Foucalt

Brandon Jones
Michel Foucaults article, The Means of Correct Training, revolves around the
idea of discipline in society, which would later be the foundation for his article,
Panopticism. The pieces argument can be summed up rather well from this quote on
page 188: Discipline makes individuals; it is the specific technique of a power that
regards individuals both as objects and as instruments of its exercise. It is not a
triumphant power, which because of its own excess can pride itself on its omnipotence; it
is a modest, suspicious power, which functions as a calculated but permanent economy.
This quote is saying that the most efficient form of disciplined surveillance in society
comes from the individuals within in acting as the apparatus and as the surveilled objects.
The way Foucaults form of discipline works is via a few simple instruments
and their interactions with each other: hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment,
and these two acting together creates the examination. Hierarchical observation is the
apparatus to keep those within in check. In short, hierarchical observation is exactly as it
sounds: a chain-of-command of supervisors, who are constantly watching those below
on the chain, yet are always watched by those above them. The use of hierarchical
observation leads itself into normalizing judgment as unwritten social codes on behavior
are enforced on those acting within the apparatus, thus normalizing their behavior to fit
what the system wants. It is imperative that the normalizing judgment be unwritten
because it allows for paranoia to build up in its participant. This paranoia is because there
are no written, categorical senses of rule on behavior, thus making behavior more a gutcheck type suspicion that the citizen must always be suspicious of. In a way, normalizing
judgment not only extends to judging others in the system, but also the suppression and
suspicion of oneself as a way of avoiding punishment. The culmination of hierarchical
observation and normalizing judgment creates the examination. The examination is
summarized by Foucault on page 197: It (the examination) is a normalizing gaze, a
surveillance that makes it possible to qualify, to classify, and to punish. It establishes over
individuals a visibility through which on differentiates them and judges them. The
examination operates as an instrument that checks in with a systems participants as a
way of seeing how well they are adhering to the system, thus also giving it power to
punish those not up to the systems standards.
Foucault describes the examination as effective in three ways. First, the
examination transformed the economy of visibility into the exercise of power. (199).
The examination will see if someone has faults in their behavior, thus allowing for it to
have power over people not only in its actual procedure, but by existing in itself. The fear
of failing examination and facing punishment is a means of controlling peoples behavior
even without having to administer the examination onto them. Second, the examination
also introduces individuality into the field of documentation. (200). This aspect is saying
that the examination codifies individuality by allowing for the examiners to document
what does and does suppress individuality during the examination. Finally, the
examination, surrounded by all its documentary techniques, makes each individual a
case. (203). The documentation from the examination allows for archives of behavior

to build up, thus allowing for examiners to compare all individuals with each other to see
who needs corrected and who can be left alone.