643-644; English translation, "Truth and
Juridical
Forms," trans.
Foucault-Psychiatric-Power-1973-74
We can say then that the function of psychiatric power is to realize madness in an institution where the function of dis- cipline is precisely to get rid of all the violence, crises, and, if necessary,
? all the symptoms of madness. The real function and effect of the asylum institution in itself, of this institution of discipline--and it is in this respect that my analysis differs from institutional analyses--is to sup- press, I do not say madness, but the symptoms of madness, at the same time as the function of psychiatric power, which is exercised within and lixes individuals to the asylum, is to realize madness.
All in all, there is an ideal for this double lunctioning of psychiatric power, which realizes madness, and of the disciplinary institution, which refuses to listen to madness, which flattens out its symptoms and planes down all its manifestations: this is dementia. What is a demented person? He is someone who is nothing other than the reality of his madness; he is the person in whom the multiplicity of symptoms or, rather, their flattening out, is such that it is no longer possible to ascribe to him a specific symptomatology by which he could be characterized. The demented person is therefore someone who corresponds exactly to the working of the asylum institution, since, by means of discipline, all the symptoms in their specificity have been smoothed out: there are no longer any outward signs, externalizations, or crises. And, at the same time, someone who is demented answers to what psychiatric power wants, since he actually realizes madness as an individual reality within the asylum.
The famous development of dementia, which nineteenth century psy- chiatrists could observe as a natural phenomenon in madness, is noth- ing other than the series of intertwined effects of an asylum discipline that smoothes away outward signs and symptoms, and medical power's appeal to the patient to be a madman, to realize madness. The demented person is actually what was fabricated by this double game of power and discipline.
As for the hysterics, those famous, dear hysterics, I would say that they were precisely the front of resistance to this gradient of dementia that involved the double game of psychiatric power and asylum discipline. They were the front of resistance, because, what is a hysteric? A hysteric is someone who is so seduced by the best and most clearly specified symptoms--those, precisely, offered by the organically ill--that he or she adopts them. The hysteric constitutes herself as the blazon of genuine illnesses; she models herself as a body and site bearing genuine
2^ January 1974 253
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symptoms. To the ascription ol and propensity towards the subsidence ol symptoms in dementia, the hysteric responds with the exacerbation of the most precise and well determined symptoms; and while doing this, she pursues a game such that when one wants to lix her illness in reality, one can never manage to do so, since, when her symptom should refer to an organic substratum, she shows that there is no substratum, so that she cannot be fixed at the level of the reality of her illness at the very moment she displays the most spectacular symptoms. Hysteria was the effective way ol defending onesell Irom dementia; the only way not to be demented in a nineteenth century hospital was to be a hysteric, that is to say, to counter the pressure that annihilated symptoms, that obliterated them, by building up the visible, plastic edifice of a whole panoply of symptoms, and, by means of simulation, resisting madness being fixed in reality. The hysteric has magnificent symptoms, but at the same time she sidesteps the reality of her illness; she goes against the current of the asylum game and, to that extent, we salute the hysterics as the true militants ol antipsychiatry. ^
? 1. Discovered in the sixteenth century, the use oi ether spread in the nineteenth century in the treatment ol neuroses and for screening simulated illnesses, on account of its "stupefying" property. See above, note 18 to lecture of 9'11 January 1974.
2. Discovered simultaneously in 1831 by Justus Liebig in Germany and by Soubeiran in France, the use of chloroform as an anesthetic began in 1847. See, E. Soubeiran, "Recherches sur quelques combinaisons de chlore" Annales de chimie et de physique, vol. XLIII, October 1831, pp. 113-157; H. Bayard, "L'utihsation de l'ether et le diagnostic des maladies men tales"; H. Brochin, "Maladies nerveuses", ? "Anesthesiques: ether et chloroforme"; and, Lailler (pharmacist of the Quatre Mares asylum) "Les nouveaux hypnotiques et leur emploi en medecine mentale" Annales medico-psychologiques, 7lh series, vol. IV,July 1886, pp. 64-90.
}. See above, note 1 to lecture ol 19 December 1973.
4. See above, note 2 to lecture of 19 December 1973.
5. J. J. Moreau de Tours discovered the effects ol hashish on his journey in the East from 1837
6.
to 1840 and he subsequently devoted his research to it, loreseeing possibilities of experi ment to clanly the relations between its ellects and dreams and delirium. See, Du haschkh
et d'alienation mentale. Etudes psychologiques (Paris: Fortin, 1845).
Experiments in "animal magnetism" took place in hospitals under the Restoration. Thus,
at the Hotel Dieu, on 20 October 1820, the head doctor, Henri Marie Husson (1772 1853) invited the baron Dupotet de Sennevoy to make some demonstrations; under
the supervision of Joseph Recamier and Alexandre Bertrand, a young woman of 18, Catherine Samson, was given magnetic treatment. See J. Dupotet de Sennevoy (1790 1866),ExposedesexperiencessurlemagnelismeanimalfaitesaVHotelDieudePan'spen- dant le cours des mois d'octobre, novembre et decembre 1820 (Paris: Bechet Jeune, 1821). At Salpetnere, Etienne Georget and Leon Rostan used some ol their patients as experimental subjects. Without giving their names, Georget records these experiments in De la physiolo-
gie du systeme nerveux, et specialment du cerveux, vol. I, p. 404. See, L. Rostan, Du magnetisme animal (Paris: Rignoux, 1825). See also, A. Gauthier, Histoire du somnambulismc, vol. II, p. 324. See below, note 48 to lecture of 30 January 1974-
Foucault is alluding to the debate between Socrates and Parmemdes on the problem of the things ol which there are Ideas. See, Plato, Parmenides, 130c d.
