Research Paper on:
Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
look at many social institutions which are essentially, and vitally, linked to our prison system today. While Foucault (1997) has many different perspectives, and many different angles to his arguments,  his primary argument is that which indicates that the system is intricately linked to all other systems of discipline, and that all forms involve active participation in "repression, rejection, exclusion,"  and "marginalization" (p. 308). In the following paper we break down particular sections of his book as they pertain to his argument, presenting the student with an understanding of the  various elements to his thesis. The Body of the Condemned In the very beginning of Foucaults work he presents us with a story that involves Damiens, a known  regicide. His is a tale that allows us to see a shift in punishment approaches in regards to the institution. Foucault (1997) recounts the punishment: "The flesh will be torn  from his breasts, arms, thighs, and calves with red-hot pincers, his right hand ... burnt with sulfur, and, on those places where the flesh will be torn away, poured molten  lead, boiling oil, burning resin, wax and sulfur melted together and then his body drawn and quartered" (p. 3). To anyone with a rational sense of understanding crime and  punishment this does not appear to be punishment as much as it appears to be an act which asserts ones own power and domain. It is a savage act which  is intended to cause fear and obedience, not deter people from committing crimes. However, when the people began reacting negatively to such punishment, siding with the criminals and helping them  to escape, new approaches were needed, and quickly implemented. In this we see Foucaults approach to his thesis concerning how the institution is one of control, and is further strengthened