Analysis of the article from Foucault’s perspective Essay

In Discipline and Punishment, Foucault focuses on the major social function institution, which is penitentiary strategy, or system of penalty and cake of delinquent and deviant doings. Andrew Jacobs in his article entitled Whistle-Blowers in Chinese City Sent to Mental infirmary discusses the governments peel against undesirable, yet legal, actions of citizens like petitioning and seeking justice. The present paper is intended to crumple the article through the lens of Foucaults framework of punishment.First of all in all, it call for to be noted that neither Foucault nor Jacobs write ab off the justice as the conceptual and moral foundation of the so-called law enforcement authorities. In Foucaults opinion, what in reality underlies the entire punishment system is striving for power as the end in itself in the Middle Ages, for instance, public execution of instruments were administered in cases of those criminals who ostensibly undermined the rulers power and political influence.The article by Jacobs in fact is special evidence of this thesis whereas the citizens do actually cipher unlawful by preparing petitions, they are nevertheless placed in mental health institutions, due to the fact that they to certain degree interfere with the execution of absolute power. This also proves the fact that the modern authorities and power/ boldness institutions nowadays have become so complicated and autonomous system that they begin to function for their own sake, forgetting about their initial purpose, which consisted in help the interests of the multitude.Foucault admits that the present-day punishment is free of tortures in order to evoke in potential criminals the fear of the penalty itself, rather than the pain and physical suffering.The educatee also adds that science in technology increasingly more a lot serve the purposes of this system so that a number of professionals including lawyers, police officers, engineers and psychiatrists are involv ed into the examination and investigation. In this sense, the case of Shan applyg Province clearly shows that relatively painless measures are used to prevent citizens from excessive petitioning moreover, a palmy tandem of police authorities and mental health specialists increase the reliability of this practice During a 20-day stay, he said, he was lashed to a bed, forced to fasten on pills and given injections that grime him numb and woozy.According to the paper, when he told the doctor he was a petitioner, not mentally ill, the doctor said I dont wangle if youre sick or not. As eagle-eyed as you are sent by the township government, Ill dole out you as a mental patient (Jacobs, par.5). Thus, even health care as a social institution in general is actually an institution of social control, fully supporting and following the ambitions and interests of the existing authorities. imputable to the fact that justice-seekers, as it has been noted above, act legally, they are not legal to become prison gyps, so law enforcement agencies send them to mental infirmarys.This means, the punishment and corrections system has become so vast and multifaceted that it wad now achieve a number of different goals, including the goal of dread a penalty on the individual, whose actions are not fully estimable for the institutions of power. Thus, such institutions, which serve their own needs, find strategies of curbing unfavorable behavior and select a path of minimal resistance instead of officially declaring active petitioners as criminals (which will result in the need for reviewing and revise the entire legislation), these officials make an open statement that truth-seekers are simply mad and need special medical treatment.Thus, they even show this situation as the act of saving the society from one more mentally disturbed citizen and preserving or improving this persons health. Thus, the philosophy ostensibly inherent this practice seems noble, but it needs to be remembered that the institutions of power and social control work moistly for their own sake and attempt to expand and strengthen their influence.Foucault also dedicates a part of his work to describing the concept of check into. In particular, the assimilator asserts that discipline is one of behavioral compliance-gaining techniques, which consists in managing the distribution of individuals in space, arrogant their time and clearly defining their relations with the institutions of social control.In this sense, the Chinese authorities obviously seek to introduce a new discipline and eliminate the habit of creating petitions and lawsuit against the governmental institutions, i.e. the practice of hospital childbed is intended to deter individuals from interfering with the governments course. This is actually the pith of discipline the recognition of power, obedience and absolute acceptance of the programs and campaigns of the ruling institutions. Moreover, this out of comm on type of discipline allows finding supporters, who would be the social engines of the advance and progress of the governments activities.Finally, it is important to focus on the plain concept of punishment as explained by Foucault and addressed by Jacobs. Obviously, hospital incarceration includes all the components of punitive measure including control over the inmates body (i.e. the person depends on the institution in terms of the satisfaction of their basic needs) management of the prisoners time and activities and, thirdly, modulating the penalty. In the context of the article by Jacobs, the last component means administering additional therapies, which make the person half-unconscious for days or suggesting the release from the institution in exchange for signing a refusal of the petition. Importantly, the inmate is surveilled, but cannot see all of their watchers.As one can conclude, although the incarceration in mental hospitals is not a traditional form of punishment, it is actually convertible to the regular imprisonment, because of the similar concepts like panopticism, discipline, painless punishment and the execution of the governments authority.BibliographyRainbow, P. The Foucault Reader. modernistic York Random House, 1984.Jacobs, A. Whistle-Blowers in Chinese City Sent to Mental Hospital