From the middle ol the eighth century B. C. until the end of the fourth century A. D. , Delphi, a town ol Phocis at the foot ol Parnassus, was a favorite site for Apollo to deliver his oracles through the mouth of the Pythia. See, M. Delcourt, Les Grands Sanctuaires de la Grece (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1947) pp. 76 92; M. Delcourt, VOracle de Delphes (Paris: Payot, 1955); R. Flaceliere, Devins et Oracles grecs (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1972) pp. 49 83; and, G. Roux, Delphes, son oracle et ses dieux (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1976).
Epidaurus, a town of Argolis on the east Peloponnese, was the site ol the sanctuary Apollo's son, Asclepius, where divination through dreams was practiced. See, M. Delcourt, Les Grands Sanctuaires, pp. 93 113; R. Flaceliere, Devins et Oracles grecs, pp. 36 37; and, G. Vlastos, "Religion and medicine in the cult of Asclepius: a review article" Review oj Religion, vol. 13,1948 1949, pp. 269 290.
The notion of Kaipo^ {kairos) defines the occasion, the opportunity to be seized, and con- sequently the time of possible action. Hippocrates ( 4 6 0 377 B. C. ) devotes a chapter of his Des Maladies, I, to this notion, in (Euvres completes, ed. Littre (Paris, J. -B. Bailliere, 1849) vol. VI, ch. 5, "Ol the opportune and inopportune" pp. 148 151; English translation, "Diseases 1" in Hippocrates, vol. V, trans. Paul Potter (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, The Loeb Classical Library, 1988). See, P. Joos, "Zufall. Kunst und Natur
bei dem Hippokratitkern" Janus, no. 46, 1957, pp. 238 252; P. Kucharski, "Sur la notion pythagoncienne de kairos11 Revue philosophique de la France et de Vetranger, vol. CLII, no. 2, 1963, pp. 141-169; and P Chantraine, "KoupoS" in Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots (Pans: Klincksieck, 1970) vol. II, p. 480.
7. 8.
9.
10.
11. Foucault is alluding here to the Heideggerian problematic that, in a discussion with G. Preti, he then associated with that of Husserl in the same reproach of calling into "question all our knowledge and its loundations ( . . . ) on the basis of that which is
25 January 1974 255
? 256
PSYCHIATRIC POWER
12.
original (. . . ) at the expense of all articulated historical content," M. Foucault, "Les prob- lemes de la culture. Un debat Foucault Preti" (September 1972) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, p. 372. So it is the Heideggerian conception of history that is intended here. See especially, M. Heidegger, (1) Sein und Zeit (Halle: Nemeyer, 1927); English translation, Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson (Oxlord: Blackwells, 1967); (2) Vom Wesen des Grundes (Halle: Nemeyer, 1929); English translation, The Essence of Reasons, trans. Terrence Malick (Evanstan: Northwestern University Press, 1969); (3) Vom Wesen der Wahreit (Frankfurt: Klostermann, 19/l3); English translation, The Essence of Truth, on Plato's parable of the cave allegory and Theaetetus, trans. T. Sadler (London: Continuum, 2002); (4) Hol^wege (Frankfurt: Klostermann; 1952); English translation, Off the Beaten Track, trans. J. Young and K. Haynes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); (5) Vortrage und Aufsat^e (Pfullingen: Neske, 1954); ( 6 ) Nietzsche, vol. 2 (Pfullingen: Neske, 1961); English translation, Nietzsche, vol. 2: The Eternal Recurrence of the Same, trans. David Farrell Krell (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984). On the relations between Foucault and Heidegger, see M. Foucault, (1) Les Mots et les choses, ch. 9, "L'Homme et ses doubles" ? IV and vi; The Order of Things, ch. 9, "Man and his doubles" sections 4 and 6; (2) "L'Homme est-il mort? " (interview with C. Bonnefoy, June 1966) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 1, p. 542; (3) "Ariane s'est pendue" (April 1969) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 1, p. 768 and p. 770; (4) "Foucault, le philosophe, est en train de parler. Pensez" (29 May 1973) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, p. 424; (5) "Prisons et asiles dans le m^canisme du pouvoir" (interview with M. D'Eramo, March 1974), Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, p. 521; ( 6 ) "Structuralisme et poststructuralisme" (interview with G. Raulet, Spring 1983) Dits et tents, vol. 4, p. 455; English translation, "Structuralism and Post-Structuralism," trans. Jeremy Harding, Essential Works of Foucault, 2, p. 456; (7) "Politique et ethique: une interview," Dits et Ecrits,vol. 4, p. 585; "Politics and Ethics: An Interview" trans. P. Rabinow, The Foucault Reader, pp. 373-374; ( 8 ) "Le retour de la morale" (interview with G. Barbedette and A. Scala, 29 May 1984) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 4, p. 703; English translation, "The Return of Morality" trans. Thomas Levin and Isabelle Lorenz, in Michel Foucault, Politics, Philosophy, Culture. Interviews and Other Writings, 1977-19&4, ed. Lawrence D. Kritzman (New York and London: Routledge, 1988);
( 9 ) "Verite, pouvoir et soi" (interview with R. Martin, 25 October 1982) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 4, p. 780.
In the third lecture of the 1970 1971 course, "The Will to Knowledge (savoir')" Foucault proposed the "opposite view" of a history of the "will to knowledge (connaitre)," in which truth has "the immediate, universal and bare form of observation, external to the proce dure of judgment," proposing the need to "write a history ol the relationships between truth and torture (supplice)," in which "truth is not observed but decided in the form of the oath and the invocation prescribed by the ritual of the ordeal. " A regime, consequently, in which "truth is not linked to the possible light and gaze brought to bear on things by a subject, but to the obscurity of the future and disturbing event. " Other fragments oi such a history are put lorward in the ninth lecture of the 1971-1972 course, "Penal Theories and Institutions," which deals with the system of proof in procedures of the oath, ordeals, and judicial duel from the tenth to the thirteenth century. Foucault was inspired by M. Detienne, Les Maitres de verite dans la Grece archaique (Paris: Maspero, 1967); English translation, The Masters of Truth in Archaic Greece, trans. Janet Lloyd (New York: Zone Books, 1999).
