Abstract
Thirty years after the death of Michel Foucault, this article seeks to vindica-te the work of the well-known philosopher and psychologist. Specifically, we discuss the advantages of Foucault’s method, the ways in which he obtained results, his opinions and his critical analyses of the history of sexuality in the West. To this end, we present a brief biographical introduction to Foucault in which we link his theoretical and existential concerns. Subsequently, we review Foucault’s method, goals, results and proposals for research on sexuality
Highlights
Foucault lived in exile in Sweden in 1955 to escape the restrictions that entrapped him (Eribon, 2004, p. 54)
Medicine and the law interact in the sense that the law is granted the right to intervene in the lives of individuals because of what these individuals are by nature, on the basis of their constitution and on the basis of their personality traits being considered pathological, not because of behaviours that affect society (Foucault, 1996, p. 177)
Where today we see the history of censorship overcome with difficulty, in the future, the century-long ascent of a complex device will be recognised, a device to talk about sex, to assert in it our care and attention, to make us believe in the sovereignty of the law when, in reality, we are being worked by the mechanisms of the power of sexuality (Foucault, 2007, p. 192)
Summary
This form of cultural history provides an account of the constitution of knowledge, discourses, and dominions over objects For Foucault, science had transformed the human being into a speaking subject using linguistics or philology, into a productive subject using economic analysis or into a living being using natural history or biology (see Foucault, 2004) He subsequently studied the types of objectification (termed “dividing practices”) of the subject both in its interior and as divided into others. The formation of knowledge regarding “sexuality” (medicine and psychiatry), the power systems that regulate its practices (punitive power and disciplinary practices) and the ways in which individuals start to recognise themselves as sexual subjects. Medicine and the law interact in the sense that the law is granted the right to intervene in the lives of individuals because of what these individuals are by nature, on the basis of their constitution and on the basis of their personality traits being considered pathological, not because of behaviours that affect society (Foucault, 1996, p. 177)
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