in modern criminal justice, and its method of categorizing individuals who "resemble their crime before they commit it." Building on the themes of societal self-defense in "Society Must Be Defended," Foucault shows how and why defining "abnormality" and "normality" were preorogatives of power in the nineteenth century.
The College de France lectures add immeasurably to our appreciation of Foucault's work and offer a unique window into his thinking.
CONTENTS 6 Foreword by Francois Ewald and Alessandro Fontana 12 Introduction by Arnold I. Davidson 18 one. 8 JANUARY 1975 28 two. 15 JANUARY 1975 58 three. 22 JANUARY 1975 82 four. 29 JANUARY 1975 108 five. 5 FEBRUARY 1975 136 six. 12 FEBRUARY 1975 164 seven. 19 FEBRUARY 1975 194 eight. 26 FEBRUARY 1975 228 nine. 5 MARCH 1975 258 ten. 12 MARCH 1975 290 eleven. 19 MARCH 1975 318 COURSE SUMMARY 350 COURSE CONTEXT by Valerio Marchetti and Antonella Salomoni 358 INDEX OF NOTIONS AND CONCEPTS 384 INDEX OF NAMES 396 A second collection of lectures by the influential philosopher addresses the role of psychiatry in the modern criminal justice system, the theme of societal defense against criminals, and how to define "abnormality" and "normality." I WOULD LIKE TO begin this year's course by reading to you two expert psychiatric opinions in penal cases.