The thirteenth lecture of the course "Penal Theories and Institutions" dedicated to "the confession, the test" explains the meaning ol the detour through what Foucault calls "juridico-political matrices" such as the test, the inquiry, etcetera, and distinguishes three levels of analysis: (a) an "historical description of the sciences," in which "the history of the sciences" consists; (b) an "archeology of knowledge" which takes the relationships ol knowledge and power into account; and (c) a "dynastic of knowledge" which, thanks to the freeing of the juridico political matrices which authorize the archeology, is situated "at the level which combines the most prolit, knowledge and power" (course manuscript con suited thanks to the kindness of Daniel Defert). Foucault takes up this distinction between the "archeological" and "dynastic" in an interview with S. Hasumi, September 1972 "De l'archeologie a la dynastique," Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, p. 406. On "archeology," see the many definitions given by Foucault: (1) in Dits et Merits, vol. 1: "Michel Foucault, Les Mots et les
13.
? Choses" pp. 498-499; "Sur les fa^ons d'ecrire l'histoire" p. 595; "Reponse a une question" p. 681, and "Michel Foucault explique son dernier livre" pp. 771 772; (2) in Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2: "La volonte de savoir" p. 2-12; "La verite et les formes juridiques" pp.
643-644; English translation, "Truth and Juridical Forms," trans. Robert Hurley, Essential Works of Foucault, 3; ( 3 ) m Dits et Ecrits, vol. 3: "Cours du 7 janvier 1976" p. 167; English translation, lecture of 7 January 1976, "Society Must Be Defended" ch. 1, pp. 10 11; "Dialogue sur le pou- voir", pp. 468-469; (4) in Dits et Ecrits, vol. 4: "Entretien avec Michel Foucault" p. 57; "Structuralisme et poststructuralisme" p. 443; English translation, "Structuralism and Post Structuralism," trans. Jeremy Harding, Essential Works of Foucault, 2, pp. 444 445-
14. In fact Foucault will not keep to this program apart from some comments on the role of childhood in the generalization ol psychiatric knowledge and power in the 1974-1975 College de France lectures of 5,12, and 19 March: Les Anormaux, pp. 217 301; Abnormal, pp. 231 321.
15- From the Old English, ordal, judgment, the "judgment of God" or "ordeal," means to settle contentious questions with the idea that God intervenes in the case to judge during tests likes those of "fire," the "branding iron," "cold or boiling water," and the "cross," etcetera. See L. Tanon, Histoire des tribunaux de /'Inquisition en France (Pans: L. Larose and Forcel, 1893) on the penalties of "lire" (pp. 464-479) and the "cross" (pp. 490-498). As J. -P. Levy emphasizes in his, La Hierarchie des preuves dans le droit savant du Moyen Age, depuis la renaissance du droit romain jusqu'a la fin du xivc siecle (Paris: Sirey, 1939), in this procedure "the trial is not an investigation with the aim of finding out the truth ( . . . ) . It is originally
a struggle, and later, an appeal to God; the concern with making the truth come out is left up to Him, but the judge does not seek it himselt" (p. 163).
Foucault referred to the question of the ordeal in the third lecture of the 1970-1971 College de France lectures, "The Will to Knowledge," in which he noted that in "the treat
ments to which madness was subjected, we find something like this ordeal test of the truth. " The ninth lecture of the 1971 1972 lectures, devoted to accusatory procedure and
the system of proof, refers to it (see above note 12). See also, M. Foucault, "La verite et les
iormes juridiques"; "Truth and Juridical Forms. " See, A. Esmein, Histoire de la procedure criminelle en France, et specialement de la procedure inquisitoire depuis le xiii' siecle jusqu'a nos jours (Paris: Larose et Forcel, 1882) pp. 260 283; E. Vacandard, "L'Eglise et les ordalies" in
filudes de critique et d'histoire religieuse, vol. I (Paris: V. Lecoffre, 1905) pp. 189 214; G. Glotz, Etudes sociales et juridiques sur I'antiquite grecque, ch. 2, "L'ordalie" (Paris: Hachette, 1 9 0 6 ) pp. 69 97; A. Michel, "Ordalies" in, A. Vacant, ed. , Dictionnaire de theologie catholique, vol. XI (Paris: Letouzey et Ane, 1930) col. 1139-1152; Y. Bongert, Recherches sur les cours la'iques du xe au xiif siecles (Paris: A et J. Picard, 1949) pp. 215-228; H. Nottarp, Gottehurteilstudien (Munich: Kosel Verlag, 1956); and J. Gaudemet, "Les ordalies au Moyen Age: doctrine, legislation et pratique canonique" in Recueil de la Societe Jean Bodin (Brussels: 1965) vol. XVII, Part 2, La Preuve.
16. In the basically accusatory procedures that involved taking God as witness so that he pro- duces the accuracy or retraction oi the accusation, confession was not enough to pronounce sentence. See, H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, vol. 1, pp. 407-408;
A. Esmein, Histoire de la procedure criminelle, p. 273; andj. P. Levy, La Hierarchie des preuves, pp. 19 83. On confession, see Surveiller et Punir, pp. 42-45; Discipline and Punish, pp. 37-40.
17. Torture, unlike the sovereign means of proof by ordeal--the expression of God's testimony--was a way of provoking judicial confession. The inquisitorial procedure was integrated into canon law in 1232 when Pope Gregory IX called upon the Dominicans to establish a tribunal of Inquisition specifically lor the search lor and punishment ol heretics. Recourse to judicial torture was approved by the bull, Ad Extirpanda, of Pope Innocent IV of 15 May 1252, and later, in 1256, by that of Alexander IV, Ut Negotium Fidei. Referring to the question of the Inquisition in the third lecture of the 1970-1971 lectures, "The Will to Knowledge," Foucault said that "it is a matter of something other than obtaining a truth, a confession ( . . . ) . It is a challenge which, within Christian thought and practice, takes up the forms of the ordeal. " See Surveiller et Punir, pp. 43-47; Discipline and Punish, pp. 38-42; "Michel Foucault. Les reponses du philosophe" Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, pp. 810-811. See, H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition, vol. 1, ch. 9, "The Inquisitorial Process," pp. 399 429, and on torture, pp. 417-427; L. Tanon, Histoire des tribunaux de I'Inquisition, section III,
23, January 1974 257
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18.
