There was what Foucault describes as a ‘legal code of pain’ (p34), which dictated exactly the duration and type of pain to be inflicted, and the method of final execution depending on the details of the crime. The torture and execution of criminals was not senseless or reactionary, but a methodical, measured response to the crime. As Foucault’s discussion of these cases develops, however, a slightly different, though no less shocking picture emerges. This disturbing scene plays into preconceptions about the barbaric history of torture and execution in Europe, seeming to support arguments for the unthinking brutality and unconscionable cruelty of past ages. He was tortured and then drawn and quartered at agonising length when the horses failed at the first and even subsequent attempts.

Torture and Public Executionĭiscipline and Punish begins with a very graphic description of one of the most awful cases of public execution Damiens the regicide. The nobility of these aims is commendable, but, as Foucault’s work reveals, the utopic ideal often creates its opposite in practice. Reforms were driven by a utopian hope of realising the full potential of both individual subjects and social institutions. This facilitated a reassessment of rights and liberties. Enlightenment values invested the individual with personal dignity and centrality. The Enlightenment signified a break from the past and its modes of operation, focussing instead on the present and concerted efforts for its improvement.

Famous thinkers of the Enlightenment include Immanuel Kant, David Hume, John Locke, Thomas Paine and Rene Descartes. When people speak of “the Enlightenment” they are talking about a period in European history roughly encompassed by the “long 18th century” (1685-1815) wherein the primacy of human reason, and its capacity to effect change were key philosophical and political beliefs. But it is clear that Foucault is more keen to raise awareness of the hidden power structures and the insidious state control of the individual that support our modern society than to praise our collective progress out of the perceived “dark ages”. As will be seen, there are potential benefits, such as individualised support and the potential for self-improvement within these systems. This is not to say that the fruits of the enlightenment project are without merit for Foucault. This historical/sociological study is not a simplistic narrative of humanity’s progress from barbarism to a civilised society, but an interrogation of enlightenment values and the problems inherent in the type of society they engender.

Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish charts the trajectory of penal justice from pre-enlightenment forms of torture and public execution to the birth of the modern prison.

Foucault crime and punishment