19.
20.
21.
"Procedure des tribunaux de 1'Inquisition," pp. 326 440; E. Vacandard, L'Inquisition. Etude historique et critique sur le pouvoir coercitif de I'Eglise (Paris: Bloud et Gay, 1907, 3 ed. ) p. 175; H. Leclercq, "Torture" in F. Cabrol, H. Leclercq, H. I. Marrou, eds. Diclionnaire d'archeologie chretienne et de liturgie, vol. XV (Paris: Letouzey et Ane, 1953) col. 2447-2459; P. Fiorelli, La Tortura giudi^iaria nel diritto comune (Milan: Giuiire, 1953). On the Inquisition in general, see, J. Guiraud, Histoire de /'Inquisition au Moyen Age, in two volumes (Paris: A. Picard, 1935 1938); and H. Maisonneuve, Etudes sur les origines de /'Inquisition (Paris: J. Vrin, 1960, 2nd ed. ).
This question was the topic ol the third lecture of the 1971 1972 lectures, "Penal Theories and Institutions," devoted to confession, investigation and proof. See the course summary, "Theories et institutions penales" Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, pp. 390-391, English translation "Penal Theories and Institutions" Essential Works oj Foucault, 1, pp. 18 20.
See, M. Eliade, Forgerons et Alchimistes (1956) (Paris: Flammarion, 1977 rev. ed. ): "No virtue or erudition could do without the initiatory experience which was alone able to bring about the break of level implied in the 'transmutation' " (p. 136) and "Every initia
tion includes a series ol ritual tests which symbolize the neophyte's death and resurrection"
(p. 127).
As Lucien Braun will recall in a paper on "Paracelse et Palchimie," "the alchemist's approach must be relentlessly that ol a seeker on the look out (. . . ). Paracelsus sees con stant parturition in the alchemical process, in which the subsequent moment is always a surprise in relation to the one preceding it" in J. C. Margolin and S. Matton, eds. A/c/iimie
et Philosophie a la Renaissance (Actes du colloque international de Tours, yt-7 decembre 1991) (Paris: Vrin, 1993) p. 210. See also, M. Eliade, pp. 126-129, on the phases of the "opus alchymicum. "
See, W. Ganzenmuller, (1) Die Alchcmie im Mittelalter (Paderborn: Bonilacius, 1938), French translation by G. Petit Dutaillis, UAlchimie au Moyen Age (Paris: Aubier, W O ) , and ( 2 ) studies collected in Beitrdge %ur Geschichte der Technologic und der Alchimie (Weinheim: Verlag Chemie, 1956); F. Sherwood Taylor, The Alchemists, Founders oj Modern Chemistry (New York: H. Schuman, 19/l9); R. Alleau, Aspects de I'alchimie traditionnelle (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1953); T. Burckhardt, Alchimie, Sinn und Wellbild(Olten: Walter Verlag, 1960); M. Caron and S. Hutin, Les Alchimistes (Pans: Le Scuil, 1964, 2nd cd. ); H. Buntz, E. Ploss, H. Roosen Runge, and H. Schipperges, Alchimia: Ideologic und Technologic (Munich: Heinz Moos Verlag, 1970); B. Husson, Anthologie de I'alchimie (Paris: Belfond, 1971); F. A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964). Foucault broaches the question ol alchemy in his third lecture (23 May 1973)
on "La verite et les lormes juridiques"; "Truth andjuridical Forms," and in "La maison des fous" Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, pp. 693-694.
Hippocrates was born in 460 A. D. on the Dorian island oi Cos in Asia Minor and died around 375 A. D. at Larissa in Thessaly. His works, written in the Ionian dialect of the learned, constitute the core of what became the Hippocratic corpus. See, Gossen, "Hippocrates" in A. F. Pauly and G. Wissowa, eds. , Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. VIII (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1901) col. 1810-1852; M. Pohlenz, Hippokrates und die Begriindung der wissenschaftlichen Median (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1938); C. Lichtenthaeler, La Medicine hippocratique (studies in French and German) in 9 volumes (Geneva: Droz, 1948 1963); L. Edelstein, "Nachtrage: Hippokrates," in Realencyclopadie, supplement VI, 1953, col. 1290-1345; R. Joly, Le Niveau de la science hippocratique. Contribution a la psychologic de I'histoire des sciences (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1966); J.
Jouanna, Hippocrate. Pour une archeologie de I'ecole de Cnide (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1974). The basic edition ol the works oi Hippocrates is the bilingual Littre edition (see above, note 10). The basic, bilingual, English edition is the Loeb Classical Library edition ol Hippocrates, in 8 volumes (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1923-1995). Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689) was an English practitioner known for the changes he introduced into medical knowledge. As Foucault notes in Histoire de lafolie, pp. 205 207 (omitted from the English translation), he organized knowledge ol pathology according to new norms by making a method ol observation, taking into account the symptoms described by the patient, against the medical systems, like Galenism or iatrochemistry, which relied on a speculative approach--earning him the name "the English
22.
23.
? 24.
Hippocrates"--and by developing a "naturalist" description ol diseases offering the possibility ol reducing clinical cases to morbid "species" delined in a botanical style. He published the results of his observations in his Observationes medicae circa morborum aculorum historiam et curationem. Methodic curandi febres, propiis observalionibus superstructa ( L o n d o n : Kettilby, 1676); English translation, Medical Observations Concerning the History and Cur of Acute Diseases, trans. R. G. Latham, in The Works of Thomas Sydenham, M. D. , vol. 1 (London: The Sydenham Society, 1848). See, K.
? all the symptoms of madness. The real function and effect of the asylum institution in itself, of this institution of discipline--and it is in this respect that my analysis differs from institutional analyses--is to sup- press, I do not say madness, but the symptoms of madness, at the same time as the function of psychiatric power, which is exercised within and lixes individuals to the asylum, is to realize madness.
All in all, there is an ideal for this double lunctioning of psychiatric power, which realizes madness, and of the disciplinary institution, which refuses to listen to madness, which flattens out its symptoms and planes down all its manifestations: this is dementia. What is a demented person? He is someone who is nothing other than the reality of his madness; he is the person in whom the multiplicity of symptoms or, rather, their flattening out, is such that it is no longer possible to ascribe to him a specific symptomatology by which he could be characterized. The demented person is therefore someone who corresponds exactly to the working of the asylum institution, since, by means of discipline, all the symptoms in their specificity have been smoothed out: there are no longer any outward signs, externalizations, or crises. And, at the same time, someone who is demented answers to what psychiatric power wants, since he actually realizes madness as an individual reality within the asylum.
The famous development of dementia, which nineteenth century psy- chiatrists could observe as a natural phenomenon in madness, is noth- ing other than the series of intertwined effects of an asylum discipline that smoothes away outward signs and symptoms, and medical power's appeal to the patient to be a madman, to realize madness. The demented person is actually what was fabricated by this double game of power and discipline.
As for the hysterics, those famous, dear hysterics, I would say that they were precisely the front of resistance to this gradient of dementia that involved the double game of psychiatric power and asylum discipline. They were the front of resistance, because, what is a hysteric? A hysteric is someone who is so seduced by the best and most clearly specified symptoms--those, precisely, offered by the organically ill--that he or she adopts them. The hysteric constitutes herself as the blazon of genuine illnesses; she models herself as a body and site bearing genuine
2^ January 1974 253
? 254 PSYCHIATRIC POWF,R
symptoms. To the ascription ol and propensity towards the subsidence ol symptoms in dementia, the hysteric responds with the exacerbation of the most precise and well determined symptoms; and while doing this, she pursues a game such that when one wants to lix her illness in reality, one can never manage to do so, since, when her symptom should refer to an organic substratum, she shows that there is no substratum, so that she cannot be fixed at the level of the reality of her illness at the very moment she displays the most spectacular symptoms. Hysteria was the effective way ol defending onesell Irom dementia; the only way not to be demented in a nineteenth century hospital was to be a hysteric, that is to say, to counter the pressure that annihilated symptoms, that obliterated them, by building up the visible, plastic edifice of a whole panoply of symptoms, and, by means of simulation, resisting madness being fixed in reality. The hysteric has magnificent symptoms, but at the same time she sidesteps the reality of her illness; she goes against the current of the asylum game and, to that extent, we salute the hysterics as the true militants ol antipsychiatry. ^
? 1. Discovered in the sixteenth century, the use oi ether spread in the nineteenth century in the treatment ol neuroses and for screening simulated illnesses, on account of its "stupefying" property. See above, note 18 to lecture of 9'11 January 1974.
2. Discovered simultaneously in 1831 by Justus Liebig in Germany and by Soubeiran in France, the use of chloroform as an anesthetic began in 1847. See, E. Soubeiran, "Recherches sur quelques combinaisons de chlore" Annales de chimie et de physique, vol. XLIII, October 1831, pp. 113-157; H. Bayard, "L'utihsation de l'ether et le diagnostic des maladies men tales"; H. Brochin, "Maladies nerveuses", ? "Anesthesiques: ether et chloroforme"; and, Lailler (pharmacist of the Quatre Mares asylum) "Les nouveaux hypnotiques et leur emploi en medecine mentale" Annales medico-psychologiques, 7lh series, vol. IV,July 1886, pp. 64-90.
}. See above, note 1 to lecture ol 19 December 1973.
4. See above, note 2 to lecture of 19 December 1973.
5. J. J. Moreau de Tours discovered the effects ol hashish on his journey in the East from 1837
6.
to 1840 and he subsequently devoted his research to it, loreseeing possibilities of experi ment to clanly the relations between its ellects and dreams and delirium. See, Du haschkh
et d'alienation mentale. Etudes psychologiques (Paris: Fortin, 1845).
Experiments in "animal magnetism" took place in hospitals under the Restoration. Thus,
at the Hotel Dieu, on 20 October 1820, the head doctor, Henri Marie Husson (1772 1853) invited the baron Dupotet de Sennevoy to make some demonstrations; under
the supervision of Joseph Recamier and Alexandre Bertrand, a young woman of 18, Catherine Samson, was given magnetic treatment. See J. Dupotet de Sennevoy (1790 1866),ExposedesexperiencessurlemagnelismeanimalfaitesaVHotelDieudePan'spen- dant le cours des mois d'octobre, novembre et decembre 1820 (Paris: Bechet Jeune, 1821). At Salpetnere, Etienne Georget and Leon Rostan used some ol their patients as experimental subjects. Without giving their names, Georget records these experiments in De la physiolo-
gie du systeme nerveux, et specialment du cerveux, vol. I, p. 404. See, L. Rostan, Du magnetisme animal (Paris: Rignoux, 1825). See also, A. Gauthier, Histoire du somnambulismc, vol. II, p. 324. See below, note 48 to lecture of 30 January 1974-
Foucault is alluding to the debate between Socrates and Parmemdes on the problem of the things ol which there are Ideas. See, Plato, Parmenides, 130c d.
From the middle ol the eighth century B. C. until the end of the fourth century A. D. , Delphi, a town ol Phocis at the foot ol Parnassus, was a favorite site for Apollo to deliver his oracles through the mouth of the Pythia. See, M. Delcourt, Les Grands Sanctuaires de la Grece (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1947) pp. 76 92; M. Delcourt, VOracle de Delphes (Paris: Payot, 1955); R. Flaceliere, Devins et Oracles grecs (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1972) pp. 49 83; and, G. Roux, Delphes, son oracle et ses dieux (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1976).
Epidaurus, a town of Argolis on the east Peloponnese, was the site ol the sanctuary Apollo's son, Asclepius, where divination through dreams was practiced. See, M. Delcourt, Les Grands Sanctuaires, pp. 93 113; R. Flaceliere, Devins et Oracles grecs, pp. 36 37; and, G. Vlastos, "Religion and medicine in the cult of Asclepius: a review article" Review oj Religion, vol. 13,1948 1949, pp. 269 290.
The notion of Kaipo^ {kairos) defines the occasion, the opportunity to be seized, and con- sequently the time of possible action. Hippocrates ( 4 6 0 377 B. C. ) devotes a chapter of his Des Maladies, I, to this notion, in (Euvres completes, ed. Littre (Paris, J. -B. Bailliere, 1849) vol. VI, ch. 5, "Ol the opportune and inopportune" pp. 148 151; English translation, "Diseases 1" in Hippocrates, vol. V, trans. Paul Potter (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, The Loeb Classical Library, 1988). See, P. Joos, "Zufall. Kunst und Natur
bei dem Hippokratitkern" Janus, no. 46, 1957, pp. 238 252; P. Kucharski, "Sur la notion pythagoncienne de kairos11 Revue philosophique de la France et de Vetranger, vol. CLII, no. 2, 1963, pp. 141-169; and P Chantraine, "KoupoS" in Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots (Pans: Klincksieck, 1970) vol. II, p. 480.
7. 8.
9.
10.
11. Foucault is alluding here to the Heideggerian problematic that, in a discussion with G. Preti, he then associated with that of Husserl in the same reproach of calling into "question all our knowledge and its loundations ( . . . ) on the basis of that which is
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original (. . . ) at the expense of all articulated historical content," M. Foucault, "Les prob- lemes de la culture. Un debat Foucault Preti" (September 1972) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, p. 372. So it is the Heideggerian conception of history that is intended here. See especially, M. Heidegger, (1) Sein und Zeit (Halle: Nemeyer, 1927); English translation, Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson (Oxlord: Blackwells, 1967); (2) Vom Wesen des Grundes (Halle: Nemeyer, 1929); English translation, The Essence of Reasons, trans. Terrence Malick (Evanstan: Northwestern University Press, 1969); (3) Vom Wesen der Wahreit (Frankfurt: Klostermann, 19/l3); English translation, The Essence of Truth, on Plato's parable of the cave allegory and Theaetetus, trans. T. Sadler (London: Continuum, 2002); (4) Hol^wege (Frankfurt: Klostermann; 1952); English translation, Off the Beaten Track, trans. J. Young and K. Haynes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); (5) Vortrage und Aufsat^e (Pfullingen: Neske, 1954); ( 6 ) Nietzsche, vol. 2 (Pfullingen: Neske, 1961); English translation, Nietzsche, vol. 2: The Eternal Recurrence of the Same, trans. David Farrell Krell (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984). On the relations between Foucault and Heidegger, see M. Foucault, (1) Les Mots et les choses, ch. 9, "L'Homme et ses doubles" ? IV and vi; The Order of Things, ch. 9, "Man and his doubles" sections 4 and 6; (2) "L'Homme est-il mort? " (interview with C. Bonnefoy, June 1966) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 1, p. 542; (3) "Ariane s'est pendue" (April 1969) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 1, p. 768 and p. 770; (4) "Foucault, le philosophe, est en train de parler. Pensez" (29 May 1973) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, p. 424; (5) "Prisons et asiles dans le m^canisme du pouvoir" (interview with M. D'Eramo, March 1974), Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, p. 521; ( 6 ) "Structuralisme et poststructuralisme" (interview with G. Raulet, Spring 1983) Dits et tents, vol. 4, p. 455; English translation, "Structuralism and Post-Structuralism," trans. Jeremy Harding, Essential Works of Foucault, 2, p. 456; (7) "Politique et ethique: une interview," Dits et Ecrits,vol. 4, p. 585; "Politics and Ethics: An Interview" trans. P. Rabinow, The Foucault Reader, pp. 373-374; ( 8 ) "Le retour de la morale" (interview with G. Barbedette and A. Scala, 29 May 1984) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 4, p. 703; English translation, "The Return of Morality" trans. Thomas Levin and Isabelle Lorenz, in Michel Foucault, Politics, Philosophy, Culture. Interviews and Other Writings, 1977-19&4, ed. Lawrence D. Kritzman (New York and London: Routledge, 1988);
( 9 ) "Verite, pouvoir et soi" (interview with R. Martin, 25 October 1982) Dits et Ecrits, vol. 4, p. 780.
In the third lecture of the 1970 1971 course, "The Will to Knowledge (savoir')" Foucault proposed the "opposite view" of a history of the "will to knowledge (connaitre)," in which truth has "the immediate, universal and bare form of observation, external to the proce dure of judgment," proposing the need to "write a history ol the relationships between truth and torture (supplice)," in which "truth is not observed but decided in the form of the oath and the invocation prescribed by the ritual of the ordeal. " A regime, consequently, in which "truth is not linked to the possible light and gaze brought to bear on things by a subject, but to the obscurity of the future and disturbing event. " Other fragments oi such a history are put lorward in the ninth lecture of the 1971-1972 course, "Penal Theories and Institutions," which deals with the system of proof in procedures of the oath, ordeals, and judicial duel from the tenth to the thirteenth century. Foucault was inspired by M. Detienne, Les Maitres de verite dans la Grece archaique (Paris: Maspero, 1967); English translation, The Masters of Truth in Archaic Greece, trans. Janet Lloyd (New York: Zone Books, 1999).
The thirteenth lecture of the course "Penal Theories and Institutions" dedicated to "the confession, the test" explains the meaning ol the detour through what Foucault calls "juridico-political matrices" such as the test, the inquiry, etcetera, and distinguishes three levels of analysis: (a) an "historical description of the sciences," in which "the history of the sciences" consists; (b) an "archeology of knowledge" which takes the relationships ol knowledge and power into account; and (c) a "dynastic of knowledge" which, thanks to the freeing of the juridico political matrices which authorize the archeology, is situated "at the level which combines the most prolit, knowledge and power" (course manuscript con suited thanks to the kindness of Daniel Defert). Foucault takes up this distinction between the "archeological" and "dynastic" in an interview with S. Hasumi, September 1972 "De l'archeologie a la dynastique," Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, p. 406. On "archeology," see the many definitions given by Foucault: (1) in Dits et Merits, vol. 1: "Michel Foucault, Les Mots et les
13.
? Choses" pp. 498-499; "Sur les fa^ons d'ecrire l'histoire" p. 595; "Reponse a une question" p. 681, and "Michel Foucault explique son dernier livre" pp. 771 772; (2) in Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2: "La volonte de savoir" p. 2-12; "La verite et les formes juridiques" pp.
643-644; English translation, "Truth and Juridical Forms," trans. Robert Hurley, Essential Works of Foucault, 3; ( 3 ) m Dits et Ecrits, vol. 3: "Cours du 7 janvier 1976" p. 167; English translation, lecture of 7 January 1976, "Society Must Be Defended" ch. 1, pp. 10 11; "Dialogue sur le pou- voir", pp. 468-469; (4) in Dits et Ecrits, vol. 4: "Entretien avec Michel Foucault" p. 57; "Structuralisme et poststructuralisme" p. 443; English translation, "Structuralism and Post Structuralism," trans. Jeremy Harding, Essential Works of Foucault, 2, pp. 444 445-
14. In fact Foucault will not keep to this program apart from some comments on the role of childhood in the generalization ol psychiatric knowledge and power in the 1974-1975 College de France lectures of 5,12, and 19 March: Les Anormaux, pp. 217 301; Abnormal, pp. 231 321.
15- From the Old English, ordal, judgment, the "judgment of God" or "ordeal," means to settle contentious questions with the idea that God intervenes in the case to judge during tests likes those of "fire," the "branding iron," "cold or boiling water," and the "cross," etcetera. See L. Tanon, Histoire des tribunaux de /'Inquisition en France (Pans: L. Larose and Forcel, 1893) on the penalties of "lire" (pp. 464-479) and the "cross" (pp. 490-498). As J. -P. Levy emphasizes in his, La Hierarchie des preuves dans le droit savant du Moyen Age, depuis la renaissance du droit romain jusqu'a la fin du xivc siecle (Paris: Sirey, 1939), in this procedure "the trial is not an investigation with the aim of finding out the truth ( . . . ) . It is originally
a struggle, and later, an appeal to God; the concern with making the truth come out is left up to Him, but the judge does not seek it himselt" (p. 163).
Foucault referred to the question of the ordeal in the third lecture of the 1970-1971 College de France lectures, "The Will to Knowledge," in which he noted that in "the treat
ments to which madness was subjected, we find something like this ordeal test of the truth. " The ninth lecture of the 1971 1972 lectures, devoted to accusatory procedure and
the system of proof, refers to it (see above note 12). See also, M. Foucault, "La verite et les
iormes juridiques"; "Truth and Juridical Forms. " See, A. Esmein, Histoire de la procedure criminelle en France, et specialement de la procedure inquisitoire depuis le xiii' siecle jusqu'a nos jours (Paris: Larose et Forcel, 1882) pp. 260 283; E. Vacandard, "L'Eglise et les ordalies" in
filudes de critique et d'histoire religieuse, vol. I (Paris: V. Lecoffre, 1905) pp. 189 214; G. Glotz, Etudes sociales et juridiques sur I'antiquite grecque, ch. 2, "L'ordalie" (Paris: Hachette, 1 9 0 6 ) pp. 69 97; A. Michel, "Ordalies" in, A. Vacant, ed. , Dictionnaire de theologie catholique, vol. XI (Paris: Letouzey et Ane, 1930) col. 1139-1152; Y. Bongert, Recherches sur les cours la'iques du xe au xiif siecles (Paris: A et J. Picard, 1949) pp. 215-228; H. Nottarp, Gottehurteilstudien (Munich: Kosel Verlag, 1956); and J. Gaudemet, "Les ordalies au Moyen Age: doctrine, legislation et pratique canonique" in Recueil de la Societe Jean Bodin (Brussels: 1965) vol. XVII, Part 2, La Preuve.
16. In the basically accusatory procedures that involved taking God as witness so that he pro- duces the accuracy or retraction oi the accusation, confession was not enough to pronounce sentence. See, H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, vol. 1, pp. 407-408;
A. Esmein, Histoire de la procedure criminelle, p. 273; andj. P. Levy, La Hierarchie des preuves, pp. 19 83. On confession, see Surveiller et Punir, pp. 42-45; Discipline and Punish, pp. 37-40.
17. Torture, unlike the sovereign means of proof by ordeal--the expression of God's testimony--was a way of provoking judicial confession. The inquisitorial procedure was integrated into canon law in 1232 when Pope Gregory IX called upon the Dominicans to establish a tribunal of Inquisition specifically lor the search lor and punishment ol heretics. Recourse to judicial torture was approved by the bull, Ad Extirpanda, of Pope Innocent IV of 15 May 1252, and later, in 1256, by that of Alexander IV, Ut Negotium Fidei. Referring to the question of the Inquisition in the third lecture of the 1970-1971 lectures, "The Will to Knowledge," Foucault said that "it is a matter of something other than obtaining a truth, a confession ( . . . ) . It is a challenge which, within Christian thought and practice, takes up the forms of the ordeal. " See Surveiller et Punir, pp. 43-47; Discipline and Punish, pp. 38-42; "Michel Foucault. Les reponses du philosophe" Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, pp. 810-811. See, H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition, vol. 1, ch. 9, "The Inquisitorial Process," pp. 399 429, and on torture, pp. 417-427; L. Tanon, Histoire des tribunaux de I'Inquisition, section III,
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18.
19.
20.
21.
"Procedure des tribunaux de 1'Inquisition," pp. 326 440; E. Vacandard, L'Inquisition. Etude historique et critique sur le pouvoir coercitif de I'Eglise (Paris: Bloud et Gay, 1907, 3 ed. ) p. 175; H. Leclercq, "Torture" in F. Cabrol, H. Leclercq, H. I. Marrou, eds. Diclionnaire d'archeologie chretienne et de liturgie, vol. XV (Paris: Letouzey et Ane, 1953) col. 2447-2459; P. Fiorelli, La Tortura giudi^iaria nel diritto comune (Milan: Giuiire, 1953). On the Inquisition in general, see, J. Guiraud, Histoire de /'Inquisition au Moyen Age, in two volumes (Paris: A. Picard, 1935 1938); and H. Maisonneuve, Etudes sur les origines de /'Inquisition (Paris: J. Vrin, 1960, 2nd ed. ).
This question was the topic ol the third lecture of the 1971 1972 lectures, "Penal Theories and Institutions," devoted to confession, investigation and proof. See the course summary, "Theories et institutions penales" Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, pp. 390-391, English translation "Penal Theories and Institutions" Essential Works oj Foucault, 1, pp. 18 20.
See, M. Eliade, Forgerons et Alchimistes (1956) (Paris: Flammarion, 1977 rev. ed. ): "No virtue or erudition could do without the initiatory experience which was alone able to bring about the break of level implied in the 'transmutation' " (p. 136) and "Every initia
tion includes a series ol ritual tests which symbolize the neophyte's death and resurrection"
(p. 127).
As Lucien Braun will recall in a paper on "Paracelse et Palchimie," "the alchemist's approach must be relentlessly that ol a seeker on the look out (. . . ). Paracelsus sees con stant parturition in the alchemical process, in which the subsequent moment is always a surprise in relation to the one preceding it" in J. C. Margolin and S. Matton, eds. A/c/iimie
et Philosophie a la Renaissance (Actes du colloque international de Tours, yt-7 decembre 1991) (Paris: Vrin, 1993) p. 210. See also, M. Eliade, pp. 126-129, on the phases of the "opus alchymicum. "
See, W. Ganzenmuller, (1) Die Alchcmie im Mittelalter (Paderborn: Bonilacius, 1938), French translation by G. Petit Dutaillis, UAlchimie au Moyen Age (Paris: Aubier, W O ) , and ( 2 ) studies collected in Beitrdge %ur Geschichte der Technologic und der Alchimie (Weinheim: Verlag Chemie, 1956); F. Sherwood Taylor, The Alchemists, Founders oj Modern Chemistry (New York: H. Schuman, 19/l9); R. Alleau, Aspects de I'alchimie traditionnelle (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1953); T. Burckhardt, Alchimie, Sinn und Wellbild(Olten: Walter Verlag, 1960); M. Caron and S. Hutin, Les Alchimistes (Pans: Le Scuil, 1964, 2nd cd. ); H. Buntz, E. Ploss, H. Roosen Runge, and H. Schipperges, Alchimia: Ideologic und Technologic (Munich: Heinz Moos Verlag, 1970); B. Husson, Anthologie de I'alchimie (Paris: Belfond, 1971); F. A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964). Foucault broaches the question ol alchemy in his third lecture (23 May 1973)
on "La verite et les lormes juridiques"; "Truth andjuridical Forms," and in "La maison des fous" Dits et Ecrits, vol. 2, pp. 693-694.
Hippocrates was born in 460 A. D. on the Dorian island oi Cos in Asia Minor and died around 375 A. D. at Larissa in Thessaly. His works, written in the Ionian dialect of the learned, constitute the core of what became the Hippocratic corpus. See, Gossen, "Hippocrates" in A. F. Pauly and G. Wissowa, eds. , Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. VIII (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1901) col. 1810-1852; M. Pohlenz, Hippokrates und die Begriindung der wissenschaftlichen Median (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1938); C. Lichtenthaeler, La Medicine hippocratique (studies in French and German) in 9 volumes (Geneva: Droz, 1948 1963); L. Edelstein, "Nachtrage: Hippokrates," in Realencyclopadie, supplement VI, 1953, col. 1290-1345; R. Joly, Le Niveau de la science hippocratique. Contribution a la psychologic de I'histoire des sciences (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1966); J.
Jouanna, Hippocrate. Pour une archeologie de I'ecole de Cnide (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1974). The basic edition ol the works oi Hippocrates is the bilingual Littre edition (see above, note 10). The basic, bilingual, English edition is the Loeb Classical Library edition ol Hippocrates, in 8 volumes (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1923-1995). Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689) was an English practitioner known for the changes he introduced into medical knowledge. As Foucault notes in Histoire de lafolie, pp. 205 207 (omitted from the English translation), he organized knowledge ol pathology according to new norms by making a method ol observation, taking into account the symptoms described by the patient, against the medical systems, like Galenism or iatrochemistry, which relied on a speculative approach--earning him the name "the English
22.
23.
? 24.
Hippocrates"--and by developing a "naturalist" description ol diseases offering the possibility ol reducing clinical cases to morbid "species" delined in a botanical style. He published the results of his observations in his Observationes medicae circa morborum aculorum historiam et curationem. Methodic curandi febres, propiis observalionibus superstructa ( L o n d o n : Kettilby, 1676); English translation, Medical Observations Concerning the History and Cur of Acute Diseases, trans. R. G. Latham, in The Works of Thomas Sydenham, M. D. , vol. 1 (London: The Sydenham Society, 1848). See, K.
